What's in the future.....
By: Beth Berube
When looking forward into my future, I think of the statement that came about throughout this Masters in Educational Technology (MAET) program that it’s not about going and changing everything at once, but making small changes to make education more effective! Therefore, my goal should not be to buy into one philosophy, but to have a grab bag of different philosophies. When not changing everything at once and doing small changes, if something fails, it’s ok because I can fix the smaller things. This is what I plan to keep in mind when looking into the next few years of my educational career, that I feel is ever changing!
One of the things I am going to focus on in the future is the realization that within my class, there needed to be more time for elaboration, discovery, and discussion for a way to have students explore mathematics both in the class and real world context, and be able to have the opportunity to check for their ‘understanding’ of the concepts. That being said, that is one thing I am working towards changing to incorporate writing within mathematics and understanding students’ conceptual knowledge within my everyday math class. This will allow both the students and myself to evaluate their understanding, misconceptions, and work in different strategies to help delve deeper into the concepts of mathematics. This is the start of my writing integration within my classroom, in which I hope to grow and improve over the years.
Throughout this journey of trying to have my students ‘understand’ mathematical concepts, I plan to use resources that I have had and new ones coming, all while keeping in mind that integrating technology is not about technology, it is about learning. One technology that we have had, but I plan to try to use it more thoughtfully is the use of the Promethean Board. Along with this promethean board, I will use the Promethean Planet to enrich my lessons, activities, and classroom interactions. Along with our promethean boards, I will incorporate the activotes, which are interactive clickers, with more thought behind what they are going to be used for. This will be an easy way for me to get instant feedback of understandings, misconceptions, and questions throughout class periods with informal assessments periodic on a daily basis.
Another technology that is coming at us fast is the iPad. I needed to re-evaluate my mindset of the iPad integration, and this program has really helped me to do that! I will be going about the iPad not as how am I going to fit the iPad into my curriculum, but how is the iPad going to help enhance the delivery of my curriculum content. I need to realize that maybe some of the technologies of the iPad will not be blatantly obvious to be used within my curriculum, but I need to expand my horizons to the possibilities of repurposing such technologies to help deliver my content. This program has given me a lot of resources such as blogs and apps. Some of the apps, that I hope to use within my curriculum in the future would be things like ShowMe and Skype, for the students delivering material, sending me questions outside of school, or just communicating with each other.
With the iPad and hybrid/online learning being a big push within our district, I hope to use all the resources of this program as my stepping-stone to dive deeper into technology in education. I have pushed myself to try new things, experiment with different types of classes and activities, and I think as an educator, this is something that should never stop.
As educators, we need to remember that being a ‘life-long learner’ is not ignoring what’s going on around us; we don’t get to claim the title of ‘effective educator’ or ‘excellent professor’ if we do this. Therefore it is our duty to our students and our educational profession to stay connected to what is changing and learning how we can change with it. One of the main ways I plan to do this is by staying connected to MACUL. This is a great resource to stay connected to other educators and their ideas for the classroom. As teachers we need to develop a willing-ness to play with technologies and an openness to building new experiences for students so that fun, cool tools can be educational.
When starting this program, I was skeptical to go back to school shortly after just finishing a masters, however, after this hybrid experience, I wouldn’t’ take it back because of all the information and resources I have learned about that I will take back with me. Although I don't think going back to school for another masters, or continuing this program towards my PhD, is in my near future, I will always want to stay a continuous learner. Whether it be within conferences, learning from my peers, or colleagues from around, I will always continue to feed my thirst of learning more ways to integrate more efficient education into my teaching practices. I am thankful, that after only 4 years of teaching, I feel like I have been a little revived in being able to look at integrating technology in a different light, and when feeling overwhelmed I will remember the mantras I have taken with me from these courses. Throughout changes in my career, I need to remind myself “if you exist in a world where failure is not tolerated, then you will not have a great idea and you need to fail to learn things” (Mishra). Ideas may not be great the first time around, but to fail is to learn what you can do better, and in education this is no different. This is my motto for my future endeavors!
One of the things I am going to focus on in the future is the realization that within my class, there needed to be more time for elaboration, discovery, and discussion for a way to have students explore mathematics both in the class and real world context, and be able to have the opportunity to check for their ‘understanding’ of the concepts. That being said, that is one thing I am working towards changing to incorporate writing within mathematics and understanding students’ conceptual knowledge within my everyday math class. This will allow both the students and myself to evaluate their understanding, misconceptions, and work in different strategies to help delve deeper into the concepts of mathematics. This is the start of my writing integration within my classroom, in which I hope to grow and improve over the years.
Throughout this journey of trying to have my students ‘understand’ mathematical concepts, I plan to use resources that I have had and new ones coming, all while keeping in mind that integrating technology is not about technology, it is about learning. One technology that we have had, but I plan to try to use it more thoughtfully is the use of the Promethean Board. Along with this promethean board, I will use the Promethean Planet to enrich my lessons, activities, and classroom interactions. Along with our promethean boards, I will incorporate the activotes, which are interactive clickers, with more thought behind what they are going to be used for. This will be an easy way for me to get instant feedback of understandings, misconceptions, and questions throughout class periods with informal assessments periodic on a daily basis.
Another technology that is coming at us fast is the iPad. I needed to re-evaluate my mindset of the iPad integration, and this program has really helped me to do that! I will be going about the iPad not as how am I going to fit the iPad into my curriculum, but how is the iPad going to help enhance the delivery of my curriculum content. I need to realize that maybe some of the technologies of the iPad will not be blatantly obvious to be used within my curriculum, but I need to expand my horizons to the possibilities of repurposing such technologies to help deliver my content. This program has given me a lot of resources such as blogs and apps. Some of the apps, that I hope to use within my curriculum in the future would be things like ShowMe and Skype, for the students delivering material, sending me questions outside of school, or just communicating with each other.
With the iPad and hybrid/online learning being a big push within our district, I hope to use all the resources of this program as my stepping-stone to dive deeper into technology in education. I have pushed myself to try new things, experiment with different types of classes and activities, and I think as an educator, this is something that should never stop.
As educators, we need to remember that being a ‘life-long learner’ is not ignoring what’s going on around us; we don’t get to claim the title of ‘effective educator’ or ‘excellent professor’ if we do this. Therefore it is our duty to our students and our educational profession to stay connected to what is changing and learning how we can change with it. One of the main ways I plan to do this is by staying connected to MACUL. This is a great resource to stay connected to other educators and their ideas for the classroom. As teachers we need to develop a willing-ness to play with technologies and an openness to building new experiences for students so that fun, cool tools can be educational.
When starting this program, I was skeptical to go back to school shortly after just finishing a masters, however, after this hybrid experience, I wouldn’t’ take it back because of all the information and resources I have learned about that I will take back with me. Although I don't think going back to school for another masters, or continuing this program towards my PhD, is in my near future, I will always want to stay a continuous learner. Whether it be within conferences, learning from my peers, or colleagues from around, I will always continue to feed my thirst of learning more ways to integrate more efficient education into my teaching practices. I am thankful, that after only 4 years of teaching, I feel like I have been a little revived in being able to look at integrating technology in a different light, and when feeling overwhelmed I will remember the mantras I have taken with me from these courses. Throughout changes in my career, I need to remind myself “if you exist in a world where failure is not tolerated, then you will not have a great idea and you need to fail to learn things” (Mishra). Ideas may not be great the first time around, but to fail is to learn what you can do better, and in education this is no different. This is my motto for my future endeavors!