Oakland's district math team helped shaped the way I viewed education, especially math education. The Team Math Collaborative (TMC) was in charge of designing and implementing a curriculum that relied upon student discourse, investigations and exploration. Foundational skills were supported through the use of number routines such as Number Talks, where students could share the way that they made sense of numeracy not what was dictated to them. This is where I got my chops. In the classroom I was free to act as a facilitator rather than the lone keeper of information. In this model, I relied little on technology (not to say it wouldn't have made my structure even better).
Moving to another district, into an alternative program, changed much for me. No longer did I have the consistency in attendance to build up cooperative groups or a class wide movement though the curriculum. Individualizing education for each student was not only a support but a necessity. With a constant influx of new students, varying levels of prior knowledge and spotty attendance, I needed another way to think about math education. Turning my previously designed curriculum into a more scaffolded individual endeavor worked. Since the class sizes were small, I could bounce around and support each student as they needed it. If a student missed several days or weeks, when they came back they could pick up where they left off. It was exhausting, but results were good, students were learning. This experience led me to think more and more about integrating technology to help meet the students needs on an individual basis. First a spreadsheet tracker was developed to monitor students understanding of specific standards as they worked through the units. Next came organizing the trackers and assignments into Google Classroom. The Touro Innovative Learning program helped support and push me as an educator to begin to merge curriculum, pedagogy and technology (TPACK). This level of integration has led to students using various tech tools to create and design using their voice, writings, videos and presentations. Students were gaining experience becoming independent learners through the use of screencasts, instructional videos, hyperdocs and other resources. As I wrap of the 2018-19 school year, I am in a place where TPACK is becoming more and more fluid within the classroom. For each lesson or unit I am gaining fluency in being able to select the right tool for the job and put the learning into the students hands. I cannot begin to tell you how excited I am to see how this understanding plays out next year. More to come!
3 Comments
Diana Moore
6/17/2018 05:28:04 pm
Joe,
Reply
Christina Schreiber
6/17/2018 06:57:57 pm
I really enjoy reading about your journey. You really draw me in as a reader as you describe the changes that have occured in your career. I think that all of these posts will really help support your message you are demonstrating with your capstone. I think Hyperdocs are a great way to utilize Tpack in the classroom as you select the best tool to allow students to access your content. I also think its a great way of developing transliteracy in our students.
Reply
Jane Gould
6/19/2018 10:12:59 am
I enjoyed learning more about your journey from mainstream ed to independent ed, using little or no technology to integrating it. I am excited that you are starting to see more and more ways to use it with your students and think it will only aid your teaching!
Reply
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorHello, I'm Joe. Welcome to writings about my thought process throughout the journey of Touro's Innovative Learning Graduate Program. Archives
July 2018
Categories |