As a future math teacher, I still struggle to see how technology can be integrated into the classroom. However, I feel that the Google Apps Forums and Sheets provide avenues in which students are able to incorporate technology into the classroom.
Imagine...
You are a mathematics teacher who's been working diligently to incorporate technology into your classroom, as you know how educators are able to do so in other classes, and you want to give your students the opportunity to explore technology in all of their core academic classes.
The night before, you created a Google form to poll your students of their hobbies, interests, and favorite things. Upon the arrival of your students, you administer the Google Form that you created. You don't tell your students the purpose of the activity, but rather just tell them to take ten minutes to fill it out at the beginning of the class. As students start finishing, one by one the rows on a Google Sheet that is linked to the form begin filling with information. You are able to see whose favorite sports team is the Patriots, what extracurricular activities your students participate in, and what flavor of ice cream is everyone's favorite.
Though your students don't realize, you are about to teach them about probability, and how to create graphs using the information they have just provided you. Using their answers, you and your students are able to calculate the probability of if they were to choose three people at random, how many students favorite ice cream would be strawberry, the probability someone being involved with jazz band, and the probability of students not being a fan of sports. By using Google Forms, you as the teacher are able to begin the lesson in a fun and engaging way that gives you the opportunity to learn more about your student, but as well as a chance for them to find similarities between themselves and among their peers.
Yet the lesson does not end at the form. Looking at the spreadsheet filled out with your students' answers, you are able to use that information to create graphs to reflect the statistics and the probability of the information. By being able to create charts within the spreadsheet that reflects the data collected, students are able to visualize the information they originally thought nothing of, and are able to manipulate it various way to not only understand the lesson in a hands-on manner but as well as to help students build community within the classroom, as they are able to find students with similar interests and hobbies.
I strongly believe that if you can't visualize math, it is almost impossible to fully understand it. Therefore, I am excited to play more with Google Forms and Google Sheets and integrate them into my unit and lessons to come, as they provide ways for students to see they're learning in action!
"In my opinion, it is important to recognize and to be able to adjust your curriculum based on the background and the needs of your students. Further, I feel that it's important to recognize that, while you may feel that you're lacking the resources needed to properly teach your class, that some schools can't afford to higher enough teachers to have someone sit in and monitor a study hall, provide heat for the building, or even fix the holes in the building that let in rain and other weather." I appreciate the fact that you brought up that schools aren't all equal. I came from that school that couldn't pay for the best teachers or fix many things, so I can definitely appreciate that.
ReplyDeleteYou had a lot of positive social interactions and that is always a good thing. It was very exciting and I was a little jealous with how much information you received back.
I wish that I could understand a little better on some of your points/were you stand in certain situations. You did very well with making it long but through all the words I couldn't make my way through to were you stood.