Blogging Rocks!
Blogging is something that I start with my students right from the beginning of the year. It is a great way to ease students (even beginners) into technology! Students, parents, teachers, and administrators alike ask what blogging exactly blogging is. Simply put, blogging is basically like writing a journal only you are writing this journal digitally for the whole wide world to see. I have created this blog as a way to share my unique experience teaching math for kindergarteners through fifth graders in a mixed grade level environment digitized 21st century math!Teaching math to students ranging in abilities from preschool to middle school was quite an undertaking. Reality set in when I sat down and really started thinking about how this all would work out. This created a bit of a conundrum at first as everything that I had to do to prepare to teach one grade now had to be multiplied by six. I realized this would require organization, planning, and major preparation on my part. The two words that came immediately to mind were effective and efficient! My planning had to be effective for every student involved and my preparation had to be efficient with as little time wasted as possible (you all know how good teachers can be at wasting time!)
Efficient!
Let's start with efficient; reading all the latest research about cognitive development, I knew that my lessons had to built around my students that were engaging, interactive, and inspiring on all levels. This is the format that I came up with to set the pace for most of my lessons and not necessarily in this order.
Before I get started, you may be asking where do I find the resources for this...that is the beauty of living in the information age!! Everything is available to you free or extremely inexpensively. If I recommend a website on this blog or on my website www.crossercares.com, you can have my assurance that it is either free or extremely CHEAP because I, like you, am broke because I teach! :)
Note! Throughout this whole structure you will see that all of the sections are short and too the point. Effective teaching doesn't drag on but instead gets right to the point and drives it home.
21st Century Learning: Students need to learn the lesson objectives through games (digital and "old school board"), short video clips, hands on activities, interactive whiteboard activities, et.
I literally search the internet for anything that I can find that is free and that is something that will attract the students attention while engaging them as they learn a new lesson or concept. I also look for any games that we have close, can be created easily and inexpensively, and even the ones that come with the textbooks or other educational books. My goal throughout the search is that it is something that is fun, non-threatening, and short.
To see some of the great links that I have found and used religiously over the years, check out www.crossercares.com and to see all of my current endeavors click on my Island School Math and Science Website!
NOW, you may ask, how DO I set up my classroom and what does a 21st Century math class look like? Well, check out my newest blog- Setting Up a Classroom for Hands on, 21st Century, Digitized Success!
