Expat Math Educator

How can I encourage an innovator’s mindset to further enhance the learning experience for students in my school? Technology integration can sometimes feel like a very individualized activity.   Naturally, when I started learning more about current technology integration, I was first focused on my own learning. Now that I have immersed myself in articles and Twitter Feeds, my goal for learning about technology has shifted some. I am now more interested in how I can use my learning to impact learning in the whole school. @gcouros and @sylviaduckworth I am interested in discovering how I can help other teachers in my school become more comfortable and confident with technology. I have found that while I may still have a lot to learn with regards to using technology in my classroom, I am open to trying things. As described by George Couros, it seems I have an innovator’s mindset , and I would like to help my colleagues embrace this mindset as I believe it will help us all...

The most frustrating change initiative that I have seen was an attempt at 1:1 integration at a public high school that I worked for in the States. Staff were given iPads and told to see what they could do with the devices. The next year, all students in the high school were given iPads as well. Textbooks were removed. Teachers were told that iPad use in their classroom was optional, but were scolded for not using the expensive tool. Very little training was provided, and the school ended up losing several good teachers who just became frustrated and left at the end of that year. Personally, I was thrilled to have the iPads in the classroom. I had been wanted to tried a flipped approach to my Algebra II course but found that the Khan Academy videos weren’t exactly what I wanted for my students. I recorded all my own micro-lessons using my iPad, and my students would watch these lessons for homework each night. Then, during class, we were able to spend time really getting into the...

After a lovely visit from Erma Anderson , my math team has decided to try out the curriculum provided by the Mathematics Vision Project (MVP) for our unit on quadratics. After just two days of diving head first into the material, I am seeing a significant growth in the engagement level in my students. They are already making some spectacular connections to our first unit on functions and modeling and previous geometry they had from middle school course. The courses appear to be aligned incredibly well with the CCSS, and also very close to what we have been doing in the past few years. We have grouped the first three "modules" of the Year 2 Integrated Math course into one unit of study that mirrors what we have done for quadratics in the past. I am excited to see the results of using this curriculum and will post about my observations on this blog. For now, I can say that I am incredibly impressed with the level of engagement my 22 sophomores had doing the very first acti...