Professional Activity Report

            I went to Belgrade, MT on October 18 to the 2013 MEA-MFT Educator’s Conference. As a pre-service teacher who has never been to this conference, I wasn’t sure what to expect for the day other than having lots of fun doing math and hearing teachers talk about math. I went to a handful of presentations and the two that stood out were about a Bozeman High School teacher flipping a classroom and how to use iPad Apps within the classroom. I also got the chance to hear the past president of NCTM in his keynote speech, which was very encouraging to hear the struggles and joys of being a math teacher.

            The advanced math teacher that teaches calculus at Bozeman High School did “the flip”. He flipped his classroom by having his students learn most of desired information and mathematics outside of class and then doing their practice (homework) in the classroom. He was in a perfect spot to do this flip of the classroom because he has an AP Calculus class and a classroom set of laptops. His students and the parents of the students were resistant at first towards this new method but with support from his administration, he moved forward with his attempt. By the second year, the math teacher molded his classroom to have some mini-lectures to address ideas that are not being learned correctly.

            I learned a lot about adapting new methods within a classroom especially methods that are a bit controversial and not a proven affective method. As a teacher that is always searching for the best methods to teach a content, unit, or concept, I need to learn that trying these methods in the classroom has the potential to fail. By considering all aspects of the new method and seeing if it would fit with a particular class of students would give the method more of a chance to succeed in the classroom. The Calculus teacher who flipped his classroom had been teaching his class with the same main method for more than ten years and finally got the courage to try this new method. I also realized how important to have one’s administration behind you when making large changes in the classroom that might go a bit against the typical pedagogy in the content at that time. Another thing that I learned while listening to the presentation was how important it is to rejoice with teachers who have success in their classroom and resist the urge to down size their success or comparing my classroom with theirs. Teacher to teacher relationships are very important in the schools because in these relationships is where I will find support, encouragement, advice, and many other beneficial aspects towards teaching.

            The second presentation I would like to talk about is implementing iPads in the classroom and which applications are appropriate to do this. The presenter gave lots of suggestions of applications and many of them were a bit too low of a level for my students that I will be teaching in the future. With this said, she did give many apps that are perfect for middle school students who are struggling with different areas in math.
            The presentation got me to thinking about what roles iPads and ultimately technology can have within my classroom. I feel like having the iPads with these specific math apps will aid review of a subject for my students and provide more practice for students who are having difficulty with basic math skills. Encouraging students to play these games will help improve mental math skills, fractional knowledge, and numeracy in general. I volunteer at a high school at my church and there were students playing on their iPhones continually. Noticing this, I pulled out my iPad and began to play one of my math applications that have to do with geometry. I started talking to the students about how the game was so addicting and that I needed help getting past a certain level. Within five minutes all of the students were huddled around my iPad and we were discussing whether or not different shaped objects could have the same area. This wasn’t even at school! I realized how much iPads, technology, could be used as a supplementary learning means within the math class.

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