Desired Transformation
It is my goal as a teacher to give every one of my students an effective education and to motivate each child to do his or her best. Because we live in a continuously changing world, I plan to give my students opportunities and experiences that will enable them to develop into critical thinkers who are able to problem solve in order to become productive members of society. By implementing this project, students will acquire important skills that are necessary to excel in our global world.
Throughout my teaching career I have observed many occasions in which students were given an assignment, which contained drill and practice problems and a few “story problems,” which required students to use critical thinking in order to decide on a strategy to use to solve the problem. Many times students would breeze through the drill and practice portion of the page and as soon as they came to a “story problem,” all of the hands in the classroom would start shooting up. Students were afraid to attempt these problems.
As a result of this project, I want my students to build the confidence and knowledge that they need to be successful in solving math problems and taking part in math activities. I want them to understand that there are different strategies that can be used to solve a problem. I want students to go beyond memorizing basic addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division facts, and look at math in more creative ways in order to develop conclusions. Because students will be working with a team to solve math problems, I also want them to learn how to work as a collaborative team.
Integrating technology into the math curriculum will additionally teach the students a number of technological skills as well. Students will learn how to use the Smartboards to illustrate strategies for solving math problems. Students will learn how to use the Smartboard to save and capture their thought processes. The slides captured on the Smartboard will be used to create multi media presentations to illustrate their understanding. Therefore they will learn how to software such as MovieMaker, PowerPoint, and Google Presentation.
For most students learning occurs within the walls of their classrooms. They share experiences and work with classmates. Many students may not have realized that there are students all over the world working on similar problems and activities. Because students will be sharing their projects with a global audience, they will learn that there are many peers across the world working on the same material. It will also make it evident that connections and collaboration can take place through the internet, making it possible to view differing strategies and approaches.
In assessing student understanding, the student presentations made with the Smartboard, Movie Maker, and PowerPoint, will illustrate their strategies and thought processes. Discussions with students will provide information about student observations from projects shared from around the world, developing a sense of our interconnected world. Classroom teachers will observe students in the classroom setting as they build their confidence in problem solving as well. All of these connected activities will enable students to understand their understanding and analyze the steps and thought processes that went into solving the math problem.
