ZOOM-ing through math
After spending the time the university allotted for the faculty to learn how to go virtual, Rea and Bejarano came up with a way to use different virtual platforms simultaneously to bring in-person classroom activities to life in a new and unfamiliar virtual world.
“What makes this unique,” SDSU IV Dean Gregorio A. Ponce said, “is how Professor Bejarano and
Professor Rea were able to transform an in-class number line activity, where students use a rope and Post-it notes to place themselves in the number line according to the number they are given , into a Zoom activity where different students in the class are moving and placing the Post-it notes electronically.”
Going virtual was not easy and both Rea and Bejarano conceded they had a little trepidation when they launched the number line activity online.
“We are really attempting to stretch ourselves here,” Rea told the students during a Zoom class meeting.
She guided the students to take a variety of steps in Zoom that took them to a Google document with a solid line, which represented the rope or string that would normally be used in a classroom full of children learning about fractions.
“We have no idea how it is going to go, but we have confidence we can do this together,” she said as she cautioned that each student’s actions would be reflected on a document showing on all of their computer screens.
Across the bottom of the screen a series of colorful squares, each bearing a different fraction, is visible.
Rea tells the students, “You’re supposed to say, ‘Wow, Mrs. Rea, they look just like stickies,’ because I don’t know how many hours I spent trying to design these things.”
Each student is assigned a fraction and must put on the number line where it should go. The students are told they can use a paper, a string, a shoelace or the cord to their earphones to measure the virtual number line showing on their computer screens. “One time, Dr. Ponce forgot a string and he had to take off his tie and we used that to measure,” Rea said.
Bejarano estimated it took about 36 hours to design the virtual number line activity. She and Rea are now using the virtual exercise, both for the SDSU IV future teachers and for the children in their elementary school classes, which are now being taught on a virtual platform for the remainder of the school year. Bejarano teaches kindergarten and Rea teaches sixth grade, both in the El Centro Elementary School District; and both are proud SDSU Imperial Valley alumni.
Over the last 15 years, Dr. Ponce has been working with both Professors, who are also his former students, to transform the preparation of future mathematics k-12 teachers in Imperial County. “TE 910A is designed,” shared Bejarano, “to give future teachers an understanding of teaching methodology by having them experience learning as an elementary school child does, using the same activities, materials, desks, etc.” In this virtual class, the two worlds converge, successfully.