I had the honor of sharing about two big ideas that impact teaching and learning in my classroom at the NCTM Annual Conference back in April – formative assessment and technology integration. This pairing can give every student a voice, making “seeking” students who often “hide” right in front of us a priority. Giving value to every student’s thinking, both correct and incorrect, can change classroom culture to a place where mistakes truly ARE part of learning. Sharing this student thinking so that the students themselves can see it (anonymously most likely… at least at the start of the school year) helps involve students with instructional next-steps, eliminating that “deserted island in math class” feeling that I often experienced as a middle-school learner years ago.
For many of us, the first day of the 2017-18 school year has passed, or is upon us this week. Let’s continue the ShadowConversation (you see what I did there)! Check out Dan Meyer’s blog post for details.
