Teaching students in a social media and technology driven culture in today’s society has taken a dramatic shift. It is no longer fun to write on the interactive whiteboard or play games on the internet to reinforce skills. Rather, teachers are forced to think outside of the box to provide intellectual higher-order thinking opportunities to students. In order to keep students engaged, I must gain their attention by using technology, as it is easier to connect what is learned within the classroom to the wonders that mathematics has to offer. The further a student proceeds through mathematics courses in high school, the more challenging and time consuming problems become. With the use of graphing calculators, a lot of time can be saved and spent diving into problems that will extend students’ learning experiences and allow them to be creative.
The students at my school work hard at what they do.
We are a large high school with a small town feel where our teachers are invested in every student. Our academic programs are one of the best in the state. Unfortunately, some of our students do not have access to the funds to purchase a graphing calculator on their own.
My Project
High school years can be such a monumental time of a young person’s life. It is a time where teachers can turn students on to math, keep them engaged and motivated, as well as allows us to instill the necessary skills needed in order to be a successful 21st century learner. With the purchase of 18 graphing calculators for my classroom, this project will allow me to capture students’ attention and provide a reason to be excited about the world of mathematics and the power that it holds.
Access to a graphing calculator will allow my students to extend their learning in all levels of mathematics, anywhere from Algebra 1 to Algebra 2, and even to Pre-Calculus.
Functions is a topic, for example, that is studied in each of these three courses, but is expanded a little further each course. This topic tends to be very time consuming in Algebra 2 and Pre-Calculus. However, with the access to a class set of graphing calculators, the amount of time that we spend on graphing transformations of functions by hand can be cut down significantly. The time that I used to allow for computations done by hand, can now be used to explore concepts more in depth and connect students to real-world scenarios and cross-curricular material with the use of technology.
The graphing calculators will not only be used in a our Algebra courses, but also in our Pre-Calculus courses. Students who have access to a graphing calculator are more successful when it comes to assessments versus those students who do not have access to a graphing calculator. Having a classroom set of graphing calculators readily available every day of the school year, will also allow my students to become better prepared for their end of course district exams.
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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 Mrs. Merritt and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.