Introducing the World of Blogging into the Mathematics Classroom
The whole idea of blogging is
completely new to me, so I believe that I would start on a small scale when
implementing the blog into my mathematics classrooms. Richardson (2010) suggests beginning simply
by posting homework assignments and relevant class links. I believe that this would be a good place to
begin, especially since I know that my students are not familiar with blogging either. As my students become more familiar with the
blogging process, I would like to see them begin to interact with my blog by responding
to my posts. One of my professional
goals is to increase my use of digital media tools in communicating and working
collaboratively with my students and their families (Laureate Education, Inc.,
2015). I would like my blog to be not
just a tool I use in my classroom, but a method of communication between myself
and my students and their families.
I
just began my 22nd year of teaching mathematics. I teach mostly 9th grade Algebra 1 and Honors
Algebra 1, but I also teach a section of PreCalculus and a section of Honors
PreCalculus to 11th and 12th graders. I believe
blogging is an excellent tool to use in any classroom because it incorporates
writing across the curriculum. I cannot
tell you the number of times I have heard a student question me when I ask them
to write a few sentences explaining how they got their answer. “You want me to WRITE in math class? That’s not fair!” I would like to use my blog to allow my
students to become more comfortable expressing themselves mathematically
through writing. McCune (2019) stated, “Writing
can, and should, be implemented across the discipline and blogs present an
effective way to get students writing and reading about mathematics in a
low-pressure setting” (p.151). I would
love to have my students read my blog and require that they post responses once
or twice a week. I believe that this may
entice my students that prefer to write over doing math. McCune (2019) believes that her students
appreciate blogging as a way to raise their mathematics grades without really
doing math. I want my students to grow as
a whole student – both mathematically and in other courses – and I believe introducing
blogging will allow them to accomplish this goal.
The International Society for Technology
in Education (ISTE) has standards for both educators and students. As an educator, I believe that two of the
most important ISTE standards that are met by blogging are being a Learner and Facilitator. As a Learner and Facilitator, I would be
trying to learn new things alongside my students as well as designing authentic
learning opportunities that accommodate various learning styles that correspond
with my course standards (ISTE, 2008).
For my students, I believe that two of the most important ISTE standards
that are met by blogging are being an Empowered Learner and a Digital
Citizen. As an Empowered Learner and Digital
Citizen, students will use technology to demonstrate their knowledge in a
variety of ways all while engaging in positive, safe, legal, and ethical
behavior (ISTE, 2016). As I become more
advanced in integrating technology into my classroom, my goal is to find a way
to meet every one of the ISTE standards for myself as an educator as well as
for my students.
References:
International Society for Technology in
Education (ISTE). (2016). Standards for students.
Retrieved
from https://www.iste.org/standards/for-students
International Society for Technology in
Education (ISTE). (2008). Standards for
educators.
Retrieved from https://www.iste.org/standards/for-educators
Laureate
Education, Inc. (2015). RWRCOEL Technology Proficiencies. Walden
University Blackboard.
https://class.waldenu.edu
McCune, L. (2019). Blogging and Self-Graded
Homework in Contemporary Problem
Solving. Primus: Problems, Resources
& Issues in Mathematics Undergraduate
Studies, 29(2), 138–154.
Richardson,
W. (2010). Blogs, wikis, podcasts, and other powerful web tools for
classrooms (3rd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA:
Corwin.
I am also a math teacher. I have taught eighth grade and ninth grade Algebra for eight years. I love your idea of using a blog to incorporate writing into your math curriculum. I see a similar response to students when we have writing involved in my class. One project that I have my students complete is creating word problems to match a given equation. This project allows my students to understand the idea of an unknown using creativity and the importance of proper grammar and punctuation. Students need to see more writing throughout math lessons.
ReplyDeleteSince this is a new concept to most students, how will you teach them how to express themselves mathematically? I can see a possible challenge in this blog if students do not know how to express their ideas properly and for others to understand. It can be challenging for students to take a conceptual idea and make it more abstract by going further into the concept and describing it in their own words. A way to overcome this challenge may be having discussions in class and modeling the appropriate response. Give students an example of a blog and have them make a response. Read their draft and make suggestions on creating a deeper response and growing their understanding of writing in a math class.
In order to help my students express themselves mathematically, I give them a simple writing prompt at the beginning of the school year as a preassessment to see where they are with their mathematically written expression. From there, I tend to do a good deal of modeling and share good examples and not so good examples of written mathematical expressions from my past years of teaching. I have found that the students enjoy this exercise and it helps them grasp a better understanding as to what I am looking for when they write in my mathematics class. I like your suggestion about specifically relating this to a blog post and response. I will try and incorporate that in my classroom. Thanks for sharing!
DeleteI too am a math teacher and I find that students struggle with reading the math specific text and agree that it would be beneficial to have students write about their own math more. If they could explain their thinking in their own words I think it would be easier for them to read about math strategies. I am also new to blogging and I like the idea of starting small and expanding the use of blogs. Perhaps you could create separate blogs. One would be for both families and students to communicate with you regarding scheduled assignments, links and resources and then another could be more math topic specific just between the students and you.
ReplyDeleteOne challenge you may encounter when trying to get students to write about math is that they do not know what to write. When you post a blog for them to respond to I think it would be helpful to give specific open ended prompts to give students a sort of outline to follow. At first they may feel more comfortable answering those types of prompts and then eventually you can drop the prompts and students will be able to respond to the topic on their own.
I really liked your idea of creating two separate blogs - one for the students and families and one for just the students and myself. I could also post questions of the day to the student/family blog that would help parents start a very specific conversation about what was learned in mathematics class that day and how it relates to the real work. I believe that this will help enrich the curriculum even more.
DeleteI love your idea about posting questions for families to ask the student to start a conversation about the math learned. I know that most conversations about how school went or what they did in school end with "it was fine" or "nothing". This is a great way to keep parents in the loop.
DeleteI am not a math teacher, but I do teach science! I feel that these two subject have a lot of the same challenges, especially when dealing with student frustrations. I teach eighth grade, and in my district many students do not get a complete "science experience" in elementary school. Therefore, they are shocked when they discover that real science does require quite a lot of writing and explanations. I think that it is vital as teachers in STEM for us to reinforce the importance of literacy skills in our field. I believe that using blogging as a platform for discussion definitely gives a more relevant and engaging way for students to develop and practice these skills. It also mimics the collaboration required amongst peers in a professional setting. For my students in 8th grade, and possibly even for your high school students, they may find it challenging to respond to a blog in a professional way. Many of my students still send me emails riddled with slang and acronyms. Therefore, I think it would be wise to provide students with some sort of sentence frame, or example of an adequate reply that they can model their own response after.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you that many students have difficulty expressing themselves when it come to the fields of mathematics and science. This is not the sort of writing that they are exposed to as they come up through the grade levels. I honestly just try and do a lot of modeling for them with good and not so good examples to try and get them to experience for themselves what expressing themselves mathematically should ultimately look like.
DeleteI am an English and Spanish teacher, and when students have to write out a paper or an assignment, it is easy to tell when students have copied from someone else, but in math class, I imagine it is a lot more difficult to identify plagiarism if the students are working with only numbers. If you make your students write out how they got to their answers, they have to use their own words, which I think would be useful in determining if they copied from a classmate. I had never thought of that, so that was new to me.
ReplyDeleteOne challenge that you may face as you implement blogs into your classroom is the availability of technology for your students. Even if you have a computer for each student at school, they may not have internet or a computer at home. One way to help your students is to look at reform in your district to start initiatives that highlight your students' needs.
References
Cathy Lewin, Diane Mavers & Bridget Somekh (2003) Broadening access to the curriculum through using technology to link home and school: a critical analysis of reforms intended to improve students' educational attainment, The Curriculum Journal, 14:1, 23-53, DOI: 10.1080/0958517032000055974
Kelly Hillman
DeleteIt can be difficult to have my students express in written form how they solved a problem mathematically. I try to model this extensively at the beginning of the school year. We are fortunate, as a district, to have one-to-one technology in the form of Chromebooks due to our district being 100% virtual because of COVID-19. This year was the first year that we are one-to-one and it was a great challenge in the past because, as an educator, you did know what technology was available for each of your students once they left the doors of the school building. We seem to be hanging in there so far - but each new day presents a new situation or challenge to overcome...
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