Technology Teaching Philosophy

Coming into teaching with technology class, I viewed technology in the classroom as

having an incredible potential to help students but outweighed by its ability to distract students. I

knew that it was a strong resource in classrooms, but I did not know how strong of a resource it

could be in a math classroom. I had personally never used technology in my math classrooms

besides a projector or doc cam. I figured that in a math classroom, technology would be way

more of a distraction than a useful resource. I strongly viewed pencil and paper as the most

effective resource for learning all things math related. After going through and learning different

tools, resources, and applets that can be used in a math classroom, my mindset has totally

changed. I now see the effectiveness of using technology in a math classroom and understand

how many different resources there are. GeoGebra and Desmos have so much exploration

potential that I did not know that they had. Having the students be able to interact with different

applets on the website will allow them to explore and make connections more effectively than a

lecture with notes may have been. I have learned about how important it is to let students explore

and make connections on their own rather than just giving them the answer. With pencil and

paper, it is incredibly difficult for students to do exploration on their own, and if they can, it is

incredibly time consuming. Building or finding an applet on GeoGebra or Desmos and allowing

the students to explore as you guide them and help them make connections is time effective and

more involved for the students. It is also way more interesting for students. Each generation

learns more and more about technology, so why not use something that students are proficient at

to help them learn math. Technology is something that I know I will use heavily in my

classroom. Which is something I did not think I would be saying at the start of this semester. I

know that I will use the applets in GeoGebra and Desmos to help my students learn and make
connections with new concepts. It will not be an everyday thing in my classroom, but it will be

something that I see myself using at least a few times every unit. Before I teach a certain topic I

will look to see if I can find any applets that I think would be effective in helping a student learn

that topic. Being able to pace students, take screenshots, pause the activity, and see student

responses with Desmos is why I will use it in my classroom. Being able to pause students and

take screenshots will allow me to provoke classroom discussions. I think having classroom

discussions in a math class is very important. A lot of times there are multiple ways to complete

or think about problems, so screenshotting students’ responses and having full class responses

will be something I will heavily utilize. Being able to keep the responses anonymous is also very

important. I know that students can get very shy or embarrassed with sharing their answers, so

keeping the responses anonymous as we discuss them will allow the students to be more

comfortable talking about their thinking without knowing who the response belongs to. Creating

applets in GeoGebra is also very intuitive and use friendly. Creating the applet for the Charlotte

Early College has helped me learn a lot about the utility of GeoGebra. There are a huge range of

functions in GeoGebra and I know that students will have a fun and useful time exploring applets

that I can create or find on GeoGebra. Technology is very helpful and useful in a math

classroom. This class has helped teach me how effective it can truly be; if it weren’t for this

class, I wouldn’t have the knowledge or demeanor about using technology tools in my classroom

that I do know. My classroom will be more hands on and interactive, as well as diverse because

of the tools that I have been introduced to in this class.