POSITION: Mathematics Teacher
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We have tried group work since the one-room school house, learning centers, learning partners, individual self-paced learning pods, even sending groups of students to the board so that the teacher can see at once what they are thinking and respond. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Well guys, the "holy grail" is available at Wal*Mart™ for less than the price of a TV. Almost everyone has it in their home, it's called the interactive web. The interactive web, known
as Web
2.0 or the "Read/Write Web" has changed everything. We aren't static
in our use of computers today, they are social networking tools where
natives and immigrants exchange information, learn, play, and problem
solve with each other, even how they find their spouses. |
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The KEY is teach them to matriculate SAFELY. |
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As educators and parents we
are in a unique spot today. Our kids know more than we do about this computer
interactive world, their brains will always be more adapted to its use
than will ours, but they still do not have the wisdom to use it safely,
in most cases. They still need guidance; they need adults there with them
along the way. So we MUST learn to use these things that are their reality
and are NOT GOING TO GO AWAY. |
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The true beauty of learning this new culture is that the EDUCATIONAL benefits are tremendous.
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POINTS TO PONDER: |
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2) The Internet permanent record can be used to your advantage. Put good stuff out there. Use a blog engine like Blogger™ to start a Blog, (web log). Choose a topic that you love, and build it a little everyday, syndicate it on a personal news aggregator site like Bloglines™. Learn from others as people comment on your blog. Get out there in a good way and the employers will come to you! You may be offered a job doing the thing that you LOVE! | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
3)
A "WIKI" is an interactive internet site on which others can add
and edit information along with the wiki creator. This is a way to get a
group of people adding their own expertise to a problem and devoloping a
collective consciousness approach to an issue or to a problem. Teachers are using this for all kinds of collaborative classroom activities. The prospect of having your name in lights for others to see and for others to judge tends to motivate students to put out quality stuff. It's one thing if only your teacher sees your work, but if the entire WORLD can view it, now THAT is powerful motivation to pay attention to detail. No one wants to look like an idiot. Those shy kids will flourish in this environment as will the class clowns, because a wiki provides an audience without the FEAR. |
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4) Podcasts
are another way to get involvement from everyone. Your students can record
an audio play, a debate, a class lecture, a poem or short story, a newsforcast.
Just about anything can be recorded and uploaded to a server for download
to any computer or ipod and can be listened to over and over. The world
becomes their audience. The educational promise of this one is amazing.
Record your lesson and kids home sick can listen to it, over and over
as needed. |
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5) There are lots of child safe environs in which to teach these skills on the Internet. Start by clicking here. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
6) The
entire state of PA has a subscription to a kidsafe search engine called
NETTREKER™. This engine has gathered hundreds of thousands of sites,
and these sites have been reviewed by professional educators and ranked
by reading level and pedagogical value. The site has a built in dictionary that can be called to run simultaneously with any page. When an unfamiliar word appears, the student can look it up immediately. You can highlight passages and the computer will read them aloud to you. You can also highlight passages and the computer will TRANSLATE into several different languages for your ESL students. WOW! I was told that ARIN has the password for our school district to access this resource and that it is for parent use as well. Check out if your state has the same access. |
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7) Apple
Computer™ makes computers and laptops that go seamlessly between
Windows™ and Mac OS™. So users get the best of both worlds. Plus these
machines are compact and cool looking. I'm definitely going to buy one for
my next computer. I want the best of BOTH operating systems at my fingertips. |
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8) SMARTBoards™
should be in every classroom that is serious about functioning in the
digital native environment. A SMART Board™, or at the very least
a computer hooked to a projector, is essential if you are going to teach
through demonstration. |
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9) When every student has their own laptop, and every teacher uses them as a given part of the school environment the school will truly be best servicing the digital natives. The analogy has been proposed of taking every pencil, pen, or writing device in the school and storing them all in one room down at the end of the hall. Students are allowed to visit the room once or twice a week to use these learning tools. Imagine how much more powerful the tool becomes when it is available on demand. It is the same with computers. Naturally school districts
balk at the mere suggestion, because of the cost involved. That is why
the $20,000,000
"Classrooms for the Future Program"
was established in the state of Pennsylvania with the goal of getting
laptops into the hands of all High School students in the state. Proposals
such as this are worldwide. Do some "googling" to find what
is availlable in your area. |
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10) I listened to the technology director of Fox Chapel School District, PGH PA, Norton Gusky, discuss at dinner a professional development plan that worked fabulously. They were introducing a new technology that had broad application across the curriculum. They needed to have 100% of their teachers on board and fluent to make it work; so this is what they did. The teachers were scheduled in blocks, and all of the blocks took a class together each day, sort of like our 7th grade teaming right now. They learned the new technology in their daily class and their assignments were to incorporate what they learned the next day in their own classrooms. They were given ample time to assimilate and use the information, and they got to see results immediately with their students. The collegial atmosphere of being in the class together broadened cross curriculum discussion for all of them, and it created much more of a team feeling throughout the school. |
So even if everyone has a laptop, then what? Get
teachers fluent like this... |
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