NETS-T++4

4. Promote and Model Digital Citizenship and Responsibility
//Teachers understand local and global societal issues and responsibilities in an evolving digital culture and exhibit legal and ethical behavior in their professional practices. Teachers://
 * b. address the diverse needs of all learners by using learner-centered strategies providing equitable access to appropriate digital tools and resources.

Reflection:
This Geogebra interactive was created by Alison Schubert. I picked this one out immediately as I sifted through the wiki because some of my Trig students have been struggling with visualizing domain and range. By giving them this interactive device to play around with they are able to get a better visual than anything I could have replicated on the board. I also take the focus away from me at the front of the room and I can shift it to the individual learners in my class. I have mentioned this before but I think it's truly important: the kids take more ownership of their learning when they are able to use technology to study a concept. They become more involved and focused during class time. If we expand our use of Geogebra to involve creation the kids would challenge each other to form the best model of each concept. Utilizing technology is a great way to break up the monotony of teacher-centered learning and it can meet the needs of learners who don't respond well to oral teaching. I have a long way to go before I will feel comfortable incorporating a lot of hands-on applications in to my classes. Mostly because of the time constraints. First, we as teachers don't have an over abundance of time to prepare for using technology in our classes and secondly the activities take much longer than normal instruction. As we in the math world are driven by the PSSA, we just can't deviate very far from the basic curriculum or the course timelines. However, I have written in my professional development plan that I would like to incorporate three new digital tools in to my classes this year. One will be Geogebra and the other two options are still up for debate. I think that's a pretty reasonable goal and as long as I tie the activities in to my current curriculum I feel like I can make it work.


 * d. develop and model cultural understanding and global awareness by engaging with colleagues and students of other cultures using digital-age communication and collaboration tools.

Reflection:
My artifact for this standard is a teacher resource packet about the science behind cosmic voyage. This material is provided by the National Air and Space Museum. They also offer more teaching materials such as posters and other visuals and they offer video conferencing oportunities. Our students would be able to save the time and expense of a trip to Washington D.C. but still get to see the wonderful exhibits and information provided by our national museums. Now I haven't actually been a part of any education videoconferences yet but I hope they we are able to learn more about these projects soon. I have heard that we do have professional development opportunities in our area for videoconferencing and I've requested to be a part of these sessions. As we prepare our students for the current workplace, I think they need to be able to function globally and have a better cultural awareness than they currently do. So many of our kids and I'll include myself too, have been bottled up in this culturally uniform society of central Pennsylvania that they don't know what's out there and they can't relate to other cultures and nationalities. This is certainly one area of the technology standards that I am truly deficient in so my goal will be to start small. I would like to incorporate one cultural and global awareness activity in to this current school year. I'm not stating that this activity will be a part of my curriculum because I think that I might want to start with an easier transition first. As the CFF coach, I'm looking more toward creating an opportunity for one of my English or Social Studies teachers to incorporate a global awareness activity in to their courses. As I work with these teachers, I'm going to offer information on video conferencing and also global collaboration tools like ePals and iEarn. These digital communication and collaboration tools incorporate project-based learning activities and enhance student-centered learning. iEarn does a great job at having students share ideas across the globe and then relates the information that they pick up to community-based projects that they can undertake locally. My goal is to try one of these options with a teacher at my high school this year.