Conferences ruin everything. Last week I attended the MACUL 2013 conference in Detroit. I am now convinced that I have no clue what I’m doing; these other teachers and schools are light-years ahead of me. All I want to do is sit in their classrooms for a week and take notes on implementation of technology into the math classroom.
Realistically, it’s not quite as dramatic as all that. I talked with many of them and started reading a couple of their blogs--they feel just like I do. It’s all trial and error and learning through mistakes. If there is anything I am convinced of it is this: there is no easy way to engage all students in learning for the entire year.
I also came home with quite the 'to do' list. 1) Change the way I use PowerPoint in every one of my classes. 2) Completely redo my Bible Curriculum. 3) Market my classes using social media. 4) Sign up for Twitter in order to accomplish #3. 5) Visit Zeeland Public to see one-to-one iPads in action at the secondary level. 6) Look into iTunesU. 7) Run a Math Technology EdCamp at the Wexford Missaukee ISD. (Math Tech roundtable) 8) Look into becoming a Google Certified Teacher. 9) Learn how to play blues guitar (because Ben Harper's new album with Charlie Mussel White rocks) 10) Start an after school programming group. 11) Sign up for Edmodo and start using it instead of waiting for our technology company to install Moodle on our school server. 12) Start presenting what I'm currently doing in my math classes at conferences around Michigan and at CSI next year. 13) Sleep for 2 days.
Speaking of educational technology, a surprising thing happened to me: I now lean towards iPads at the high school level as opposed to laptops. This is a first for me. Now we just need the money to move forward at our school. Here’s a great website to check out iPads in the middle school math classroom.
Realistically, it’s not quite as dramatic as all that. I talked with many of them and started reading a couple of their blogs--they feel just like I do. It’s all trial and error and learning through mistakes. If there is anything I am convinced of it is this: there is no easy way to engage all students in learning for the entire year.
I also came home with quite the 'to do' list. 1) Change the way I use PowerPoint in every one of my classes. 2) Completely redo my Bible Curriculum. 3) Market my classes using social media. 4) Sign up for Twitter in order to accomplish #3. 5) Visit Zeeland Public to see one-to-one iPads in action at the secondary level. 6) Look into iTunesU. 7) Run a Math Technology EdCamp at the Wexford Missaukee ISD. (Math Tech roundtable) 8) Look into becoming a Google Certified Teacher. 9) Learn how to play blues guitar (because Ben Harper's new album with Charlie Mussel White rocks) 10) Start an after school programming group. 11) Sign up for Edmodo and start using it instead of waiting for our technology company to install Moodle on our school server. 12) Start presenting what I'm currently doing in my math classes at conferences around Michigan and at CSI next year. 13) Sleep for 2 days.
Speaking of educational technology, a surprising thing happened to me: I now lean towards iPads at the high school level as opposed to laptops. This is a first for me. Now we just need the money to move forward at our school. Here’s a great website to check out iPads in the middle school math classroom.
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