Math Is Everywhere...

Who Cares? TI-CARES

How do you know what brand a company has? Mike Wagner says a company’s brand is a mark of their ownership and is reflected in every aspect of their business.

One company I interact with on a regular basis is the Texas Instruments Education & Productivity Division. Over the years all TI employees with whom I have interacted - from Help Desk personnel to Melendy Lovett, Senior Vice President - have exemplified that TI-CARES.

Last week in Atlanta, I teamed up two other TI National Instructors, Jane Barnard and Jim Haskins. to pilot a new TI course: Foundations of Algebra. Jane and I are on the writing team for this course designed to present mathematics to alternatively certified teachers – those who are teaching mathematics but do not have an undergraduate degree in either mathematics or mathematics education.

So, how does this course reflect TI’s brand?

First, they invested in the development of the workshop. Four mathematics educators spent three days designing, writing, and editing the materials that are being piloted with three workshops around the country.

Second, they brought Jane, Jim, and me to Atlanta for a week. Our time and expenses plus materials to help us present this first pilot workshop is paid by TI and offered free to the teachers.

Third, Melendy and four other TI representatives were there to observe and answer questions from the workshop participants. They were there because TI-CARES what teachers think about the new workshop. How many times have you seen the Senior Vice-President at a workshop?

So – how did TI benefit from this week? Of course they are interested in sales and marketing but more importantly, TI showed they care about increasing student mathematical achievement by helping teachers reach their full potential. Throughout the week instructors showed they care. The teachers saw this and now, they will take that caring brand back to their students where it really counts.

What is TI Education’s brand? It’s in their phone number: 1-800-TI-CARES!

Tags: Technology, Texas Instruments, Mathematics Education

Terry - An Unexpected Mathematician

I picked up my car for Terry’s Auto Service – it needed some minor electrical work.

With only a few months of car payments left, I shared with Terry that I was contemplating my option of keeping the car or trading it in. He reminded me that newer cars have even more electronics so I wouldn’t be eliminating all electrical problems – just exchanging the old set for a new one.

Always looking for opportunities to share how important mathematics is in everyday life, I commented how with the electronics they really use a lot of mathematics in their work

Terry’s response made my day, “You know math is not like any other subject. You can’t just memorize it and expect to understand anything.”

BINGO! That’s exactly what I emphasize to my students every day. You can’t memorize your way through math; you have to understand it on the conceptual level.

It’s always a surprise to my students when I refer to them as mathematicians. For most, that moniker conjures up a mental image of an old man who mumbles to himself while filling the chalkboard with unintelligible symbols. But, thanks to Terry, I can add an auto mechanic to my list of mathematicians!

What unexpected mathematician have you met today?

Picture from Images (Note: This NOT Terry)

Tags: auto repair, mathematics, math education, mathematicians

So You Want to Be a Popular Teacher?

CBAM research and personal observation show that the greatest concern of most new teachers is to be accepted by their students. Successful teachers, however, learn that popularity comes at a cost - a loss of authority that is needed in order to be effectively assessors of student learning.

Each semester it’s always interesting to observe how students respond during the “honeymoon” phase when they are open to instruction and eager to learn - the first couple of weeks before receiving any grades. But what happens after that? The best students stay engaged and take the challenge to broaden their knowledge base and deepen their conceptual understanding. The other students, sadly to say, blame the instructor.

So what makes a great teacher? I agree with John Richardson’s three practices of a successful teacher: Their teaching style matches the student’s learning style, they give individual attention, and they have a passion for teaching. I would add these:

1. Content knowledgeable beyond course requirements
   Students can see right through a bluff if a teacher does not know the content. Nothing can substitute for knowledge beyond what you are teaching. However, students also respect honesty which leads to point 2.
2. Honesty
   I love it when students ask questions that I never thought of before - it means that they are actively participating in the class. But, not having thought of the question before means not having already worked through a solution. The most honest answer in that case is, “That’s a good question that requires a good answer. Let’s all work on it and come back with an answer next time.”
3. A strong sense of self
   Students can smell fear. Teachers who lack confidence that they are doing what’s best for the students will back down when confronted. As reported in Delaney Kirk’s post, effective teachers help students be successful and show strength.

So, you want to be a popular teacher? Strive to be an effective teacher - if not the most popular. You’ll be popular with the students who “get it”.

Tags: CBAM, effective teaching, student opinion

Hey, No Pressure!

Last week my husband, Steve, and I worked as walking scorers at the Allianz Championship Golf  Tournament. We look forward to this volunteer opportunity every year to be near our favorite sport and some of golf’s greatest champions.

Walking scorers use IBM’s ShotLink system consisting of a Palm Pilot unit that is up-linked to the scoring officials who monitor all the incoming data and ensure accurate information is transferred to television, the web, and the leader boards. Needless to say, walking scorers are extremely busy entering three players’ scores, how many fairways they hit, greens in regulation, number of putts, etc. It’s not too tough - unless a penalty occurs!

It’s all basic computation mathematics but, as in most real-life situations, under stressful conditions, even 2+2 is difficult!

Our students are under a lot of pressure in our classes too. When this happens to them during a quiz or test, a “false reading” of their mathematical abilities occurs. This is why, as previously mentioned,  it’s so important to focus on the intended mathematical objective (e.g. searching for a pattern in a sequence of numbers) and allow students to use a tool (i.e. calculators) on the mathematical work, such as computation.

Calculators on the golf course - of course! Even though in the BC days (before calculators) walking scorers didn’t use them, technology allows us to do more mathematics with greater accuracy and speed. When was the last time you added up a long column of numbers with millions watching you?

The Great Calculator Debate Rages On

A few years ago, I was chatting with a teacher after one of my seminars. She wasn’t too enthused about letting her students use graphing calculators in class because the calculators were giving the answers to the questions on the tests. She’s not alone. A posting by Larry Davidson echoes this frequently voiced criticism.

Since my first posting on this subject, my response remains unchanged: “If the calculator is giving all the answers, what’s wrong with the questions?”

The National Council of Supervisors of Mathematics, the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, Texas Instruments, and many state mathematics curriculum documents emphasize the appropriate use of calculators and concur that calculators can have positive influences in school mathematics when used with proper restriction and guidance.

Questions asked with a graphing calculator must be generated using higher order thinking skills. All of my assessment items contain my four favorite questions:
Why?
How do you know…?
What if …?
So what?
The last one brings students back to the problem posed and has them explain, analyze, or interpret their answers.

For example, instead of asking, “What is the value of log 4, to the nearest hundredths?” the question becomes:
“Write the exponential statement equivalent to log 4.”
“Explain the difference between log 4 = n and log n = 4.”
“Give the inverse function of log 4 = n.”

Students may use their calculators to test conjectures on similar problems but the calculator is not programmed to “give the answer”.

I challenge all mathematics educators to begin writing new assessment items so the calculator is used as a valuable tool - not an answer machine! After all, technology isn’t going to go away; it’s up to us to learn how to work with it, not against it. Assessment items that are independent of the calculator (that don’t give calculator-savvy students an advantage) assess conceptual understanding rather than rote memorization.

Yes, it’s not “traditional” and it takes more thought, but isn’t that what we’re asking of our students?

Picture from IMAGES

Tags: educational calculators, NCTM, NCSM, calculator debate, state curriculum standards