Digital Reflection

There are so many reasons that people decide to become teachers. Myself, I wanted to make a difference in the way children/teenagers thought of math. There are many reasons people become “mathephobics”. But math is also a way to communicate, communication through logic, patterns, stories. Math can be harmonious if it is taught well. I had many math teachers that were so rigorous and hard to understand that I can’t even say for sure why I was not scared off. With that said, I made a promise that if I were to realize my goal and become a teacher I would do anything in my power to make sure my students experienced math at its best and not at its worst. That includes learning what I can about the world that surrounds the present day children and teens. Technology is where it is at and it is moving along fast so I have to do all that I can to understand where it has been and where it is going. In doing so I will be able to effectively communicate with my students, incorporating their “lingo” to my own. It is my belief that the top ingredients that make a good/great teacher begin with communication, care and understanding.

I chose the research topic “Digital Immigrants” vs “Digital Natives” for this reason. I am glad I did since I learned many things. I learned that there are still many questions and styles of thought about the “natives” fast moving world of technology. I learned that incorporating technology and its many tools into the classroom is a very important motivator when used properly. I learned that “unless immigrant teachers do not adapt quickly we may be doing our new generation a disservice” (2001, Prensky) Yet incorporating these tools has to be done with thought and care for “the computer is a tool to learn with rather than something we should be learning from” (2000, Jonassen). The main concern here is that Digital Natives may be losing the skill to think critically since they have found a machine to do the work for them. This is probably the biggest concern of generation “immigrants” which include those now in their 20’s on up. In full view most of our next graduating class of teachers are included in the line referred to as Digital Immigrant. It is my belief that technology is a must in our classrooms. Humans are still smarter than the machine and if incorporated properly we will not only be communicating on a eye to eye level with our students but enriching and motivating their natural curiosity to their full benefit and our own.

Peer Tutoring

There has been many projects in grad school that have elevated my excitement in becoming a high school teacher. One such project is the development of a wikispace. It is not just the development of learning a new tool but the subject matter my group and I have been exploring, peer tutoring. For many decades ongoing research on peer tutoring has provided our academic community with astonishing information concerning its many benefits. The benefits associated with peer tutoring has been catching on quickly throughout the country. Schools have been dedicating spcialized in house centers geard toward this type of instructional method. Scholarly articles have been popping up throughout the web and many other local resource centers. Books have been dedicated to the training in this area. I myself have used this technique when substituting in my specialized field which is mathematics. Just last week while doing field study at MCC’s Damon City Campus, I was asked to take a group of students who were having trouble in math class. After doing several problems together with the group I paired off students that I felt had a grasp on the problems we just went over and paired students who were still weak with the understanding. I found that the students who I had picked to work along with the weaker students began to feel empowered. The students that seemed weak were feeling they were getting a better handle on the subject matter. I myself felt a great sense of accomplishment by the end of the class period. If anyone reading this has any similar stories to share please do so. I am very interested in hearing them.

Team Wiki

I don’t know about everyone else but I am looking forward to the Class Wiki assignment. I did not realize how many free social networking tools there are available for people to utalize. I am also amazed how less complicated these tools are to use than I thought before taking this class. I certainly am not implying by any stretch of the imagination that I could become an expert overnight with its capabilities but I certainly am very happy with how user friendly tools such as these are turning out to be. I remember the first day of class hearing the words blog and wiki, sending my head into a tail spin. I just completed surfing through the wiki pages attached to our classes resource page and I am alread starting to think about ways I would utilize a network such as this in the future. I know it would be a great tool to use once I am teaching out of school discussions with students, students discussions with their peers and communication for parents such as notes back and forth, assignment postings so they know what is due and when, etc.. The design is another thing I would look forward to doing. So, if anyone else feels the same way I do, drop me a line.

Further Inspiration

After completing this weeks Inspiration/Kidspiration project I was positively inspired by its capabilities. My daughter, age 9, is a good student but lacks organizational skills which will become more and more important with every year of her life. I have been working with her to improve her skills since first grade. There is a large calender that is kept behind her bedroom door which I encourage her to use along with a yearly assignment book she keeps in her backpack for school and a diary she keeps in her bedroom for ideas and thought processing. With all of this one would think she should be well organized by this stage of her life but……………unfortunatly this road began to look like a long road until last night. I showed her the download we received in class of Inspiration/Kidspiration. I watched her face light up. She became excited about the fact of learning a new computer program and liked the idea of organizing things on the computer (total digital native) why did I not think of that before. I have decided to buy the program for home use and I am looking foreward to her progression along with my own interest in the program for myself.