Math 371 Technology for STEM Educators

            Personally, I have been playing video games since I was around 10 or 11 years old.  Growing up with games titles such as Call of Duty, Clash of Clans, and Sims, I have experienced some of the most popular games of my generation. This experience has allowed me to see the positives and negatives of gaming; through my mathematics education major, I was introduced to the concept of learning through digital games. This has intrigued me and has led me to explore the benefits of gaming in a classroom setting.              Being a junior in college, I am just now starting to get into my major. I have gotten past most of my generals and now am working on filling my own ‘toolbox’ for my teaching career. When I first started looking into this concept of learning through gaming I was on board immediately, but as I thought about my motivation toward this subject, I had to ...

            My entire high school career was very difficult. I was a three - sport athlete, a student in advanced classes, and involved in other extra-curricular activities, and worked a part-time job. It was a rare occasion when I w ould have free time because of the amount of homework that I had be en assigned in my 7 classes. Many times I would lose sleep or be forced to do homework on bus rides in order to finish it . Even now as a full time college student who works, I still face the same challenge as I did in high school : finding time for homework. Now when I step back and watch others go through the same struggles, including my younger sister, it makes me wonder, why do teachers give students homework ?             All types of students in various stages of schooling go through the same thing. As an example, middle school students having time with their family is a...

            As a Junior Math Education Major, the fear of the future keeps making its presence known. One year from now I am supposed to be teaching the youth of our world. Am I ready? Do I really have what it takes to be a teacher?             When I was little, I was that girl that loved to play school every day. I would set up my classroom with white boards and teach “my class” anything I could think of. Teaching back then just meant that I could doodle all over a white board and since I am the youngest in my family, it meant that I could finally be in charge! I wasn’t afraid of anything. Now when I look at teaching I find fear in everything. Will I be creative enough? Will I be able to handle a classroom? Do I know my content area enough? Will I…             This idea of fear has been in my head for ...

                Back in my second professional semester I ran into a problem. Each of the students would have to pair off classmates of the same major for a specific project, the only problem is there is not another physics education major at SDSU. It was a pretty interesting situation, I don’t think I would have changed it for the world, but it did make the class projects a little strange. One experience that I love talking about is when I had to team up with Noelle and Lindsey, an art major and a math major, to complete a unit planning project. At first it seemed like an odd combination, but I think it turned into a pretty good lesson and unit. I’m remembering this story now because it was brought to the forefront of my memory after I attended a session on the same topic at the SDCTM and SDSTA conference.                 The session that I attended was entitled “Scie...