Assignment #3 - My Passion and Technology

One of the reasons that I signed up for the Learning and Technology course was for the purpose of using technology effectively in the classroom. My choice of the word "effective" is for the reason that I want students to create a better understanding of content area by being able to see, interact, and archive concepts. I have seen many classrooms with SmartBoards, document cameras, laptops, iTouches, but the teacher is just using the technology, but they are not enhancing the students knowledge because they are just using the smart-board like a white board, the document camera like an overhead projector, and the laptops are just used for word processing!
 It is my passion that I use technology in the Math classroom due to the ability for students to visual see mathematical concepts, they can interact with a manipulative, and they identify their own misconception through project based learning. I want to know how to create my own "teacher made" materials online (such as an interactive inequality graph) and I want to be able to use technology to communicate with my students.

Why I am passionate about mathematics is not just because I like math, but because as a student, I really struggled with math. However after using math in the real world, and in business, my passion for math drove me to show others of its fun loving nature. I have seen many family members, peers, students, and strangers who at an older age began to fear math because they did not think they were good at it, they didn't like a teacher, or they never fully understood a purpose for using math. My thesis is focusing on the motivation of middle school mathematic students. When conversing with my family, peers, students and strangers I asked them when their passion and curiosity for math changed, and a majority of them said if was in Middle School. This defining time in a students life should be filled with curiosity, not hatred. I think that by using technology students may SEE and make connections with math because they are not just doing a "plug and chug" technique, but hopefully they can play, question, and see the effect of mathematics with real world applications. Also hopefully they can communicate with each other and create a classroom of learners rather than just a classroom of competing individuals.

I hope my passion comes through in the work that I do, and I am quiet excited to see what information this class provides me with so that I can use it in my own classroom soon.