Week 6

This week in MATHS 331, I continued my work on Module 2 with the TI-Nspire. We discovered that our modules are individually created and that they need to be different subjects within mathematics. I chose the topic of Calculus, as I find it fascinating. I began researching more activities, this time with Calculus topics instead of Geometry topics, and have found some. I still require clarification on whether I should focus on one particular topic in Calculus, such as limits, or if I should focus on a couple of activities from multiple topics. I'll be able to continue my work in this front once this is cleared up.

For the first prompt, I will address Mr. Stanek's presentation on Thursday's class. I thought overall it was a good presentation. It was interesting to learn about the online high school, and the format that it has. I thought it was neat how the students of this online high school could be children of athletes who are constantly on the move and people from around the world, or just anyone with access to funds and a computer. I also thought it fascinating that there could be possibilities for summer employment with this online high school because it is a year-round thing. That is one thing that interests me because there aren't a lot of opportunities for "internships" like there are in other majors because most schools are out for the summer. I wish we could have found out how much the online high school charges for courses. I would imagine it costs about the same as taking an online college course perhaps, or maybe less expensive. The way it sounded though most of the students who attend this high school have parents who could afford it. One question I didn't consider during the class was how these online high schools will affect our futures as educators. Will the creation of more online classes and schools take away job opportunities in the future? Will more teachers become unemployed as more online high schools pop up and less teachers are needed? I wish I could've asked Mr. Stanek's view on this. I did enjoy the talk though.

As for the other prompt, I wish to discuss the Illuminations activities that I found and whether they pass my rubric or not. By using my own rubric, I would say my Barbie Bungee activity would probably not pass my rubric. It would be a group activity, but I think 1.) the materials are not that readily available. Barbie dolls are easy to find, but can be rather expensive and a lower income school probably wouldn't waste money on them. The activity could be easily modified though and 2.) I don't think the activity would actively engage the students. Barbie dolls would probably not be that interesting except for the simple fact of dropping them from great heights.

I think my Trout Pond activity would be slightly more interesting for students, but it would not be completely liked by everyone. I think the situation could be changed to fit what the students like. I will say this activity has multiple parts, so it could take up several class periods, which could be a positive or negative thing. The students might get bored and disenfranchised with the same scenario and similar stories for several consecutive class periods. I also wouldn't personally use this activity because there is a lot of material to be covered and explained in it and there aren't as many discussion questions for students as I would like. I wish the Trout Pond activity had more follow-up questions for students to think about and make connections with.

The Cutting Conics activity I think would fit my rubric. It could be done either individually or in groups. I also think the materials are somewhat available (this activity could be done without graphing calculators, but I wouldn't recommend it). In addition, there are plenty of discussion, anticipation, and conjecture questions for students to think about. It would be somewhat challenging for lower level algebra students, and I think it could even be extended to middle school students as well. To me, this activity is the one that best fits my rubric.

I will say that I feel that I am not getting as far with my learning of the technology as I'd like to. I feel that with all the extra activities we have to complete for this class, on top of my other course work, I don't have as much time set aside for the Nspire as I feel I'm supposed to. I understand that we need to learn other activities and do readings to get more "in-tune" with technology in our classrooms, but I feel that too much of that is detracting from my experience with the Nspire. I'm not sure if I'm the only one who feels that way, but I definitely hope that there are weeks in the future where all we do is work with our individual technologies.