Incorporating technology into lessons is a great way to promote global awareness and provides diverse cultural perspectives. On day 1 as part of the anticipatory set a video will be shown to students, titled “Fractions are Everywhere”. This video displays images about how fractions are part of our everyday life and all around the world. This video is meant to be an attention grabber to get students interested in fractions. Fractions are part of everyday life and the more students can see that the better understanding they may have with fractions. Day 2’s lesson incorporates a choice board that was created by myself. The interactive board includes a wide variety of choices for students to choose from. Each student is to choose 2 or 3 activities from the board. The board has interactive fraction games and short videos to enhance students’ knowledge about fractions. The third technological aspect I added to my lesson is a recipe card creator. Students will use their computers to research cookie recipes from around the world. Students will be given a specific country to look at and use their computers to find cookie recipe that originates from that country. Students can then create a recipe card to calculate fractions of the ingredients needed for the recipe.
It is important to ensure that technology is being used appropriately during these lessons. The first video that is shown to students is controlled by the educator. The choice board already has links attached to the image that represents the activity choice. It is the responsibility of the educator to double check that each link goes to the appropriate web address. For the recipe card each student must research a country and find a recipe. The teacher will write on the board possible search words to help eliminate unwanted webpage searches. If a student has the country Germany, they may type in phrase such as “German cookie recipes”. Even when teachers do all they can to make sure students are being safe on the internet there are also safety apps teachers have access to while students are in school. The district in which I work at has an app called “GoGuardian”. When educators activate a class in GoGuardian students computer screens can be seen. Teachers are able to see what students are looking at, we have the capability to close a site or block certain webpages. This app helps ensure the safety of our students in the technological sense.
References:
Breerer, K. (2017, Feb. 20). Building Culturally Responsive Classrooms with Digital Content. Getting Smart. Gettingsmart.com. https://www.gettingsmart.com/2017/02/20/culturally-responsive-classrooms-digital-content/
Doughty, E. (2014, July 8). Fractions are Everywhere. Youtube.com. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yh6TD-IFLrk
Ferlazzo, L. (2020, December 17). Twelve Ways to Make Math More Culturally Responsive. Education Week. Edweek.org. https://www.edweek.org/teaching-learning/opinion-twelve-ways-to-make-math-more-culturally-responsive/2020/12
Fingal, J. (2021, Dec. 22). 4 Ways to Use Tech to Create a Culturally Responsive Classroom. ISTE.org. https://iste.org/blog/4-ways-to-use-tech-to-create-a-culturally-responsive-classroom