Great fun with NIU Math Education Students

Today I had the privilege of working with Northern Illinois University Math Education preservice students. These students are observing and working with teachers and students in middle school and high school math classes. They will soon be engaged in full-time student teaching.

What an outstanding bunch of energetic and enthusiastic young adults! We had a great time working with SMART Notebook Collaborative Learning software and learning best practices for integrating this great tool into the math classroom. Stress not just how to do something on the SMART board, but ask why do it and how does it help students learn.

Their NIU teachers/coordinators are Mrs. Renee Olsen and Mrs. Bonnie Kersten. You could not ask for two more dedicated and excellent instructors. I taught with both of them in my tenure at DeKalb High School and always admired their passion for teaching and their skill at getting the best from their high school students. I can see this is what they now are doing at NIU.

What an opportunity these new teachers will have in classrooms - today and tomorrow. Technology in students' hands can do so much to make learning relevant and powerful, while giving teachers  responsibility to address that power and make it productive. Here are some web sites that might help you get started.  http://tinyurl.com/matheducniu With so many avenues to learning today, so many ways to collaborate and share, it is an exciting time to be a teacher.

Good luck to all of you - Kim, Courtney, Carrie, Janet, Lindsay, Dylan, Branko, Brian, Raghav, Nick, Mike, and Abbey!!! Have a fabulous student teaching adventure.