The majority of my teaching resources come from both
resource sharing with colleagues and my own developments which usually come
from online research. The Internet is
both a blessing and a beast when it comes to online research of best practices,
projects, and other classroom materials because of the incredible number of
results at my fingertips. It is sometimes overwhelming the amount of resources
that are available to teachers, but I find that more precise searching and my
own personal experience as a student help me narrow my focus a bit.
I am very close professionally with many of the math
department members in my school. I will look to these folks for support and to
help develop new ideas. I also feel that my district does a great job of
offering technology-based workshops for professional development. They
typically offer a variety of topic choices, support, and follow up. This not
only helps me research for new ideas, but actually implement them.
The biggest challenge in implementing new ideas and research
with my students is time. The math curriculum is packed and it leaves little
time for things that may take 2-3 class periods (note: we have 90 minute block
scheduling). If time were not a major hurdle, I believe I could offer more
discovery lessons, as well as alternative assessments. Class size, technology
constraints (especially at home), and demands of standardized tests are also
major challenges in my classroom.
