Over the semester, my knowledge of technology has grown quite a bit. Some notable technology tools included weebly, prezi, screencast-o-matic, dashlane, and Edutopia. There were some tools or teaching approaches that I had already been familiar with but it was interesting to hear how other teachers were applying it in their classrooms such as khanacademy, PBL/PrBL, and flipped classrooms.
I feel like I know what tech tools are effective and will realistically work in my classroom to support my students’ learning as opposed to having technology for the sake of having it. In the course of the semester, I became much more comfortable with being seen or heard on camera which opens up a lot of doors for me in making math tutorial videos. I would like to have videos to support students who cannot be in the classroom or even the students who just need more processing than other students. Videos can help differentiate instruction so students can re-watch a video over and over until they have the concept or skill mastered. There are a lot of video tutorials out there but it is incredibly time consuming to sift through the videos to find the one that exactly aligns with the specific concepts or skills you want to teach together. With screencast-o-matic, I can record custom lessons covering whatever standards, concepts, or skills I want together. The semester also offered a lot of insight to how the brain functions and how teachers can better support learning using that understanding. I am still in the emerging stage with integrating technology in my mathematics classroom. Unlike several other teachers, I am not leveraging learning with technology even though studies have found that technology can really motivate students and stimulate their brains. I am hoping to further my knowledge in finding different tech tools to support my math class. Several of the case studies I explored pertaining to flipped classrooms were very interesting and something I would like to further investigate. There are a few hang ups because access to technology at home is still an obstacle for many of my students. On the last note, my goal in the future is to design a curriculum that allows students to experience mathematics learning in such a way that it is like an addictive videogame. I am interested to see how I can add layers into my classroom to replicate the design of a well-designed videogame that stimulate interest, have built in scaffolding, feedback and multiple checkpoints (formative assessments) that assess concept mastery before allowing students to move onto the next level or “fight the final boss.”
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Flipped teaching is an innovative approach to teaching that allows for deeper and richer discussions in the classroom. Having students complete a reading or watch a video at home creates more in-class time for discussion and activities. Unlike traditional instruction that dedicates a larger chunk of class time for direct instruction and less time for guided practice and discussion, the flipped classroom allows students and teachers to spend more time focusing on practicing concepts, skills, and addressing challenges. It is a common thing to see teacher frustration who report that students come back the next day without having completed their homework because students did not understand how to do the task. With flipped classrooms, independent note-taking is at home and class is for diving deeper into the content with more time for activities and teacher feedback.
However, there are some obstacles to flipped classroom. Often times it requires students to have access to technology which is a problem at a school that is largely title I. The rate at which students actually complete the readings or videos at home is an issue. It is difficult enough to have students accountable for simple assignments that do not require technology. On the part of teachers, it requires a lot of planning and can be time consuming at the beginning stages of implementation. Teachers have to decide what concept, skill, and standard students need to learn and what resources to include (readings, videos, etc.). Challenge-Based Learning (CBL) is very similar to PBL but it is more open-ended and flexible, having multiple entry points. It is real world, hands on, explorative, collaborative, develops 21st century skills, and incorporates an aspect of community, application of technology, passion, and ownership. I think CBL allows for greater student input because they have a voice in brainstorming the big idea, proposing a challenge, coming up with guiding questions for their research, creating a timeline, implementing and evaluating, and reflecting. I think all of the skills required in CBL are skills needed for the professional world. Moreover, CBL has greater emphasis on technology and the community on a global scale. I do see some challenges that face a mathematics course. I just think that it is difficult to come up with a CBL project in math. When math has a million standards requiring another million tiny concepts and skills that need to be taught which do not necessarily coincide with real world challenges. Much of the mathematics being learned in the middle school level does not lend itself to such projects which are why many schools emphasize PrBL instead. That is not to say that it is impossible, I can think of several standards that CBL can address but it takes a well-trained and very knowledgeable (content and applications) teacher to properly guide students in connecting the math skills they are learning to global problems. On the last note, it is time consuming and there are definitely not many opportunities in an already jam-packed pacing calendar where a new concept is learned every day or every other day. Types of Data Collected--Advantages and Disadvantages
Research studies can employ a wide range of data collection, quantitative, qualitative, and a mixed methods approach. Each holds particular advantages and disadvantages. Quantitative data analysis allows statistical tests that allows researchers to make statements about the data. Both descriptive statistical analysis as well as inferential statistical analysis can be applied. For example, t-tests, ANOVAs, or MRC allows an individual to derive important facts from the research such as trends, differences between groups, and demographics. The p-value can help indicate the likelihood that research findings were the result of chance. However, there are also disadvantages to quantitative data analysis. Sample sizes matter. Statistical significance may not be achieved if a sample size is too small therefore, it may be a disadvantage because quantitative studies relies on a large sample size. Advantages of qualitative studies include the ability to gain more detailed and rich data along with meaningful context. The study can be observed in a flexible and natural way unlike quantitative studies which are quite structured. Disadvantages are that they are extremely time consuming to observe and code and also subjected to bias because the researcher is usually heavily involved. A mixed-methods approach is a combination of quantitative and qualitative approaches. The combination can be quite effective because qualitative research can inform quantitative studies. Information gathered from the qualitative research can be used to design more effective quantitative research that assess the specific area that is being researched. I will be using a mixed-method approach in my research study because it will give me statistical power to analyze data to support my hypothesis using the t-test. The assessment measures are less bias and less time consuming to collect and analyze. However, I also want to see my students' thinking because my topic is related to metacognitive thinking so I want to be able to see evidence of metacognition and also the types of thinking. Furthermore, this method will allow me to analyze the pre-test and post-test scores to determine statistical significance so I can make a definitive statement about whether my research treatment directly affected the increase in test scores. I hope to see through journal writing, whether my students articulation of the math becomes more sophisticated and whether they will provide evidence of critical thinking skills as a result of my treatment. |
Nai Saelee
Middle school math teacher preparing the leaders of the future. Inspiring curiosity, creativity, collaboration Archives
December 2017
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