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. 
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