Trigonometry Architecture

Within my EDT 370 class that I am currently taking at Grand Valley State University, we had the opportunity to create a digital story about a lesson that we "taught" within our classroom. Please find the logistics of the lesson below:

Students had to create a blueprint of a portion of the city that was currently under development. They were broken up into teams within the classroom and had to use trig based mathematics that they were currently studying to create the blueprint. Upon completion of this, they then had to present the blueprint to real architects of the city to see which plan would be "chosen" for the development!

Just Give Me Paper and Pencil.

How is this helping me? 

Students always seem to ask these questions within the classroom. "When will I ever use this?" "How is this helping me?" And now, another question that I am hearing from students is the following: "Can I just use paper and pencil?" As we step foot into the classroom, we are starting to see an increase in the use of technology within lessons across disciplines. Specifically relating to a mathematics classroom, I have seen students struggle with using technology for the purpose of transforming the lesson so that they can better understand and comprehend the concepts being taught. But, I argue that the students are struggling because they are not being taught to use the technology in a transformative way but rather a replacement way. If students are able to use pencil and paper (which is what they have done in the past) for the given activities within a lesson, then technology is not being used to it's full potential. One of the main reasons as to why I believe that technology should be used within a classroom in a transformative sense is for students to investigate mathematical concepts in which wouldn't be able to exist within a 2-Dimensional world (paper and pencil). 

In today's society we, as a whole, are moving constantly. This being said, the fact that we are able to stay in contact with one another and communicate on a consistent basis needs to be extended to the classroom. In my personal experience, I have seen technology used in such a way that students are able to communicate with one another on a consistent basis even when they are not in the specific classroom. Say that a teacher is giving a summative assessment on a Monday and has a review set up on Friday. The teacher can set it up so that the review is online in which students are able to complete within class with one another as a collaboration piece but then they are also able to work on the same review guide over the weekend. If the teacher used an interactive program such as Classkick (which I have used within the classroom that I am Teacher Assisting in right now) then the teacher is able to set it up so that students are able to help one another out with the given problems. In my eyes, this is a transformative use of technology rather than a replacement piece. If the students were simply sending emails to the teacher over the weekend to communicate about misconceptions then that would just be a replacement piece. By the teacher using this program, or one similar, which gives the students an opportunity to work and help one another, I believe that this is transformative given the fact that this could not have been completed unless students were to meet over the weekend to study (which in many cases is not plausible). 

One of my biggest concerns about my future teaching is for the questions that I stated previously. When students are questioning when they are going to use the mathematical concepts in the future then I know that I am not doing my job righteously. I believe that these questions would diminish through the use of technology within the classroom. In all honesty, there are not many jobs in the real world in which people are using Algebra to solve systems of equations or finding the area under a curve for a specific project. But, when the use of technology is introduced to students and we are able to make connections with the real world in which they will be entering at one point or another, then it starts to make sense to them. The millions and millions of programs in which we have at our fingertips is thrilling to me. We are entering a day and age in which we are able to accomplish within minutes what it took months for others to complete just a mere 50 years ago. With making these connections and by providing the tools for our students that they need we see the understanding of using technology within the classroom skyrocket. 

The Organizational Piece

Growing up, I would say that one of the many aspects that I have noticed about people that I have met whether it be within a personal or professional setting, is their sense of organization. With the given profession that we are going into, I believe that the organizational piece is incredibly important. With that being said, technology can be used to keep our students and ourselves organized in such a way that is non-distracting and gives us the ability to flow. When referring to the High Level Teaching Strategies, we see a numerous amount of strategies in which need organization to be accomplished. Specifically speaking, student feedback. When considering the use of technology within the classroom, we can start by having assignments to be submitted via technology. This avoids students having trouble finding their assignments or losing them or leaving them at home/school. That's one organizational piece that is cured. 

Another piece, would be the ability for a teacher to give the student feedback on their assignments (formative or summative). When the student is able to gather the feedback via technology, this is yet another piece that is not lost. Also, the students are able to gather the feedback in a personal space instead of having to obtain the said feedback within class (many would be fine with this but for some this is important). This gives the students the opportunity to compare the feedback to their own work and adjust accordingly so that they are able to obtain a better grade through revision or just to be able to have it as a resource moving forward within their class. In regards to the teacher, it provides an organizational piece by simply having the assignments turned into the same location via technology. But as we refocus our attention onto the High Level Teaching Strategies, we can also see that through this process of turning the assignments in via technology, then the teacher is able to develop and implement lesson plans according to the needs of the students as a whole. We are able to use technology to confirm the misconceptions within assessments (through the use of statistics) which would then guide the teacher to develop the future lessons in a given way. These are just a few of the reasons as to why technology can be used as a transformative piece within my future classroom. 

Technology Inventory

Hardware & Peripherals:

Currently, I am Teacher Assisting at Creekside Middle School which is located within the Zeeland Public Schools School District. I have 8th grade mathematics students who have a 1-to-1 technology based policy at the school. This means that each student from elementary to high school is given an iPad in which they are able to take back and forth from school to home on a daily basis. The teacher that I have been placed with has utilized this opportunity in which she has decided to teach from a "flipped classroom" perspective. This is working absolutely brilliantly with the students, which will be elaborated on periodically during this blog. In regards to specific hardware, within the classroom we have a main computer (PC), an Epson projector with smart-board, ELMO document camera, portable (wireless) document camera, and iPads. Students typically do not have and/or use cell phones within this classroom because they have other means of technology to utilize throughout the course of the hour in which they are in. It is promoted and mandated for the students to use technology either individually or in groups (some naturally forget their iPads or need to charge them) in such a way that the lesson plans incorporate technology on most days. This is because the students have the means to use technology and it is beneficial to use the technology to "see" the mathematics in a new way that they may not have seen during the notes/instruction. 

Infrastructure: 

Seeing as the students are able to have iPads throughout the school day, a wireless internet connection is needed throughout the district, which is provided. The students also have a media center in which they have a section of computers for the students to use if they do not have their iPads or if they need a more structured hardware type of equipment. When working with the students on their iPads, I have seen that the firewall is rather strict based on the "hacks" that the school has endured over the past few years. It is so strict that I can't even connect my own computer (PC) to the guest network because of the massive amount of issues that have arose in the past. The only way that one, such as a guest like myself, is able to connect to the wireless internet is having an Apple based product which includes Macs, iPads, etc. Luckily enough, I have my own iPad in which I am able to connect to the network so that I am able to utilize the same programs that the students are using within the classroom to solve their problems that are being assigned. The IT Department are the ones who fix the issues that students/teachers/admin have if another teacher/admin in the building is unable to fix. The specific teacher that I am assisting for uses technology so much that many come to her to see if she is able to fix their issues. She is considered to be one of the individuals that others "seek out" with their technology issues so she is even paid a little extra by taking upon this role within the building. If there is an issue with a student's iPad I typically see that the student is given a "loaner" or they have their's returned within the next few days so that they are able to keep using it within the classroom. 

Software/Electronic Subscriptions: 

One of the main software programs that the students use for my given classroom is called Edmodo. This is a platform in which students are able to communicate with teachers, students, etc. about homework or work that they may have missed or simply just being able to ask a question to their given teacher. Within the classroom, we use Edmodo to post notes for students to use since the classroom is a Flipped Classroom or even if we are assigning a few problems over the course of a weekend. This is a great way to communicate with students such that they get notifications on their iPad and they are able to log in and locate their homework/notes/etc. on the daily. We also have textbooks that stay within the classroom because the students have eBook versions as well located on their iPads. The textbook company that we are using is called Holt and we have both the Algebra and Geometry books within the classroom that I have been placed within. I use these resources for some of the lesson plans that I have created thus far for the students. My Coordinating Teacher and I also use iBook to create notes for the students since they are doing them at home before they come to class the next day. We also use free online programs such as Geogebra, Desmos, Socrative, Quizziz, etc. to create activities for the students and allow the students to explore by using these programs. We are able to create activities ranging from small (warm-ups) to whole quizzes in which they are able to just simply take them on their iPad and submit them electronically. I have realized how many positives are coming from technology especially when you are using a Flipped Classroom design. Mathematics is a very hard concept in which technology is used for because some of the design process takes an insane amount of time. But, there are more and more resources that are being created and implemented to help with this and I believe that the technology implementation is key for students and development learning techniques within the 21st century.