Digital Blog Post C Chapters 7 & 8

Steps in solving problems chapter 7

Going to school and becoming a teacher, I believe that taking steps to learn a subject matter is very important. Breaking the steps down can be crucial to understand the problem. In order to start off you must understand the question asking questions until you fully know what the question is asking. When teaching, I believe this is a valuable asset to teach students to be aware of the questions they must ask. Students tend to have problems asking questions because they fear that their question is not important. We have to let them know this is not true.

Second in the solving steps is using problem solving strategies such as start with the basics, breaking the problem down and using computational approaches. For example as math problems increase in advancement to solve there are a few steps to consider when solving them such as solving points on a graph to find the slope intercept form.

Finally when students set of their strategies on how to proceed and answer the problem, they can test the answer by checking their results a second time to see if they come up with the same answer. This has been very useful in my past and I believe this is a great lesson to pass on to students adding in approaches they use calculators or other computer programs to assist in answering the problems. 

Standard Software Programs

As we think about all the computer programs and software we are running do we think about what was and what will be in the future? Everyday more and more programs are being created to allow for shorter time to do things and with the advancements how much are we depending on the programs and what happens if they fail? Today we are bringing students up to use Microsoft word to write projects and the computer is letting the writer know when they misspell a word rather than the writer re-read the piece and check for their errors. Even now I am using Word on my surface 2 tablet which I believe is necessary to complete my assignments. However since I grew up before all the technology became so advanced, I know the basics. As we bring technology into the classroom, I believe students still need to be able to do their assignments as if they had no technology in the event computers are unavailable. Otherwise, I feel that the standard software we normally receive when we buy a computer is necessary and a valuable asset to the student.

Resources

Maloy, Robert, Verock-O’Loughlin,Ruth-Ellen, Edwards, Sharon A., and Woolf, Beverly Park (2013). Transforming Learning with New Technologies. 2nd Edition. Boston, MA: Pearson Education, Inc.

Digital Blog Post B Chapters 3 & 5

Students need to be engaged in what they are doing and active learning is a great way to get them started. Active learning is engaging the student in the class to participate in what the lesson is. When there are math problems, have the student go up to the board and answer questions so they are being involved. Every student can sit at their seat and pretend to be doing work but when they are upfront, they are showing that they can do their work.

Another idea is group learning where students work in a group with each other. There they can collaborate with each other and make the class less teacher-centered and more student-centered. Teachers then take on a more overview and supervise the students while the students figure out what to do for their assignment. Students take on different rolls as leader of a group, note taker, researcher, presenter and artist if making a drawing of sorts. This allows students to be more open to speaking with their fellow classmates on subjects and then working on their social skills at the same time. During group work, this tests the student’s ability to find their strengths and weaknesses and help them overcome them so the students have a better understanding on how to complete their coursework.

When defining students working in groups with technology, they have to be able to know what to look for and where to look for it online. Online, students have a wide net of information that they can search from and knowing where they can go is important. Everything good or bad is online and we as educators must protect them from what could be inappropriate for them. Search engines are set up where teachers and parents can control what the student/child can view. Students start their search by search words and then the internet does the rest and matches the search with the content.

Teacher Centered vs. Student Centered Learning

Digital Blog Post A, Chapters 1 & 2

As we move into the 21^st century we I am learning to understand new technology and its uses in everyday society. As teachers we not only have to understand it but understand it in a way that we can educate the future students we will have present in our classrooms. After reading chapters one and two, it became clear that technology is very much advanced and will continue to advance every year. In a short time we have gone from land line phones and pagers to 4G cell phones and high definition smart TV’s with Blu-ray players. As with any advancement there are draw backs and when we think about it what are they?

 Thinking of becoming a teacher of tomorrow, I believe we need to understand how technology is useful in the classroom and before it can be introduced, learn and understand such technology so that we can teach our lessons using technology and keep students interested. Students growing up today between the ages of 8 and 18 were born and are being raised in a major technological time in our lifetime. As educators we have lived through the changes and are learning the same technology as the students are and feel we need to understand it well enough to use it in our curriculum as we educate the students. While I was growing up we were using chalk boards and erasers during our lessons and now having smart boards to log into the internet to open up an unlimited range of content to teach students with. This makes it a challenge to keep students interested in the content and not what is always being used. At the same time we must educate the students on the technology and the reasoning behind it so students do not skip a vital step in understanding what the technology is being used for.

In a short time it feels like we have made a major leap in technological advancement. From chalk boards to smart boards students are able to use their fingertips rather than a piece of chalk to write answers on a board. Students are growing up using this technology before entering school and I wonder will they still be interested in knowing how we arrived at this point. Many technologies of today were thought of to be science fiction from movies and would take years to create and today we are becoming the movie. I believe it will continue to be a challenge to understand technology and how to adapt it to out teaching curriculum.

When I taught students in the past I taught what I knew and became good at it. I practiced so much that when it was time to pass on the knowledge to others, I jumped at the opportunity to help others know something I enjoyed. When we teach others there are strategies to consider and with combining technology into our class lessons we must use the technology in a way that the students will understand. Rather than throw everything in at once, start with a single advancement as the smart board and let students get used to it. Then throw in another like finding internet pages and activities through the smart board rather than a TV. This way the students can interact. Now the students are up and excited. As our book says each year introduce a couple advancements to keep the students interested and doing so will not overwhelm the student or we the teachers.

Technology has changed in a major way and I believed I knew a lot and every day I am finding out I knew less and less and am trying to raise my awareness to understand more so that I can teach this in the future. The 21^st century holds a lot of new technological advancements to use to teach students with that will keep students interested. We as teachers need to learn and understand them so we can not only teach them to individuals, but to entire classrooms of students.  The way we present the information through technology will not only help us but help the student understand the importance of technology and its usefulness to us in everyday society. 

Sources:

Maloy, Robert, Verock-O’Loughlin,Ruth-Ellen, Edwards, Sharon A., and Woolf, Beverly Park (2013). Transforming Learning with New Technologies. 2nd Edition. Boston, MA: Pearson Education, Inc.