Task 1-1- educ 533- Best Practices Research

 After doing some research I felt like Engaging the student and relevant learning were the most crucial. I think that both of these can be met by integrating the curriculum. As I stated on my google shared sheet, Math is apart of everything; shopping for clothes (finding percentages off), grocery shopping (fruits per pound), and more importantly ART! Griding, proportions, scale, lighting, perspective, calculations, color mixing etc... Why learn math if it has no meaning to your life? This is why integrating the curriculum is vital.

The majority of sites I visited regarding best practices instruction all include technology, perhaps I didn't expand my research enough but this was upsetting. I feel like all these articles are saying oh man direct instruction is killing students attitudes regarding math, which I agree. But their answer is, spice it up with technology. Although this can be an effective learning tool I feel that this is only adding to the problem. To me, the problem is how we go about teaching. If you are implementing a boring lesson plan than your use of technology will also more often then not be boring.  Some articles really stressed asking other teachers their methods and trying to find what works and building/ taking upon their ideas. Its not stealing when our primary goal is to educate students. I like this. Currently I am doing this at my student teaching site. I am stealing ideas that I like from various teachers, to create what I hope to be the most effective learning style for my class.  Again I am going to stress that technology is NOT the answer. In class activities, projects, real life examples, all of these can be engaging and effective, and I hope to learn more of these hands on construction possibilities in this class.

http://www.mlms.loganschools.org/wested_docs/west_research.htm
http://ozpk.tripod.com/00best
http://www.ctserc.org/s/index.php?option=com_content&view=section&id=8&Itemid=28
http://www.ttms.org/best_practice/best_practice.htm
http://www.tltguide.ccsd.k12.co.us/instructional_tools/Strategies/Strategies.html