Whatever you do with technology, make sure it fits into your educational philosophy. In other words: determine your philosophy first, then find the tools to make it happen.
The above statement is fast becoming my motto. I thought it up as I was pulling together the notes for a presentation I gave this morning at the annual Middle TN Math Teachers Conference.
The first half was about the successes and difficulties I’ve had teaching in a reverse class setting. I demonstrated how easy it is to create a screencast using screencast-o-matic, and shared how much my students have liked them. We had a very good discussion on how students of different abilities might respond to a reverse classroom.
The second half of the session was devoted to some of my favorite teaching tools: namely, OneNote, Socrative, and FluidMath. I wrapped things up with some tips on how math teachers can utilize the web: get a Twitter account and use it to search math-related topics, use a newsreader like my.yahoo or iGoogle to gather the blog feeds of innovative teachers, or start writing your own blog!
I am more convinced than ever that the future of education is in individualized instruction for students. Every child is unique, and for us to expect that one teaching style and one pace will work for everyone does not make sense. I continue to pursue my goal of providing to each of my students the most appropriate learning experience for her needs.
If you would like to see all of my notes, I’ve converted them into a pdf file that you can download by clicking the link below:
FracTad's Fractopia 