Abstract:
This research study was to see if a four-week professional development class over the summer would help math teachers improve their ability to integrate technology into their math lessons. The study took place in Southern Mississippi. The study took place over four years.
Reflection:
I found this article to be interesting. Each teacher was given a pre and post test during this summer workshop. The study was taken place in the summer of 2005, 206, 2007 and 2008, each year there was significant gains from the pretest to the posttest. The article stated, “In math education, using various strategies to motivate students to learn math concepts is important” (pg 53). I completely agree. Math is typically known as the boring/hard subject. As teachers, we do have to make it more appealing to students, especially the older they get. We need to be creative with our assignments and not always make it book work. For example, when I was teaching area and perimeter with my third graders, they had to use sugar cubes and create a rectangle or a square. They had to write a word problem, solve it and explain their answers. Each figure had a key. As technology changes, so does some of the ways we teach.
“Teachers are key agents toward initiating changes in education. They are the individuals who teach, mentor, and support learning in the classroom. An effective teacher can motivate, stimulate, and help students acquire academic and professional skills to become successful” (pg 55). I found this statement to be very powerful. We are the ones that are making the difference and have to keep our students motivated and wanting to come to school and be successful. We are competing with the world of video games and technology. If we are going to stand up there and lecture and do drill and kill all day, than what is the point of coming to school. I do understand that in math we have to lecture and drill, but at the same time we have to be creative and find ways to keep them engaged. As we are drilling, it is important to make sure they understand the concepts of what they are learning as well. We have moved from the time we used a slide ruler to graphing calculators.
The teachers learned how to use a graphing calculator from being able to build bar graphs and pie charts. I would love how to learn how to make bar graphs and pie charts on the computer. I think that this would be a wonderful skill for elementary teachers learn and not just middle and high school teachers. When I am teaching them graphs, I can also be showing them how to make graphs on the computers. As long as they understand the data they collected, than they should be able to go on the computer and create their graphs.
I am also in agreement to having workshops where we can become more familiarize and understand how to use the technology that is given to use and not allow the technology just to sit there. Technology is just like math in a way, as when you do not use it you loose it. I know I can use a refresh course in some of the different ways to use excel. Technology is something that we all should keep up with, so we are not afraid of it.
Reference:
Hartsell, Taralynn, Sherry Herron, Houbin Fang, and Avinash Rathod. "Effectiveness of Professional Development in Teaching Mathematics and Technology Apllications." Journal of Educational Technology Development and Exchange. 2.1 (2009): 53-64. Print.
