Chapter 13 Response

I liked this video. One because it was about math and that's what i'm going to teach, and two because it incorporated technology. The students all got into groups in order to figure out a certain word problem the teacher gave them. They all got plenty of time to work on the problem and when they were finished the teacher had the groups present their information, even though every group's answer, except one, was wrong. I liked that the teacher didn't really worry about the right or wrong answer because so many teachers focus on write or wrong rather than what strategies the student takes to get to the answer. As the students presented, each group got to choose whether they used the SMARTboard or the docucamera. I feel as though this presentation wouldn't have been very effective without these two pieces of technology because it would've been hard for the presenters to show the rest of the class how they solved their problem by just telling them what they did. The equipment helps the students see the visual picture and this helps out the rest of the class by not only seeing the visual picture, but also the auditory learning by listening to what the presenters are saying while looking at the picture. I am a visual learner and like to see things drawn out for me in order for me to fully grasp a concept and the equipment helps students like me understand better as well. The presentations of the groups could've worked without the equipment, but wouldn't have been very useful for the students because then they wouldn't know what the group was talking about. So in the end, the teacher took full advantage of the technology in her class and the students loved working with them. They said that it makes learning more fun and that students are more likely to pay attention when someone is using a SMARTboard rather than just on a chalk/dry erase board.