How Are You Incorporating Technology In Your Teaching?
Throughout my time as a maths trainee on the PGCE route, I have received lots of information about the different issues teachers are facing at this moment. One of the more prevalent ones has been how teachers have been able to incorporate technology into their classrooms. During my placements at two schools, I have been lucky enough to experiment with various technologies.
At my main placement, the Year 7s have all been given Chromebooks to make life easier and promote the use of technology. Each new year group will be given a similar piece of technology, with the goal of all students within the school having their own device for schoolwork within a few years. Having always enjoyed any lessons involving technology when I was a student, it was music to my ears to hear that I would get the chance to try things from a teacher’s perspective. Pupils love it, since they use technology outside of the classroom all the time, and I love it too.
One of the first habits I got into with this class was to use the Google Classroom set up by the main class teacher. This enabled me to simply attach worksheets for ease of access, rather than having to print 31 copies every time. In a world where we are constantly pushed to be greener, this is a nice luxury to have.
Also with this class, I was guided by other teachers towards https://whiteboard.fi/ - an online mini whiteboard which my school have paid for access to. Mini whiteboards are fantastic. I have used them whenever possible as a tool to assess how every student in the class is doing, rather than just one at a time. Using this website, I have been able to streamline this process, allowing me to view all their boards on my screen, draw on their screens, use mathematical formulae, graphing tools, and more!
At my second placement, I have been able to teach a small lower set class of 3-7 students depending on the day. A challenge I have faced has been keeping these students engaged. Being able to get up out of their seats and move has been a great way to keep their minds focused and brains thinking. A solution which has gone down well with the students and teachers observing me alike has been using SMART Notebook’s drag and drop features to get students to categorise different examples and non-examples. I have used this as an assessment for learning tool whilst teaching standard form and Venn diagrams, and will endeavour to use this more to engage students and catch misconceptions.
Technology will only ever get better. Embracing it during your training year, where you have time and space to experiment, will be invaluable to the rest of your career.
By Ben Shailes
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