Based on the TPACK, I need to know how to combine content (subject area to teach), pedagogy (how to teach), and technology (tools that help make teaching more effective) together. It is not only important to use technology, but innovate technology into learning. As the teacher, my job is to not only become an expert on the curriculum. It is my job to integrate as much technology as possibly into my instruction. Using math games from http://www.mrnussbaum.com/ or hundreds of other effective math sites, will allow my students to grasp the curriculum in an authentic and creative manner. Also, I will utilize the SMARTboard daily to get students excited about their learning.
One of the issues with learning mathematics is that students solve problem after problem, not being able to relate their work to the real world. Also, they may struggle because they are not given a visual and hands-on representation. My fifth grade curriculum is a textbook. If I simply assigned problems out of the textbook each day, students would not be engaged, not have memorable learning opportunities, and would most likely dislike everything about math. I would not blame them for disliking math with that type of teaching. By using the SMARTboard even as a math warm-up exercise, children are able to work hands on. For example, as a five minute review before I started my lesson on the angles of a triangle, students were given the opportunity to estimate angles on the SMARTboard. The object of the lesson was to collect as many bananas as they could for the monkey. The closer they were to the angle given, the more bananas they would collect. This activity got students excited about estimating angles much more than giving them a worksheet to fill out. I had the majority of kids raising their hand to participate because they were engaged. Technology is a way to engross students positively and help them become more successful as a learner.
One of the first jobs as a teacher is to find out how your students learn. I found out my students learn most effectively by working with partners in math. With the curriculum very challenging, students tend to succeed in pairs or with a teacher led small group. Once I discovered how my students learn, I had to figure out ways to help them grasp information easier. One way I found was by giving them choices. For example, during math centers students were given approximately three or four math activities and games they could complete. In this way, they stayed focused on their learning. If they were very successful with measuring angles, but struggled with finding unknown angles, they had the opportunity to take responsibility for their own learning and chose the game that would help them succeed the most. Also, this helped to differentiate between all my students. They learned the content in the most effective way and in an appealing fashion through the use of technology.
Well articulated. You make good connections within the TPACK framework without simply answering the given questions. As you implement this project, I hope you are able to find the "sweet spot" in the middle of the TPACK. :) Good luck!
ReplyDeleteAs we all know...Math can be SUM fun. I hope that you find that the fun multiplies. :)
It is great that with the SMART board you are seeing the majority of your class wanting to participate! I have observed other classes that have a SMART board and have seen the same thing. Students really love being able to come up to the board and complete a task, so I think every classroom should have one! I agree that students work best in pairs or groups and when they are given choices. Hopefully your students do take their learning into their own hands and not chose the game that is easiest for them. i could see this being a problem with some students, but not all.
ReplyDeleteVery well said. I especially appreciated your ideas about making math relevent to the students' real world. If students can see why they need to know something they will retain it much better. The good thing about that is that our 5th grade curriculum is almost completely relevent to an average human's life, which makes our task easier. I also liked how you give the students a choice of what programs they want to work on. I think doing so will help them have a greater sense of ownership in their learning. I am very interested to see the directions you head in with the SMARTBoard.
ReplyDeleteThis sounds so great! How exciting that they are able to make a choice which automatically makes them more invested in the process and the math learning. This could also benefit to differentiate and give different groups choices based on the skills that they need the most work with. Another really great benefit of smartboards is having the access to the internet. To make math more relative to real life you could have them do a webquest using the smartboard and the internet. There could be really good activities for them to do angles with buildings in connections to other cities around the world (global awareness). I love that you really thought about their perspective and like/dislike of math. I would really like to use this with my students during our math intervention, if you would be willing to pass along resources.
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