Since the certificate I am working towards is focused in Elementary
Education with Middle School Mathematics Content Specialization I wanted to focus my
technology tool kit towards a compilation of the technology
tools I learned about pertaining to math specifically. Furthermore, I find that this subject in particular lacks the most technology use compared to the others. In the future I tend to add to my technology
tool kit by adding the technology tools for other content areas. For this
particular assignment I didn’t want to bombard everyone with a lot of
technology tools but just wanted them to get an understanding with how this
could be beneficial.
I decided to create my technology tool kit using a social
bookmarking site, Symbaloo, after finding out that CITED was no longer
available. I discovered this website within my graduate courses that I was
taking last spring semester. I think this website is really unique because you
are able to generate a web mix that displays all the websites you pin to it and
are able to share it with either your students, parents, or even colleagues. Additionally,
people within the Symbaloo community are able to research your web mix and
follow it (this could be a great feature for having your colleagues connected
to your site).
If this web mix were to be sent to an administrator the one
thing I think I would consider changing would be making a section on the site
for Middle School Mathematics because I would want them to see that this
particular tool highlights all the content areas that I am certified in. However,
I find that the layout of the tool kit is very versatile for any elementary
grade teacher and depending upon the administrator that were to be viewing it
would depend upon any further changes that would be made. Since I just finished
up with the tool kit tonight tomorrow I plan to send the link for the tool kit
to both of my cooperating teachers to find out there input on the tool kit
since they both are teachers of mathematics. I would make sure that I inform
them that I will be adding to each of the other subjects to improve the
versatility this tool kit provides to all content areas. I would request their
feedback and hope that they would provide me with any further
websites/technology tools that could be added to the mathematics section of my technology
tool kit. I hope you all enjoyed viewing my technology tool kit and gained
insight towards another technology tool that you may be able to add to your own
technology tool kit and utilize within the field. Below I added additional details for each tool that I included within my tool kit be sure to take a look to find out why it would be beneficial to utilize them in the Mathematics classroom.
My Technology Tool Kit: http://edu.symbaloo.com/home/mix/13ePBfgYGM
Additional Details:
- Galileo.org- This website has plenty of research as well as articles/resources to learn about inquire-based education. This website is an awesome place to go to start out teaching with inquiry. There are a variety of full set classroom lessons and examples. They have plans for specific high school, middle school, and primary school math investigations. There also is the ability to download the Focus on Inquiry eBook, to be able to read more about what inquiry means, learn how to construct essential questions, and much more.
- Illuminations- This website has an enormous library of virtual manipulatives that would be great for any teacher trying to make that smartboard math lesson a visual experience. You can allow your students to drag around the virtual algebra tiles, discover triangle congruence theorems, and shade equivalent fractions. NCTM offers a set of math resources on the Illuminations site. This is perfect for classrooms with computers or iPad’s. There are also some fantastic lessons that are sorted by grade level ranging from lower grades all the way up to high school. Additionally, this website provides fun brain teasers that would be great for a warm-up activity.
- Geogebra- With this website student’s can sketch a figure into the software (parallel lines intersected by a transversal, centers of triangles, tangent lines, etc.). GeoGebra allows students to easily display angle measures, drag points around, and notice properties by observing what measures change and what measures stay the same. This website makes exploration easy in Geometry class for any student! There are endless possibilities with this, especially if you are trying to incorporate a little discovery-based learning. You are able to download the software free for your classroom or access the teacher page that provides a variety of worksheets, samples, and ideas for lessons that use GeoGebra, a great resource for teachers.
- Desmos- Desmos is the new way to do all your graphing and plotting. It's ideal for Algebra investigations. Use this site to allow students to transform functions and create fun or artistic graphs. This website allows users to try out the graphing calculator or have the opportunity to browse the teaching resources and activities that are available for use.
- Inquiry Maths- This website provides question prompts to teachers that are perfect ways to get students thinking critically about a variety of math concepts. There are a variety of categories for the question prompts such as: Number Prompts, Algebra Prompts, Geometry Prompts, and Statistics Prompts. This website also provides a resource for teachers to take a look at their assessment framework as well as learn about ways to write their own prompts.
- Think Central- This website is a free resource that offers K-12 teachers resources to accompany their math textbook. This resource ranges in topics from basic math concepts to middle-grade geometry and algebra. This resource is very thorough and provides teachers with a large catalog of resources for them to use in the classroom. The different options offered within each section closely match specific skill and strategies introduced in the classroom. Overall, these manipulatives are perfect for mini-lessons!
- Math Learning Center- The Math Learning Center offers web and app-based manipulatives with some of the best resources for building number sense. The Math Learning Center provides easy to use number-sense building manipulatives – abaci, ten frames, hundreds charts, etc. This resource is beneficial for teachers of any grade level.
Paige - I think it's great that you focused on math software. This is going to be an amazing tool for your colleagues to access and save for future reference.
ReplyDeleteHi Paige,
ReplyDeleteI like your visual of the toolkit. It's appealing and organized. It almost looks like it can be made into a poster for a math classroom. You shared some great online resources along with thorough and helpful descriptions. I have never heard of Galileo before but I have always wanted to try inquiry-based instruction. I think this would be a great way start to finding and implementing instruction. The other provided tools seem very useful for math teachers. I will definitely keep these sites in mind for my future classroom. Great work!
Hi Paige,
ReplyDeleteI have to check out Symbaloo as I liked the design of your Toolkit. The design element was simple and all of the buttons are right there making it very easy for colleagues to see and click the topics of interest. Recently I have refocused my attention back to the math department and as I viewed your web tools I had forgotten all about Galileo and Illuminations. Think central is a great resources as well, our school uses Math and Focus, whose online text, assessments, smart board lessons, and smart board manipulative is all found there.
I am not familiar with Desmos or Inquiry Math, but I'm very interested in both of them especially the math prompts. Prompts always seem to go hand in hand with literacy, but it needs to be done more in math to get kids to seat thinking about math. Lately we have been focusing on creating videos without much information to spark critical thinking, here the students have to determine what information may be needed in order to solve the problem. Thank you for sharing these resources.
Shon
Paige, your toolkit stood out to me amongst our classmates' because you did not use Pearl trees. I like how your blog post includes a brief description of each tool. Previously, I was under the impression that technology was not all that useful in the math classroom but your post proved otherwise! At the school I student taught at, each students had a Chrombook. I imagined that the Chromebooks were closed for most of the time in math. In the teachers lounge I head math teachers complaining about forcing technology into their lessons just for evaluation lessons.
ReplyDeleteHi Paige!
ReplyDeleteI like how easy it is to navigate your toolkit. It really focuses on the specific tools teachers would need in their classroom for elementary school. I like how your tools mentioned can be utilized in multiple subjects and how you are able to provide tools that will allow for teachers to think critically and analytically about their work.