Week 12 Mentoring Project Data Analysis #Etlead

Amber Hanson

#Etlead

Week 12

What are you finding as you analyze the data related to your Mentor Project?

My mentoring project this past quarter has been to mentor a fellow co-worker in the incorporation of technology-based tools within her math class. Prior to this experience this teacher’s only inclusion of technology for math-was using the document camera.  One tool in which we put the majority of our focus on, was the already existent presentation and manipulative tools provided online for her math curriculum Envision. We chose to include this type of technology as we both understood that “technologies can give visual representations to higher-order concepts [and] use graphics and simulations to link mathematical concepts to real-world applications”(Ranasinghe & Leisher, 2009, p1958). We believe that the by incorporation the presentations and manipulatives located on the Pearson Envision website we will better able to help students reach these higher order thinking skills, as well as increase overall engagement and students learning.

We began this project on September 30^th.  At this time I aided in signing my mentee up for a teacher account online.  From there I gave her a brief tour of the site, and helped her add students to her online “class”. During this meeting we focused on where to find the presentations and how they lessons should be used.  I also briefly introduced her to the manipulative tools (Tools4Math). 

After this initial meeting it was obvious she was a bit overwhelmed.  As a result we made a goal for her to just look around the site on her own time and to just play with the program.  In our next meeting her anxiety was greatly lessoned and therefore we began the implementation. 

Throughout the following weeks we collected data in a variety of ways.  The mentee was asked to keep a journal in which she would indicate how comfortable she felt with the technology, what new things she’s tried recently, what worked well, what didn’t, how engaged she felt the students were, and how she thinks the presentations impacted students learning. 

In reviewing my mentee’s journal, it was evident that with the more practice she got using the program, the more comfortable she seemed to be with using it.  Although initially she mentioned she might not use the online test generator, as of two weeks ago she has finally given it a chance.  And you know what?  She LOVES it!  She also found that by letting students take these tests online, which just having a sheet of scratch paper students groaned less about tests days, and actually expressed a strong interest in taking tests this way from now on.  This definitely comes as a nice surprise, as we all know state testing will soon be done this way as well!  My mentee also expressed that she felt students were engaged much more, as she felt the short video clips, animations, and manipulative tools added a much-needed dimension to her otherwise technology-absent math instruction.  One negative, in which she encountered a few times throughout this quarter, was the speed of our Internet.  I was able to help fix this by gaining access to the interactive DVD’s there were included with the program.  Although this did include more of what the site has to offer, it doesn’t include everything.  But having these DVD’s were a pretty solid back up plan for when things went south.

The mentee also indicated that the tools were easy to use on the program and as a result, she felt that she was using them more.  She relied lesson on having students do worksheet and textbook work, and more on letting them actually interact with the program.  With that she also began using other tools within her classroom to keep students engaged.  Although not technology based, she did start using whiteboards as a means for students to respond to problems on the board.  In particular, during the guided practice section the teacher would display each problem; have students attempt to work it out on their white boards, and then review the problem as a whole on the Smart Board.  Doing this helped keep students engaged with the lesson, as well as lesson the amount of worksheet and textbook needed.

I also kept a journal.  This journal was used primarily to write down observations when I visited her classroom, as well as the level of student’s engagement that was observed. The log in which I recorded this was one where I would observe each student for 5 seconds at a time, and quickly mark either a plus or a negative indicating whether the student appeared to be engaged or not.  I would do this for each student, several times in the span of 10mins.  I conducted this type of observation at least 2 times a week.  The other visits were primarily to record how my mentee was using the program and what tools she was using.  Throughout my observations I took note that as my mentee grew more confident in the program, the more animated and excited she got during each lesson.  As a result I believe student engagement was deeply effected. 

In addition to our journal entries, we felt that we would also benefit from having the students directly involved.  Weekly we had students fill out a survey that asked the same 5 questions.  These questions included:

       1.       Do you like being that math is being taught through the Smart Board?

       2.       What, if anything do you like about lessons being taught this way?

       3.       What might make learning math more fun or meaningful to you?

From the get-go we received unanimous positive feedback from the students. Out of the entire 26 students (13 from each math class taught), we had only received 4 “no’s” to question number one!  When asking students what they enjoyed about having lessons being taught using these presentations students responded with things such as:

§  “I like that it doesn’t feel like the teacher is always talking”

§  “I like that we can go up and move things on the board”

§  “The problem at the beginning helps me understand what we’re learning”

§  “It’s better than having to do worksheets all the time”

Responses to question number 3 “What might make learning math more fun or meaningful to you?” although mostly answer with something such as “nothing”, or “it is fun”, often ended up being one of the most useful in indicating what direction the teacher decided to go to next.  One response given was simply “I wish we could try the problems out ourselves when we’re learning them”.  When the mentee initially introduced the presentations, she was conducting the guided practice whole group.  As a result we were noticing that not all students were engaged, and at times only a few individuals actually participated in giving the answers.  Although we both saw this, we weren’t sure how students felt about it.  Therefore when we read this response, it was a settled, we needed to make a change, and we knew that more worksheets or textbook work would not be the route we would take.  In the weeks that followed this change we noticed that engagement levels rose again and it was obvious that students really enjoying the lesson and learning more. 

Overall I believe that my mentee’s math class was positively impacted by the integration of technology.  Her student’s engagement has definitely increased, which in turn has impacted their learning in a positive way. She learned that although she was comfortable with the way she was teaching before (as this was the way she was taught), she ultimately knew her students were bored with it.  It was time for a change. She understands now that “it’s important for kids to be engaged, and it’s important for us to change with the times” (Smith, 2008). When asked if she would ever go back to teaching math the way she did before her answer was simple “no way”.

Resources

Ranasinghe, A., Leisher, D. (2009). The benefit of integrating technology into the classroom. International Mathematical Forum. 4, 2009, no. 40, 1955 – 1961. Retrieved from http://www.m-hikari.com/imf-password2009/37-40-2009/ranasingheIMF37-40-2009.pdf

Smith, L. 2008. Winning equation: How technology can help save math education. edutopia. Retrieved from http://www.edutopia.org/technology-math-education.

       www.pearsonsuccessnet.com

https://www.pearsonsuccessnet.com/ua/sf/Teacher/SuccessNet_GettingStartedGuide_27Feb2009.pdf

http://www.mypearsontraining.com/products/envisionmath/2011/tutorials.asp

http://www.mypearsontraining.com/pdfs/CCSS_brochure.pdf

http://www.mypearsontraining.com/products/envisionmath/2011/tutorials.asp?page=faqs

http://nlvm.usu.edu/en/nav/vlibrary.html

       http://illuminations.nctm.org/