Getting to know your students

Something that has been popping up in a lot of my classes recently is the concept of getting to know your students and things that happen in their lives. It is important to get to know the students to some extent, as much as they are really willing to share with you as the teacher.

An example that came up in one of my classes was a student who couldn't do a homework problem because it said hamburger or cow in it. The student was from a religion that thinks of cows as sacred animals. The only thing the teacher had to do was rewrite the problem so it wouldn't bother the student.

Something else that came up is knowing the students home-life situation. If the student is homeless, they might not be able to work on homework at night because they don't have electricity. They could be from a divorced family, single parent family, or living with their grandparents.

As teachers we need to know our students. We shouldn't assume what is going on in their lives. It is up to the family though to I guess disclose what information they want to with the teacher and school system.

How I thought that I would do to get to know my students would be to just have them write me a letter or something the first day of school. I was trying to think how I could do something like this by using technology but I couldn't think of anything besides a Google Docs survey. That's about it, just make sure you get to know your students to an extent.

You might be that one person who makes a difference in their lives.

Skype

Recently I have been trying to think about ways to communicate with other people next year. Instead of using all of my cellphone minutes I could use Skype. I have learned that if 2 computers are doing the talking or I guess communicating then it is FREE!!! Which I really like this!!! I will have to look at it more. But I think that this is a great way to communicate with other people. I don't know how I would really use it for a math classroom yet, but I would like to know.

Really, besides Geometer's Sketchpad and Google Sketchup I haven't really been able to think of different programs/technology to use in a math class.

I do like in Nate's blog, Teacher to Teacher, where he talks about when to use Blogs or Wiki's. This I will have to check out more to see if it will be useful in a math class.

Global Opportunities for Learning

One way to make learning globalized would be to use Skype. I have never used it, but it seems like a good idea. I guess I am thinking along the lines of bringing the world of education together. When I say that I think about having a teacher over in Japan talking to another teacher in Iowa or really anywhere in the world. This could be resourceful when looking at learning different languages. It would be a lot better to be able to talk to someone who is a native speaker of the language.

Social Networking in My Life

I have started to get away from a lot of social networking things like msn messenger and aim messenger. I do use them every once and a while, but not like I did when I was in high school and my first 2 years at UNI. Facebook has been my main way of communication with my friends that I don't really see on a daily basis. I do like the Facebook Chat, just because it is like msn or aim messenger. The nice thing about that is that you only need to know the persons name, not their messenger name.

I just realized that Facebook is kind of like a blog...huh...

As much as I rant and rave about Facebook and how much I dislike it, it is probably one of the best ways to interact with friends an family. I would rather talk to a person in person, but that isn't always possible. I am not on the computer really very much just due to my life schedule. I find it difficult to find time to sit down and make time for things like Facebook, msn or aim messenger.

I do like the fact that you can talk with people from all over the world, just like Shu-hsiang stated in her blog The Secret Garden.

Role of Blogging in Education

If I would ever use a blog in a classroom I would use it as a place where I would provide sample problems for math. I would use it as a place where students would be able to ask questions when they are at home. A problem with that is that not all students will have computers or even the internet. I would try to use something else that would be more interactive for answering questions. Possibly a Google Doc or something where multiple students and the teacher could have a certain amount of time to ask questions.

In the Cool Cat Teacher Blog, Vicki Davis talked about how turning in papers could be done on a blog. I would think that would be interesting to do that for a class, but at the same time, like she stated, it would be difficult to make comments for the students. I like seeing the various comments where I need to fix a mistake on the paper.

I don't know if I would use a blog in the classroom, I would find it difficult with math.