Technology Works in the Classroom

This Week with Sara Fitts is looking at technology in the classroom this week.  In a very short time the climate in most high schools has changed from "no cell phones" in sight to "take your cell phones out" for this class discussion.  And I, for one, am pleased that the tide has changed - or at least is changing.  

I love technology and use it in planning my lessons - and have for the past several years (such as the then-available technology was!) and am so pleased that teachers have so many options available to them for creating exciting lessons.

The first time I allowed texting in class was a few years ago and I used the site Poll Everywhere (http://www.polleverywhere.com) to engage Algebra 2 students in the daily bell work problem.  Poll Everywhere allows teachers to use texting for polling in class.  Students are able to text their responses to the problem (in my case) and the teacher can use this information as a quick assessment of where the students are with respect to the lesson.  The students really enjoyed this site and were much more enthusiastic in their responses to the bell work problems.

Another site that has great benefit for teachers as well as students and parents is Remind (http://www.remind.com).  This site provides access for teachers to text students and/or parents with reminders about homework, quizzes, test, projects, or grades.  And the best part of this is that no one has to share phone numbers!  

These are only two sources for excellent use of technology in just about every classroom in this country.  And there are many, many more - which I will explore in later posts.  Technology works in the classroom.  I firmly believe we should be using it more and more for teaching and learning.

Sara Fitts is a retired educator with 24 years in public education as a math teacher, administrator, and instructional coach.  Since 2000 she has owned SLF Consulting and has assisted numerous clients in being admitted to many major colleges and universities - including UMass, Brown, UCLA, University of Tennessee, and Virginia Tech, to name a few.  She was named Manassas Park High School's Educator of the Year in 2014.  SLF Consulting provides academic and instructional coaching, math tutorials, and SAT prep.