In my current position, I use technology in big ways with my students, so discussing integrating these four topics into my world is something I am passionate about. I am blessed to work in a district that is very forward thinking about applying technology in many ways at every level in our schools. We are challenged to find ways to integrate technology not just for the sake of using technology, but for the betterment of the education we offer our students!
I realize that variety is the spice of life, but there is something to be said for adding variety in ways that will still allow students to hold on to some continual thread throughout the curriculum. For me, this piece in my classroom is the continual spiraling of lessons as I tie one unit with the last and help the students find the building blocks of math. This may look like a familiar activity that we can add to as we transition out of one unit and into the next. For example, we are just wrapping up a long fractions unit and moving into our probability and outcomes unit. Students can feel like they are ready to tackle this new unit when we work through examples that they can relate to what we've just done with fractions rather than tossing all of that knowledge aside.
Incorporating rich media into my classroom has allowed me to differentiate my lessons for several learning styles and levels of learning. Students have an opportunity to hear my lesson, apply the lesson to the activities and examples we are working on, but some need that added support that rich media pieces offer. For example, when students have heard me teach a concept every way I can think of but still need something more, I can pull from an internet source to either show a video, have them practice with an interactive website, play a game that reinforces the concept, or follow a webquest to work through several levels of the concept.
My current favorite rich media is one I am using with my math intervention group. The website is Think Through Math and it is an amazing adaptive site. Students begin by taking an assessment based on the standards that I can select and the website then tailors a pathway for them to work through. Students pass through certain sections without remediation if it's not necessary and spend more time practicing concepts that they didn't score well on in their initial assessment. The website offers practice problems, explanations both verbal and visual, and video teaching if the student is still in need of more help to master the concept.
The bottom line is that in the field of education, using technology is no longer an option for a teacher to ponder. Students come to school having many experiences that we can tap into to further their education and technology allows us the most effective way to do that. I have included a graphic that can help us all to see the difference in how children navigate the media world and compare that to our school days. We've come a LONG way in a short amount of time