Teach Science and Math Blog

http://www.teachscienceandmath.com/category/math/

This blog is for Science and Math Teachers with posts describing different ideas that teachers can use in their classroom. There are several postings with ideas about interactive math and science websites, mapping tools, problem solving strategies and virtual online conferences for eduactors.

I read an interesting article about using Twitter in Math class. I am not too familiar with Twitter, but from my understanding, I thought it was a universal blog where subscribers updated their information regularly. I initially thought that the idea of Twitter was unnecessary, as I thought it was more of a social tool, so I was interested to see how this might be used in the Mathematics classroom.

In this article, the author describes how teachers are often lost in their own words, rarely having time to collaborate with other teachers. With Twitter, teachers can collaborate with eachother across the United States as well as internationally. This article also describes how students can use Twitter to do geomatric spatial analyses of their classroom and compare them with other student classroom to determine which room has the most square footage.


Overall, I had a very good experience looking at Educational Blogs. I did not find the blogs that discussed Educational research as relevant to me as the blogs which discussed ideas that you could directly apply in the classroom. For these blogs (ones that discussed class activities), I was able to use these strategies in the classroom. Not only can you use the activities suggested, but the blogs can supply links to other websites and blogs which lead you to even more ideas you can use in the classroom. For example, one of the first blogs I read and wrote about was authored by a math teacher named Mr. Bill Lombard. I now check his website often and use many of his ideas and projects found on his website.

Classroom 2.0

http://www.classroom20.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=2.0

This weblog is an excellent resource for teachers who are interested in using Web 2.0 tools and technology in the classroom. Most postings to the blog discuss different ways in which teachers are using Web 2.0 tools in the classroom and their experiences.

I read an interesting blog titled "Math Pedagogy - Are we giving credit for what students can do?" I found this particulary interesting because I am now teaching integrated algebra to an advanced 8th grade class and sometimes I feel that the advanced learners are slowing down. I try to have extra problems for the early finishers to work on, but still feel that I can be pushing the advanced learners more. After speaking with other seasoned, advanced teachers they have all advised that learning how to juggle differentiated instruction is something that comes along with experience.

I was surprised to read that many teachers agreed with the title of the blog, saying that most teachers do "slow down" the advanced learner. The author of the blog references an article titled "Lebanon Schools turn Algebra in Child's Play" which describes how schools in Oregon are doing better on Math state assessment tests compared to other states with similar demographics. They described how students rarely use worksheets and how they are taught more visually using manipulatives.

Although I agree that manipulatives are easier for students to learn, I feel that as a first year teacher, I am more concentrated on the delivery of my lesson. When I feel comfortable with the flow of my lesson, I will then introduce more manipulatives.

Rational Mathematics Education

http://rationalmathed.blogspot.com/

This blog has a series of posting discussing information about mathematics education. Each posting describes an article regarding current issues about mathematics education.

March 13th's posting is regarding an article titled "Mind the Gap" which discusses the fact that undergraduate calculus and advanced mathematics enrollments has dropped dropped from 10.5% in 1985 to 6.36% in 2005. In respsonse to these staggering numbers, a professor from Teikyo Post University argues that the reason for this is the poor teaching in K-12. The professor claims that since students are poorly taught in school K-12, they are coming into college failing their first math course, there for not enrolling in an higher level courses.

This blog is helpful to me as a new teacher because I was able to read about broader issues involving mathematics education. Other blogs that I have read only discussed activities and situations that could only be applied to the classroom directly. With this blog, and this post in particular, I was able to learn the importance of my teaching in the greater scope of mathematics education.

Mathematics Education Research Blog

This blog is created by an associate professor at a university and dedicated to Mathematics education research.

There are many postings discussing the various studies regarding Mathematics education. These studies often take place in foreign settings such as Nigeria in the most recent posting (4/2/09). Most postings refer to a scholarly article.

The most interesting article to me was titled "Students' experiences with Mathematics teaching and learning". This blog intrigued me because I have always been interested in the different classroom environmental factors that affect student learning. In this article, students were interviewed to gain better insight on what they valued as success in their mathematics classes. I also found it interesting that language was considered the biggest barrier to learning mathematics. I have always made an effort to go over mathematical language in the beginning og every lesson, but I will make more of an effort based on the results of this article.