I contacted a tenured
High School Mathematics teacher from North Bergen High School, an urban school
in North Bergen, New Jersey. He teaches Algebra and Geometry classes
(9-12 Grades).
He was not familiar with NETS-S and NETS-T so I told him it constructs a pathway for the future digital age by implementing technology and digital resources in classrooms. Hearing this he said, “Technology is important to be integrated into a high school mathematics classroom--it’s used at least 75% of the time and I often encourage students to use graphing calculators and software in lessons and projects. The school receives some government funding so we are able to provide calculators to only higher level classes (Calculus, Pre-Calculus, Algebra II).”
However, after reading the standards from NETS-S, he was unsure if his usage of technology fulfills the standards and his curiosity led him to ask fellow colleagues if they were implementing NETS-S in their classroom.
According to him, the district of North Bergen has begun to implement the NETS-S but not all teachers have been informed about the standards that correlate with them. He mentioned that it is a slow process where there is a plan to create a team of teachers who will be responsible for working with subject-area teachers to coordinate the lesson plans with supporting technologies. His assumption as to why the process is slow is that it is difficult to provide equal technology use to all classrooms because of funding and infrastructure design--the classrooms are ill-equipped with modern capabilities.
I was not surprised by the teacher’s lack of exposure to the NET-S standards. It would be hard for the district to notify teachers about new standards when it takes years and infrastructure changes to implement. In his mathematics classroom, the usage of technology increases student productivity and accelerates the lesson but he finds that there is a lack of application exercises that will spur the logical growth of students as a community, what the NETS-S wants to promote. He suggested what is needed is a guide to teachers and administrators as to how they can properly support lessons by adding technology to the plan. These guidelines should include the entire school community, administrators and teachers, so they can provide the correct funding and training seminars.
I’ve learnt the main idea of the revised, 2007 NETS-S, is not the use of technology, but the action of using it as a tool to learn and develop. This is a big difference in what we have in most schools where technology is used as a source to provide visualizations and supplemental exercises but not promoted as a tool to help improve skills and understanding. I will promote the usage of NETS-s in my school and speak to others about it because it focuses on the individual responsibilities of teachers and students. In my mathematics classroom, technology will be used as a fun and innovative tool that will aid in student’s motivation and understanding individually and as a community.
He was not familiar with NETS-S and NETS-T so I told him it constructs a pathway for the future digital age by implementing technology and digital resources in classrooms. Hearing this he said, “Technology is important to be integrated into a high school mathematics classroom--it’s used at least 75% of the time and I often encourage students to use graphing calculators and software in lessons and projects. The school receives some government funding so we are able to provide calculators to only higher level classes (Calculus, Pre-Calculus, Algebra II).”
However, after reading the standards from NETS-S, he was unsure if his usage of technology fulfills the standards and his curiosity led him to ask fellow colleagues if they were implementing NETS-S in their classroom.
According to him, the district of North Bergen has begun to implement the NETS-S but not all teachers have been informed about the standards that correlate with them. He mentioned that it is a slow process where there is a plan to create a team of teachers who will be responsible for working with subject-area teachers to coordinate the lesson plans with supporting technologies. His assumption as to why the process is slow is that it is difficult to provide equal technology use to all classrooms because of funding and infrastructure design--the classrooms are ill-equipped with modern capabilities.
I was not surprised by the teacher’s lack of exposure to the NET-S standards. It would be hard for the district to notify teachers about new standards when it takes years and infrastructure changes to implement. In his mathematics classroom, the usage of technology increases student productivity and accelerates the lesson but he finds that there is a lack of application exercises that will spur the logical growth of students as a community, what the NETS-S wants to promote. He suggested what is needed is a guide to teachers and administrators as to how they can properly support lessons by adding technology to the plan. These guidelines should include the entire school community, administrators and teachers, so they can provide the correct funding and training seminars.
I’ve learnt the main idea of the revised, 2007 NETS-S, is not the use of technology, but the action of using it as a tool to learn and develop. This is a big difference in what we have in most schools where technology is used as a source to provide visualizations and supplemental exercises but not promoted as a tool to help improve skills and understanding. I will promote the usage of NETS-s in my school and speak to others about it because it focuses on the individual responsibilities of teachers and students. In my mathematics classroom, technology will be used as a fun and innovative tool that will aid in student’s motivation and understanding individually and as a community.
Ariel,
ReplyDeleteThe teacher I interviewed was actually familiar with the NET-S and tries to implement them into her lessons as much as possible. As the teacher you have contacted, she also sees the importance of technology in a classroom and believes it makes the lessons more meaningful. The district began to implement the standards in 2010, creating a 3 year plan to infuse technology into the classrooms. Therefore, as you have said, it is a slow process but I believe if teachers are exposed to the standards and recognize the importance of technology, it can be done.