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.
Laura,
ReplyDeleteColleagues are great when looking for new resources or methods. Having a good relationship with your teaching team is key, and it's good to see that you have that kind of relationship within the math department. Being able to bounce ideas off each other and to discuss pros and cons professionally is very helpful when trying out something new.
As you stated, time constraints seem to always be a hurdle when trying to implement something new that can better help our students. Whether it is other responsibilities that fall on us as classroom teachers or simply not enough hours in a day to sort through the plethora of resources available, there is just never seems to be enough time to do all of the things that we as great educators know would be beneficial to our students. And imagine the time we would have added into our working time each day if we didn't have to stress about standardized testing and all the data that comes with it!
Nice first post! I look forward to working with you this semester.
Kevin
Laura,
ReplyDeleteAre you familiar with the blog and work of Dan Meyer?
http://blog.mrmeyer.com/
Sorry for the late reply, but I wanted to say thanks for the link! I have not checked it out, but will do so this week. Thanks again!
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