I am a believer in the power of social networking for teachers. Don’t get me wrong. I am not media savy and not even a tech junkie. But this new “hobby” can be very addictive if you are one of those teachers who want to keep up with the latest in their field from new teaching ideas, tools, virtual tools, apps, to organizational miracles meant to get rid of the paper clutter in which we can get trapped at times.

So, I thought I would share my new online discoveries and start a conversation about how they might apply to the math classroom:

Pintrest: Defined as an online pinboard, it allows people to create boards of “interests” and “pin” websites, ideas and images just as they would on a cork board. If you search “mathematics”  for instance you might feel like a kid in a candy store. You can be spending hours on end browsing from the ever increasing ocean of interests and picking the ones you have. As well, you get to add websites, pictures and start conversations around your interests with people who share them. You might also decide to follow them. Great opportunity to connect and network with other professionals.

How could this be used in a math class? Well, you can definitely use them as conversations starters during the “minds on”/warm up part of the lesson. With students old enough to get a Facebook account legally teachers might try to engage students into mathematical conversations around everything “mathematical” about our world. And what is NOT mathematical about it? Any other ideas?

KIDBLOG. I am a big fan of this site for blogging. It is absolutely safe for kids and teachers to use. I have used kidblog as a vehicle to engage students in math conversations with me and with each other for over two years now. I still use it in a very controlled way: that is I assign a mathematical question, usually a question that is rich enough that will allow for level 4 solutions ( yes, and a multitude of possibilities to answer it) and not only for the level 3 ones. I also prefer reflections or questions that invite students to generalize, conceptualize or hypothesize. Spontaneous blogging on an idea has been noticed in some students but I do invite and welcome question/problem posing and sharing of mathematical resources. During this “journey” students are asked to post, read at least two posts and reply to them though a constructive, descriptive feedback. Consequently, the recipients must respond to the comments and try to act on the feedback.

This activity has beed incredibly successful for me and is welcome by students and parents alike. First, students love engaging in conversation with each other beyond school hours ( I know, nothing new here) but why not providing them with a forum and a channeled conversation to do so? The result? Pages of conversation on Pascal’s triangle or a graph that needed interpretation. Additionally, most students have become fluent in the language of “mathematics” and they try to increasingly refine the way in which they communicate their ideas to avoid ambiguity or misinterpretations. Communication is a tool in math. Last, but not least, it has strengthened the ties that existed between students. Learning is done through collaboration and support from peers and their teachers. This is an electronic math portfolio. I have meaningful conversations with parents who see the work done on kidblog and the improvement it leads to.

Parents enjoy seeing that the time spent by their children socializing online is dedicated to mathematical conversations and can monitor their children learning.

Downfalls:

1. It requires a lot of time and commitment from teachers at least initially. Teachers must respond to every post and model the way students should do this. We want them to refer to the success criteria discussed in class, we must model this for them.

2. Online conduct and respect for intellectual property – also needs to be modelled. Maintaining a positive tone and one that is meant to construct not to ‘damage” is essential. If anyone seems out of line you can talk to them and definitely, if it is to late for them to edit the reply you may delete such comment.

Check my classes’ blogs:

www.kidblog.org/MrsCiobanus6dclass/

www.kidblog.org.MsCiobanus6bclass/

and my last year’s blog: www.kidblog.org/MsCiobanus6dclass/

Photo Credit: Giulia Forsythe via Compfight studentsI have discovered that the

 

Photo Credit: vaXzine via Compfight