My passion has not only been about teaching math, but about how to help math teachers become better (and frankly happier) at what they do.
Change can be a scary thing in the classroom. It can disrupt classroom dynamics, teachers must constantly adjust to new situations, and heaven forbid any administrator or other teacher drop in to your class when you are trying something new! It looks like chaos and observers often jump to wrong conclusions.
So, how does a teacher take that first step? It's scary...especially if you think you are all alone. But you aren't! Start talking within your own department to see if someone wants to join you in trying new things. No takers? Then start reading websites and blogs to find someone like-minded. Try a few activities...then comment on how they turned out. The ideal is for teachers to hold hands and jump! That might be in person or virtually. Combining forces with someone else means you'll go more than twice as fast and have more than twice the fun. Ivan Cheng from Cal State Northridge suggests this video for seeing where good ideas come from. (Thanks Ivan!)
Now, go find someone. Ask a colleague to view the video and see if they want to try. Sign up for twitter and just see what people are talking about. You don't need to post...lurking is fine. Type in "virtual file cabinet math" to a search engine and you will be amazed at your opportunities. Then give it a try...don't expect immediate success. Our goal is to create lifelong learners and to do that, we have to be that ourselves.
Change can be a scary thing in the classroom. It can disrupt classroom dynamics, teachers must constantly adjust to new situations, and heaven forbid any administrator or other teacher drop in to your class when you are trying something new! It looks like chaos and observers often jump to wrong conclusions.
So, how does a teacher take that first step? It's scary...especially if you think you are all alone. But you aren't! Start talking within your own department to see if someone wants to join you in trying new things. No takers? Then start reading websites and blogs to find someone like-minded. Try a few activities...then comment on how they turned out. The ideal is for teachers to hold hands and jump! That might be in person or virtually. Combining forces with someone else means you'll go more than twice as fast and have more than twice the fun. Ivan Cheng from Cal State Northridge suggests this video for seeing where good ideas come from. (Thanks Ivan!)
Now, go find someone. Ask a colleague to view the video and see if they want to try. Sign up for twitter and just see what people are talking about. You don't need to post...lurking is fine. Type in "virtual file cabinet math" to a search engine and you will be amazed at your opportunities. Then give it a try...don't expect immediate success. Our goal is to create lifelong learners and to do that, we have to be that ourselves.
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