Quite a few conversations about next year have taken place at school, as the usual staffing decisions are shaken up again and again by conducting interviews around the referral process. One of the decisions may be to move me on from ICT coordinator to the field of Numeracy.
At first, I though I had misheard. But then some reasons followed, and I have to admit that they
make sense. I will say that my first reaction was, "You won't stop me!"
At the same time as I was mulling over the reasons (widening my portfolio so that I wouldn't be forever pigeonholed as 'the computers guy'), I was already running through some ideas for incorporating technology into my teaching of Maths and what I could use to combine these ideas.
This last week my students have been using Google SketchUp to create their ideal school - not only spatial awareness and measurement, but also design and technology and thinking and reasoning, as well as literacy in explaining their choices.
There are options for enhancing the free Studyladder resource with paid sites like Cambridge's HotMaths or Mathletics. And the I-Learn Ultranet sites created by Robyn Scanlon are sure to be a great support.
I want to get clear to the other staff that real is best, modeling helps and the chance to experiment goes a long way to helping students internalize the concepts. The challenge as always is to help students discover something for themselves and to use that knowledge, rather than telling them and providing skill and drill worksheets - like some others...
