Blog Assignment #11

Mrs. Cassidy's First Grade Class
Mrs. Cassidy’s approach to teaching her students through blogging, Nintendo DSs, and other forms of technology is very interesting. After watching the Skype interview and video of her first graders, I am inspired to brainstorm more about how I can use technology to my future students’ advantage. Recently, I have begun playing on the Smartboard in the classroom where I work. I discovered some Multimedia and interactive objects that are algebra and math related. I believe I can find more or create multimedia to use on the Smartboard. The FluidMath product for Smartboard is my favorite so far. I can use this product to really show how word problems work and how graphs behave when a single number is changed.
Not only can I use the Smart board, I can create a class blog to post all my lecture/lesson videos for my “Flipping the Classroom” lessons. Students will be required to make a post about their reaction to each lesson video. This will also let me inform students faster about events, such as a test being moved or if there will be a substitute.
As a current math student, I use other math websites to explain new concepts and math problems to me. It is a great help to me and I think my future students would benefit too. As a result, I would like to create a “tutoring center” on the class blog. Students can post preapproved helpful math websites; they can ask questions about certain math problems; and they can answer other student’s questions. As the years pass, I will keep the best websites and add them to the tutoring center blog each year.
If Mrs. Cassidy’s First graders can learn using the internet, I believe my future high school class can and will benefit too. However, I might face the opposition of my future employer and fellow math teachers. I hope to change their opinion about using technology by proving how my students will and are benefiting from my teaching methods. I also may have students who do not have a computer or have very limited computer access. Within the next two years and a half, I hope most school systems will have iPads or laptops available to each student in each school. If not, I will try to increase their access by giving them extra time at the end of class to go to the library or offer after-school tutoring, in which I will give them computer access to watch the lesson videos and ask questions.
I personally believe there are more benefits to learning using technology than there are negative effects. As a future teacher, I must constantly prove that statement and show others it is true too.