Technology in the Classroom

http://www.securedgenetworks.com/blog/Technology-in-the-Classroom-Full-of-Choices

This week’s class focused on exploring different ways in which technology can be incorporated into the math classroom.

 One way of incorporating technology into the classroom is through the use of Desmos. In addition to being an online calculator, Desmos has also created several classroom activities.

https://teacher.desmos.com/polygraph-lines

One of the activities we did in class was a “Guess Who” style game about parabolas. Once logged in with the teacher created class code, students are paired up randomly with a student in the class. One student selects a parabola and will be able to only answer yes or no to the questions asked by the other student.

One advantage of this activity is that students get to use their math vocabulary. Both the student asking questions and the student answering questions need to know what terms means in order to select the correct graph. Another advantage is that the teacher is able to monitor the questions being asked and can use this as a form of assessment.

A strategy discussed in our class was to highlight good questions that students asked during the activity. This is a way to acknowledge a students good work as well as to help other students needing assistance with questions to ask.

This same style of game has been developed for a variety of different topics including: linear equations, quadratic equations, triangles and transformations. These can be found here.

The teacher Desmos had a lot of other activities that would be great to use in a future lesson. After exploring the site, I tried the Marbleslides:Exponentials activity. This activity was set up to allow students to visualize the effect a modification of the basic exponential equation has. I think this would be a great activity in Grade 11 when students are learning about graphing exponential functions.

Overall, I found that Desmos provided a great variety of class activities and I hope to be able to try these in my class soon.  

Positive Norms

In this weeks class, we discussed positive norms. We looked at the 7 positive norms to encourage in math class by Jo Boaler.  The 7 norms are:

1.     Everyone can learn math to the highest levels

https://www.smore.com/s9wzh-making-sense-of-math

2.     Mistakes are valuable

3.     Questions are really important

4.     Math is about creativity and making sense

5.     Math is about connections and communication

6.     Depth is much more important than speed

7.     Math class is about learning not performing

One of the norms that I found most interesting was number four- Math is about creativity and making sense. When I think about this norm now, I fully agree. However, as a high school student (and even partially as a univeristy student) did I really think math was about creativity? How often did I look at what I was learning and really think about what I had just done and if that made sense and not verify my understanding by merely checking the answer in the back of the textbook?

As a future teacher, how can I achieve this norm in my classroom?

I think the first way to make sure that math makes sense is by asking my students questions. Checking that students understand why the steps they took are correct is important in ensuring the math makes sense. I would often do this when tutoring students and it helped to make sure they were not just following the previous example and asking for clarification when there was uncertainty.

Another way to add this norm into my classroom is by presenting material with multiple representations, including visuals. 

A topic we explored early in this course was estimation and I believe that for certain topics, estimation can be another method in which I can ensure math makes sense. 

The creativity of math can be shown by exposing students to real world applications, visuals, integration with other subjects and opportunities for students to apply the math in areas that are of interest to them. 

Exploring these 7 norms has made me think about the type of classroom environment I want to have in my classroom as a math teacher.  I hope to be able to create my own list of norms as I gain more experience in the classroom but I believe they will be closely based off of the ones above.

Differentiated Instruction

http://www.educatorstechnology.com/2014/09/differentiated-instruction-visually.html

This week’s class focused on differentiated instruction. The idea of finding ways to differentiate my instruction for all different learners is a little overwhelming. After reading and discussing different classroom examples about differentiated instruction, a common theme throughout was providing students with choice.

How could students have choice?

-       group work, individual work, partner work

-       solving a problem with different representations

-       incorporating different student interests into the lesson

-       extension questions

-       deciding which homework questions to complete from list

Although needing to differentiate my instruction is important, it was good to know that I do not need to accomplish all of this in one lesson. As a teacher, I can try to incorporate different aspects of differentiated instruction throughout my entire unit.

An activity completed this week in class that I want to remember to try in a future lesson was a matching game. To incorporate different representations of patterns (which were discussed in the last class), printed cards with a graph, table of values, equation, and pictorial representation of the same pattern were provided to each group and we needed to find the matches.  To make things a little harder, there were blank cards for us to fill in as well. For example, one of the graphs might be blank or there was no equation written. I really liked this type of activity because it is very different than textbook or board work, provides multiple representations, and a type of formative assessment. The idea of working in groups, small pairs or even individually would tie in the idea of differentiated instruction. 

 Overall the key features from our lesson on differentiated instruction that are important to remember when planning a unit will be to provide a variety of representations, develop engaging tasks, use different methods for assessment and provide students with choice.