Math and Learning from Students

I have been struggling this year as a math and science teacher to implement technology as much as possible.  I decided to reevaluate the technology use and find ways to use technology WELL instead of using technology OFTEN.  The reason I say this is I can find a lot of ways to substitute the technology into my instruction for both math and science, but I want create opportunities that lets me learn more about students' understanding, thinking and learning.

Jennie Magiera and Anita Huffman are both guiding forces in my implementation and I look to them often, especially since they both have used technology in the math classroom.  I have followed their sage advice and have set my courses up in Schoology for easy workflow with students.  I have also used Doceri app for students to screencast their thinking with problem solving.  This week, I had students show how to use the partial sums and column addition algorithms.  I LOVE being able to see my students work and solve problems, as well as having the feature of "comments" on the video they upload to give them quick feedback.  In the video below you can see the students makes a mistake but then corrects it!

One area of focus a team of math teachers at my school has been working around is CCSS Standards of Mathematical Practice 1.  The big idea of "does this make sense" and did I explain the "why" problem solving is missing from a majority of students work currently.  I create a rubric to help assess what students are submitting.  But I believe I need to model more explicitly for them these two big ideas.

I am hoping that with modeling, the rubric and more practice my students will continue to grow with their problem solving skills. As I work in each unit of the math curriculum I am finding new ways to implement technology tools in a thoughtful way.