Catholic DSB of Eastern Ontario 2013-14

The Catholic District School Board of Eastern Ontario plans to align the Learning Connections project with our overall BIPSA question of: “How does a collaborative inquiry inform student thinking and learning?” As teachers, we need to be making visible connections between data collection, student thinking and achievement, and the inquiry process. We need to ask questions to extend our student thinking and we need to use technology to enhance student learning. Our Learning Connections project will focus on the use of technology in mathematics; with a specific focus on “What does good mathematics communication look like?” We will incorporate the use of technology into a variety of classrooms across the board. Teachers will use different technologies that will engage our 21st century learners, and bring their understanding of the big ideas in mathematics to a new level. Research shows that students who enjoy and like mathematics are more likely to meet the provincial standard on the EQAO mathematics assessment (EQAO, May 2012). With that being said, our goal is to make the learning of mathematics enjoyable and meaningful.

Technology is way to engage our students and will be a new avenue in which they can communicate their mathematical thinking. Our team will co-plan, co-teach and co-debrief throughout the remainder of the year. We will use Teacher Professional Learning Cycle to incorporate the use technology in our classrooms so our students can collaboratively answer varying levels of mathematical inquiry questions. By using a variety of technologies in our classrooms, the eventual hope is that students engagement will promote effective communication as well as debrief student learning across the board in a class to class (or school to school) fashion. The use of SmartBoards, iPads and video conferencing programs are a few of the forms of technology that we intend to use throughout the project.

CDSBEO - LC Project 2013-2014 Video

Project Presentation & Notes

Check out our Blog – http://mathmeetstech.wordpress.com

Animoto Presentation can be found at: http://animoto.com/play/NyaR1ERrchDFyr7AYs7vVA

Introduction

• This year our board is focusing on student voice in mathematics.
• We decided to follow the same goal, but this time look at how technology can increase student communication in mathematics. (We learned that while technology is engaging, it might not necessarily be the thing that gets our students talking more in mathematics. Providing our students with rich math tasks is the key to getting our students communicating in mathematics. Technology was a means of delivery, a tool to engage and to capture student voice).

Professional Development

• We started looking at what effective communication looks like in mathematics
• We looked at monographs, videos from Cathy Bruce and Lucy West that focused on Math Talk Guidelines and Math Talk Moves
• Board approach using Accountable Talk (for all areas of the curriculum, but we looked at how we could specifically use this in math)
• We started my reflecting on how we could bring technology into the Consolidation component of the lesson.
• Look for this reflection on: http://mathmeetstech.wordpress.com

EduCreations

• Overall, this recordable, interactive whiteboard was a great way to get excited about the different ways we can use technology in mathematics.
• We used this in a variety of ways, and was our initial use and focus
• Students had choice and used the program over paper and pencil activities
• It was used in Individual situations, paired and small group
• We found more conversation came out of a paired setting
• You don’t need every group to have an iPad; maybe just a couple more

Tinker Plots

• Tinkerplots allows you to sort and isolate and analyze data in multiple ways that is very eye opening to the students.
• The conversation focusing on the interpretation of the data was richer than anything my class had when we were using graph paper

Lync and Google Hangout

• A couple of schools in our board did a couple of 3-part lessons together
• Teachers in two different towns, about 45 minutes away, launched the lesson together, students asked questions as a whole group, then they were paired up with students in their class
• The classes linked up in the consolidation where they shared and discussed a couple of key solutions
• There are web-based options for this as well (appear.in and join.me)

iMovie/Video Record

• We felt that just by recording portions of the lesson using any video camera provided the opportunity to reflect professionally on how we “question” our students in the classroom
• Capturing and highlighting students in an iMovie was to build efficacy and confidence in student learning.

Next Steps

• Continue with the project, looking at new ways to incorporate technology
• Connect with more schools across the board using Lync
• Possibly CONNECT with another board doing something similar with mathematics and technology