I-Touch, Final Thought

I really enjoyed having the privilege to use I-Touch this quarter.  Unfortunately, I couldn't get access to WiFi at my school so I had my difficulties.  However, I did use Voice memo and dictionary app efficiently.  My second grade students were so fascinated to see with my I-Touch.  They would ask what games I play or would tell me with excitement that they have an I-Touch at home too.  I really wished that I could’ve used other great APPS that I downloaded like math games, phonic games, etc.  They all required access to the Internet which I didn’t have.  I did use my Voice memo frequently with students.  They really had fun hearing their voice recorded for the student interviews I did for my Science homework.  I also think that it would’ve been better if I had more devices for the kids.  Since I only had one device, allowing a particular student to look at my I-Touch made other students think that I was favoring them (hope they understand that I wasn’t). 

I can see how I-Touches can be so useful in classrooms.  Not all kids have access to technology at home.  The more tools that are available in classrooms, the better for kids.  Students can be engaged a lot longer with new technologies than paper and pencil activities.  I hope to incorporate technology into my classroom and make learning fun and efficient.

Math, what I learned

The most valuable thing that I learned from this class is that math can be fun and engaging.  I was amazed by how creative teachers can be to make their lesson fun and interactive.  I really enjoyed learning about the uses of manipulates in classrooms.  I am a visual learner and actually playing around with miras, algebra tiles, and virtual manipulates like GeoSketch helped me understand math concepts better.  When I was in school, I didn’t learn math through using a whole lot of manipulates.  It was more of the drill and practice thing.  I think I would’ve enjoyed math if I did have all of these great resources around me to understand.  I hope to incorporate what I learned about the uses of manipulates in my own classroom to make learning more enriching and FUN.   I also like the idea that math can be learned better in groups than alone.  Like real Mathematicians, students can learn so much from sharing their ideas and thinking with one another.  I hope to incorporate this idea as well into my own classroom and make the learning collaborative and enriching.

Math, week 8

This week in Math, we learned about TinkerPlots.  TinkerPlots allows the user to play with the data plotted in variety of formats. I think this software is great for students to develop a stronger understanding of what their numbers mean. 

 We also talked about the wolframalpha.com site, where kids can get answers to almost everything in a click.  It is amazing what technology can do for us, making it so convenient to get the answer to any math problems in just seconds.  Things are not the same anymore.   Teachers need to know their students, where they are and what they need to learn.  This leads to the 4 questions Robin gave us to ask ourselves whenever we are creating a lesson. 1) What do they already know? 2) What do I want them to know? 3) How do I get them there? 4) Did they get there?   I think these four questions are crucial and I will try to use these four questions every time I create a lesson.