Friday, December 7, 2012

Freedom!

At the end of the last school year, we met as grade 6 Math teachers and were looking for a "different" way to teach our program. We were tired of using the traditional method of basing our program around the text book and adding in a few of our own ideas here and there. We felt that the kids weren't getting as much as they could be from our Math classes.They were learning the material for the strand we were focusing on, but then the material would be forgotten as we moved on to the next strand.

We decided that a change was in order. As part of our cross curricular culminating task planning, we decided that we would ditch our text book and instead teach our math classes using a problem solving approach. Also, the idea of compartmentalizing math into individual strands was an idea we wanted to try and break away from. Added to those ideas, we also wanted to try and work in a bit of a blended learning model, to reduce the amount of time we spent 'lecturing' in class.

This meant a bit of a scary start to the new school year, as we were all embarking on a journey where none of us, students or teachers, knew where it could end up.

Progress to date:

I am very pleased to report that we have had tremendous success. Our students are engaged in our Math classes and we are able to have them involved in more tasks where there is a need to use multiple strands to solve problems. There is a level of excitement in the students which I think was missing in previous years. That excitement holds true for me as well. I find that there is really never a day where I feel like a lesson is really dragging on, or where I may be dreading having to complete a certain question from the text book which I know is poorly worded and the students are going to struggle to complete.

The times we have used blended learning lessons, the students (and parents!) have provided positive feedback that they really enjoyed watching the 'lesson' (more like a song or a rap) and then being able to discuss what they watched for homework, in class the next day.


As an added bonus, the few times we have used the text book, the students have been excited to work from it.

I think one of the reasons we were able to accomplish this is through the team work which has gone on between the teachers. It was a bit rough at the start as far as charting our course, figuring out just how this was going to work, and generating the problems and "work" for class on a daily basis, but our team work has paid off with a much more rewarding math class experience, both for students and teachers.

Examples of some of our introductory problems:

What Math would be needed to pull of this stunt?

The perimeter of the regular polygon is 16cm. What might the shape look like?




What's longer - the perimeter of the field, or the bus lane?

Here's a bunch of data about weather - show it so it is clear for others to understand.


Resources We've found helpful:

Wednesday, September 5, 2012

Collaborize!



I started to use Collaborize Classroom with my classes today and it seems to really be a hit so far. Mind you, we've only been working on an introductory activity having nothing what so ever to do with Math or Science, but the students are interested in the idea of an online learning environment.

I can tell that I'm going to have to go over how to use proper English in a post and in a reply, as well as how to strengthen responses, but that is something I expected to do - and I would have to do if the students were answering with pencil and paper as well!

It will be interested to see how the interest keeps up when it is "real" work being done online.

One other "issue" which has come up in each of the classes I teach is that of students who do not have a computer at home, or do not have internet access on their home computer.

Right now, I think what I'm planning to do to solve the problem is to have those students come in early, or at lunch, or stay after school, to use the school computers when work is being done online.

I also had the idea tonight of perhaps looking for community programs which could assist with the purchase of a computer, or internet access if the family was in financial need. I guess the reason for not having a computer, or access to the internet could also be a belief on the part of the family, in which case it may be more difficult to have that student involved in our online community.

Monday, July 16, 2012

Let's Get Flipped!

I've decided to use this blog to keep track of my journey through flipping my classroom and delving into the world of blended learning.

So far, I've read the FANTASTIC book by Catlin Tucker (@CTuckerEnglish) about Blended Learning and it has given me a great starting point for accessing Edmodo, Schoology, and Collaborize Classroom.




I plan on testing those three over the summer, hopefully to arrive at a decision on what to use in my classroom in September. I also have the option of using D2L, which our school board is beginning to implement in the fall.

This is an exciting time and I can't wait to see where this journey takes me.


Sunday, July 15, 2012

What the TECH?




Going through the process of obtaining my Specialist in Integrating Information Technology in Education has been a real eye opener to how far we have come in the use of technology in education in the past 12 years.




When I began teaching in 2000 my school was using CD-ROMS as a resource for the students to conduct research in the library. 




Contacting parents or colleagues via email was considered risky - cause you never know what someone could do to change what you said in an email. 


And our computer lab was basically a word processing centre which sometimes was also used to play Math Circus.

Looking at all that is available to educators now is absolutely mind boggling!!! It is so exciting to be involved in education at a time when we are reshaping how the entire system should operate. I get that sense of change when I look at how teachers can adapt to integrate technology in their programs and get immediate, long-lasting results for themselves and for their students.







To ignore technology as an INTEGRATED part of every aspect of the curriculum is to be ignorant to the realities of the world our students are living in today. It is the equivalent of still learning by rote, drill & kill worksheets, and paper-pencil tests for every evaluation. It is the equivalent of averaging all work done in a term or a semester and arriving at a magic percentage which "represents" the work done all term long. 

In short, to not integrate technology into every aspect of the curriculum is to not be doing our job as teachers. 

I don't know about you, but I plan on doing my job.