Featured Teacher: Kevin Misiano
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Kevin Misiano Math Teacher West Genesee High School West Genesee Central School District Kevin Misiano teaches Math Analysis (pre-Calculus) and Calculus at West Genesee High School where he as worked since 2007. He has 9 years of teaching experience overall and has taught algebra and geometry in addition to his current teaching assignments. You can follow Kevin on Twitter: @kmisiano. What are some of the innovative ways you are integrating technology into your curriculum? Kevin has been implementing the Flipped Classroom approach to his mathematics instruction for over year. The Flipped Classroom is one in which course content is delivered via digital media for homework, allowing time for the teacher to facilitate classroom activities that foster higher level thinking and differentiated instruction during class time. Check out this infographic for a brief overview of the Flipped Classroom as well as Kevin's proposal to pilot this approach to his teaching.. Kevin has leveraged several different technologies to make the Flipped Classroom model successful. Lesson videos for flipped units are created with an iPad app called Explain Everything. This $2.99 app allows him to create screencasts that he uploads to his own YouTube channel. Instructional videos are linked to Kevin's Math Analysis group on Edmodo, a free social learning platform that fosters communication and collaboration among teachers, students, and families. What makes Kevin's experience unique is that he has partnered with a former student to create a Math Analysis class app that provides unit outlines, formuli, lesson videos, notes, homework practice, and links to Edmodo and Google Drive. Kevin's teaching is nearly paperless as most of his materials are shared with students virtually. His efforts have been supported with a grant from NY State Senator John DeFrancisco to purchase a classroom set of iPads for student use in school. He leverages graphing calculator apps like Quick Graph, Graph Calc, and Solve, as well as iMovie, Nearpod, Google Drive, and Box to supplement his instruction. Further, the takes advantage of the CNYRIC's Ensemble Video service to upload and share his video lessons so that students can view them on any Internet-enabled device. When he's not creating his own instructional videos, Kevin turns to Khan Academy for its robust library of math tutorials. He aslo uses a digital textbook, Larson's Calculus of a Single Variable, which students access on the iPads.
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How have students benefitted from your technology integration initiatives?
With the Flipped Classroom approach to teaching and learning, Kevin's students have benefitted from anywhere, anytime access to class content This model has allowed him to support his students' efforts to meet his lesson objectives during class, where he can modify and adjust his teaching to meet his students' diverse learning needs. He has found that his students' success rate increased under the Flipped Classroom model when compared to classes that were taught traditionally. Further, students enjoy the opportunity to build their technology literacty skills as well as digital citizenship to prepare them for the real-world expectations of college and careers. Be sure to check out the final project Kevin assigned to his OCC Calculus class in which students created their own video lessons to teach their peers as they demonstrated mastery of course content. |
