A couple of weeks ago I had the pleasure of attending a program at Texas Instruments in Dallas. It was FREE and on a Saturday and it had to do with the new TI calculator called TI-Nspire. Here is a link so that you can get an inkling of what the TI-Nspire does .... and that is about all you will get .... an inkling. This new calculator is amazing ... add the software and a laptop and lots of training and practice and the potential in unlimited.
The session ran from 1-4:30 .... and that wasn't near enough time to even begin to understand all the possibilities of this tool. In fact, I spent a great deal of the time simply lost when it came to making my borrowed TI-Nspire do what the instructor wanted us to do! But I sure enjoyed watching him and watching the overhead and listening to the people around me.
In fact, I recall thinking that I wished a reporter from the Dallas Morning News had been there to report on the state of Math Teachers in the area. There I sat, on a Saturday afternoon, with 25-30 Math teachers ... some who had driven 250 miles to be there. Saturday .... a day which most teachers have off .... yet these teachers were there for 3.5 hours of training on a calculator which many of them don't even own! TI supplied the calculators for us to play with .... but we didn't get to keep them at the end (although we did get a nice T-shirt advertising the TI-Nspire and Math!) In fact, if I were still a classroom teacher, I probably wouldn't have been there myself .... you couldn't have paid me to go to a workshop on a Saturday afternoon ... I was very selfish of my weekend time before I started my own business and gave myself Friday's off. But I had seen online ads for the Nspire and I wanted to see what it could do! The workshop was FREE and I had a Friday off behind me and a leisurely Sunday ahead of me .... so why not go?
I am fairly certain that I was the only retired Math teacher there, besides the instructor, who used to teach math, retired, and now teaches for Texas Instruments. I was absolutely amazed by the energy and the diversity of all these teachers. There were men and women, very young, very old, and all ages in between .... white, black, hispanic and asian ... Honors teachers and Credit Recovery teachers .... some from the suburbs, many from DISD, some from Private Schools, most from Public. It was a dedicated and energetic grouping of Math teachers. I was very impressed.
The questions flew .... conversations got off-task .... people played with the calculators and got more off-task .... we exchanged ideas ... talked about other TI products we enjoy using .... the instructor kept pulling us back to his lesson .... but we mostly veered off. Most of the questions we asked him were difficult for him to answer as our questions varied as widely as the demographics we represented. He did have a lesson planned ... but many of our questions had to do with something later in the lesson .... so he would say "I'll get to that in a few minutes." I'm not sure if he ever got to those answers because more and more questions were fired at him as we continued to play with the calculators.
But, for the record .... teachers are a difficult audience!
In the end, 3.5 hours wasn't near enough time for for us to learn the calculator, but we did get a glimpse into it's possibilities. A few days later I received an email inviting me to attend a 3-day conference in Dallas surrounding TI technology for the classroom and featuring the TI-Nspire. The registration fee covers the conference AND I will get my very own TI-Nspire CAS handheld and software .... along with lots of training! Here is some info about the Conference which is going to be held Feb 29-March 2, 2008 at the Hyatt Regency in Dallas. If you want to see what Math teachers around Texas are like when you get them together .... come check it out!
Tuesday, November 27, 2007
Sunday, November 11, 2007
The Great Disconnect .... High School to College
I have been meaning to write this BLOG for weeks and weeks, but Steve Blow's column in Sunday's Dallas Morning News (11-11-07) finally brought matters to a head. Please take a moment to read Steve's column as he sets up the background for this Blog very well. Thanks, Steve.
So how is it that so many students who are required by law to pass Algebra One, Geometry, and Algebra II to graduate from High School still have to take remedial Math classes when they get to college?
First of all, only in the past year have students HAD TO take Algebra Two to graduate. Before this, students needed only to take 3 years of Math including Algebra One, Geometry, and one other Math. So ... by the time students got to college they were often 2-4 years removed from an Algebra Class. Regardless, they do need to know Algebra One and Geometry in order to pass the Exit Level TAKS test their Junior year. But come their Senior year, there is no Math requirement, and very few of your average students will opt to take Pre-Calculus. ((This year's HS freshman, however, will be required to take 4 years of Math and 4 years of Science to graduate.)) Ask yourself .... how much Algebra do you remember 2 years after taking the class?
Secondly .... and this is the crux of the disconnect .... Texas High Schools are required by law to teach the usage of and encourage the usage of Texas Instruments Graphing Calculators. TI-Graphing Calculators are required for the Exit Level TAKS Math test. Yet no caculator is allowed on the Accuplacer nor the THEA Tests .... the tests students are given for college placement. If the Accuplacer or the THEA think you might need a calculator to do a problem, one will pop up on the computer while you are taking the test ... a little 4-function calculator which is nothing like the TI-calculators these students have used for years.
Whether or not you agree with calculator usage in high school Math classes, they are a requirement by state law. Texas Instruments keeps creating newer and better versions of their graphing calculators ... the newest one being the TI-Nspire ... just click here and check out their ad. Try to understand what is going on in that ad. Calculator usage has been heavily integrated into mathematics textbooks and classrooms. Calculators are allowed on the SAT and the ACT and on all Advanced Placement Math tests. To tell a student they will not be allowed to use a calculator on a placement test for college math is to, if nothing else, put them at a psychological disadvantage. Having a calculator may not help them at all, but it is a form of security, a tool which they have been using for their 4 years of high school. I believe it is a major mistake to withhold calculators from students taking the Accuplacer or the THEA. And I believe this is a major reason so many students are placed into remedial Algebra classes.
Thirdly, and possibly most importantly, is the fact that the test is given on a computer. For some reason, people who take Math tests on a computer do worse compared to people who take the same test on paper. Every major test the students have taken up to this point ... SAT, TAKS, ACT, AP tests, etc .... have all been paper and pencil tests. I understand why colleges use computers to test and place their students, especially when the computer uses the results on previous questions to determine what question to ask next. Here is the issue .... students will not take the time to work out the Math problem on a piece of paper before clicking on one of the 4 choices. They think writing something down is a waste of time or a sign of weakness. They think they can do it in their head and they mess up. I know this because I am guilty of this very same thing myself. I get the SAT Question of the Day from College Board.com in my email every day. One day is a Writing question, the next day is a Reading question, and the next day is a Math question, then the cycle repeats. I ace the Writing and Reading questions without having to pick up a pencil or open a dictionary, but when I get to the Math problems I always have to dig out a piece of paper and a pen or pencil and solve the problems by hand. If I dare to do them in my head, I often make a stupid mistake. And I have a college degree in Mathematics.
So how do we bridge this gap between what is taught in High Schools and what is tested on the placement tests? First .... let the students use a calculator on the tests. If they don't know what they are doing, it won't help them. If they are used to using one, they will feel more comfortable having one nearby. Second ... students need to learn how to take a Math test on a computer before they get out of High School. A good time to work on this might be during that 4th year of Math being required for all High Schoolers. Also during this class teachers might want to reinforce some basic Math Skills ... adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing whole numbers and decimals and fractions BY HAND. By the time these students are Seniors they have been away from this type of Math for four or more years. It is also quite possible they never truly understood how to do these things while in Middle School, but with added age and maturity, they might finally truly understand.
So how is it that so many students who are required by law to pass Algebra One, Geometry, and Algebra II to graduate from High School still have to take remedial Math classes when they get to college?
First of all, only in the past year have students HAD TO take Algebra Two to graduate. Before this, students needed only to take 3 years of Math including Algebra One, Geometry, and one other Math. So ... by the time students got to college they were often 2-4 years removed from an Algebra Class. Regardless, they do need to know Algebra One and Geometry in order to pass the Exit Level TAKS test their Junior year. But come their Senior year, there is no Math requirement, and very few of your average students will opt to take Pre-Calculus. ((This year's HS freshman, however, will be required to take 4 years of Math and 4 years of Science to graduate.)) Ask yourself .... how much Algebra do you remember 2 years after taking the class?
Secondly .... and this is the crux of the disconnect .... Texas High Schools are required by law to teach the usage of and encourage the usage of Texas Instruments Graphing Calculators. TI-Graphing Calculators are required for the Exit Level TAKS Math test. Yet no caculator is allowed on the Accuplacer nor the THEA Tests .... the tests students are given for college placement. If the Accuplacer or the THEA think you might need a calculator to do a problem, one will pop up on the computer while you are taking the test ... a little 4-function calculator which is nothing like the TI-calculators these students have used for years.
Whether or not you agree with calculator usage in high school Math classes, they are a requirement by state law. Texas Instruments keeps creating newer and better versions of their graphing calculators ... the newest one being the TI-Nspire ... just click here and check out their ad. Try to understand what is going on in that ad. Calculator usage has been heavily integrated into mathematics textbooks and classrooms. Calculators are allowed on the SAT and the ACT and on all Advanced Placement Math tests. To tell a student they will not be allowed to use a calculator on a placement test for college math is to, if nothing else, put them at a psychological disadvantage. Having a calculator may not help them at all, but it is a form of security, a tool which they have been using for their 4 years of high school. I believe it is a major mistake to withhold calculators from students taking the Accuplacer or the THEA. And I believe this is a major reason so many students are placed into remedial Algebra classes.
Thirdly, and possibly most importantly, is the fact that the test is given on a computer. For some reason, people who take Math tests on a computer do worse compared to people who take the same test on paper. Every major test the students have taken up to this point ... SAT, TAKS, ACT, AP tests, etc .... have all been paper and pencil tests. I understand why colleges use computers to test and place their students, especially when the computer uses the results on previous questions to determine what question to ask next. Here is the issue .... students will not take the time to work out the Math problem on a piece of paper before clicking on one of the 4 choices. They think writing something down is a waste of time or a sign of weakness. They think they can do it in their head and they mess up. I know this because I am guilty of this very same thing myself. I get the SAT Question of the Day from College Board.com in my email every day. One day is a Writing question, the next day is a Reading question, and the next day is a Math question, then the cycle repeats. I ace the Writing and Reading questions without having to pick up a pencil or open a dictionary, but when I get to the Math problems I always have to dig out a piece of paper and a pen or pencil and solve the problems by hand. If I dare to do them in my head, I often make a stupid mistake. And I have a college degree in Mathematics.
So how do we bridge this gap between what is taught in High Schools and what is tested on the placement tests? First .... let the students use a calculator on the tests. If they don't know what they are doing, it won't help them. If they are used to using one, they will feel more comfortable having one nearby. Second ... students need to learn how to take a Math test on a computer before they get out of High School. A good time to work on this might be during that 4th year of Math being required for all High Schoolers. Also during this class teachers might want to reinforce some basic Math Skills ... adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing whole numbers and decimals and fractions BY HAND. By the time these students are Seniors they have been away from this type of Math for four or more years. It is also quite possible they never truly understood how to do these things while in Middle School, but with added age and maturity, they might finally truly understand.
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