The Math Coach

This post will review a few videos and articles pertaining to 21st Century Skills that students need to be successful.  Take the time to watch the two videos and read the articles before scrolling down to my opinion on these resources. Preparing Students for Jobs That Don't Exist Yet My takeaway from these five resources is this: the educational model in which we grew up in and were taught in our undergraduate education courses is outdated when it comes to preparing students for the 21st century.  The central theme here is that schools need to be cultivating students so-called "soft skills", and technology can be a great tool at achieving this.  I agree with this theme and I want to be doing more to incorporate technology and 21st century skill building into my curriculum.  One way I incorporate these skill is by making all of my graphing topics more exploratory in nature using online graphing technology such as Desmos.  Students discover how

My goal is to continue with this blog even though my Connected Educator class has ended.  As we approach basketball season, I want to start adding coaching elements to my posts so that the name "The Math Coach" actually makes sense.  This class has fantastic and I have learned so much over the last seven weeks.  All of my classes so far from Baker have been applicable to my field but I feel like I've added the most to my educator toolbox from this class.  From tools such as Adobe Spark, to communication strategies through social media, The Connected Educator has really lived up to its name by connecting me to all of the resources out there for teachers in today's digital world.  For my final project this week, I decided to create a how-to video over one tool I found from this class, EquatIO.  Specifically, I focused on how Google Docs, Slides, Forms, and Sheets can all be paired with EquatIO to create new ways to practice math problems.  That video is below and I hope

This week really challenged my beliefs on social media in the classroom.  I have always steered clear of using it both in my personal and professional life because I've seen some of the horror stories out there.  I've also seen some of the stories showing negative consequences of students being on social media, which is another reason I've stayed away from using it in my classroom.  However, I do recognize the potential benefits it could have in regards to communication with parents, students, and members of the community.  Also, many articles pointed out that it is our job as teachers to model appropriate social media use to our students.  Trying to keep an open mind, I looked up ways I could start doing this myself and for this weeks assignment I made an Adobe Spark video. I'm not sure how much social media I'll introduce into my classroom this semester, but I do realize it's something I need to be thinking about going forward.  For now, I'll continue