A little technology in the classroom can push students' learning further, especially as they investigate mathematical relationships and functions. Graphing calculators allow students' to think more deeply about complex mathematical concepts without getting bogged down in tedious calculations.
My students attend a large comprehensive public high school and come from a variety of backgrounds and experiences.
Some students have more resources than others, and I make a conscious effort to prevent necessary materials from being a barrier to learning.
In class, providing shared supplies (such as calculators for teams of students to share) ensures that every student in the class can fully embrace each opportunity to learn. These supplies make it possible for them to engage in activities that push their thinking further and help them make sense of the mathematics involved.
My Project
I hope to provide graphing calculators for my students to use in class. I would also like to make graph-ruled notebooks available for students who need them, so that they can record what they learn and easily refer back to these ideas in the future. Students will be able to use these calculators in pairs and small groups to investigate more complex mathematical ideas, compare functions, and look at mathematical ideas more dynamically.
With three new graphing calculators, I would be able to offer these for my students to use in pairs and small groups, for investigations where technology would really help them understand the concepts more deeply.
Having these graphing calculators in our classroom will make it possible for my students to investigate more mathematical relationships, work with real world data, and become familiar with this important technology.
Real world data is often messier than carefully crafted textbook data, so the calculations may be more difficult, but the payoff is in making math more relevant to students' lives.
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As a teacher-founded nonprofit, we're trusted by thousands of teachers and supporters across the country. This classroom request for funding was created by Ms. Hartung and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.