Blog : Page 2 of 2 : T³ Learns

31May 2017 by Kevin Spry

Teachers Teaching with Technology: Professional Learning Community

T3 – Leaders of the Community Teachers Teaching with Technology or T3, has been a vibrant professional learning community for 30 years. (next year’s conference in San Antonio will be our 30th). I had the privilege of speaking to key leaders in our community, the day prior to the opening of the T3 International Conference in Chicago. As one who has been a classroom teacher, and a T3 Instructor, I have experienced personally the value of their leadership and influence on educators. My brief remarks were focused on their shared leadership and contributions to education. I used inspirational quotes from U.S. Presidents to frame my remarks. “If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.” John Quincy Adams…

03Jan 2017 by Kevin Spry

#T3Learns Slow-Chat Book Study – “Balancing the Equation: A Guide to School Mathematics for Educators and Parents”

Book Study, Classroom Practices, Professional Learning

With just over two months until the T3 International Conference in Chicago, we are excited to introduce the #T3Learns slow-chat book study on Balancing the Equation: A Guide to School Mathematics for Educators and Parents, by Dr. Matt Larson and Dr. Tim Kanold. All educators are invited to participate in this discussion. Join Dr. Larson, president of NCTM and author of several key books on mathematics education, as he introduces Balancing the Equation during a T3 Professional Development Webinar on January 10th, 8 PM EST. Dr. Larson will be delivering a session at the T3 International Conference based on the book with co-author Dr. Kanold, who is the conference keynote speaker and an award-winning educator and PLC expert. Slow-Chat Book Study We will cover a chapter…

07Apr 2016 by Kevin Spry

#T3Learns Slow-Chat Book Study: 5 Practices for Orchestrating …

Classroom Practices, Professional Learning

After the success of the slow-chat book study on Embedding Formative Assessment we plan to engage in another slow chat book study. A few years ago, as we embraced focusing our classrooms on the Standards for Mathematical Practice, a number of our community began reading and using the book by Margaret S. Smith and Mary Kay Stein, 5 Practices for Orchestrating Productive Mathematics Discussions. This book has been transformational to many educators, and there is also a companion book focused on the science classroom, 5 Practices for Orchestrating Task-Based Discussions in Science, by Jennifer Cartier and Margaret S. Smith. Both books are also available in pdf format and NCTM offers them together as a bundle. Simultaneous Study As our community works with both math and science…

23Feb 2016 by Tammy Jones

To Use Technology or Not to Use Technology? That should NOT be the question!

Technology

But if it is the question, you need an answer that reflects putting students’ success at the forefront. This is a question I have been asked all too often recently by both administrators and educators at all levels. Of course, the technology they are usually referring to is … the calculator. With the release of the Calculator Policy statements by PARCC and SBAC as well as state assessments such as the TN Ready in my own state of Tennessee, many teachers, principals, and district level personnel have often made the decision to simply eliminate calculator use from the classroom. “If they can’t use it on the test why should we let them use it in the classroom?” That is the rationale for many of the decisions that have been made.…

05Dec 2015 by Kevin Spry

Embedding Formative Assessment – Book Study

Assessment, Book Study

We are excited that Dylan Wiliam is delivering the opening keynote and a number of sessions at the T³ International Conference in Orlando, Florida, on February 26, 2016. Dylan is a leading educator on formative assessment (see his website here). His recent book Embedding Formative Assessment is a thought-provoking read for all educators wanting to better understand and implement formative assessment. Slow Chat Book Study In preparation for hearing Dylan, we are going to embark on a “slow chat book study” of Embedding Formative Assessment. We invite all educators to join with us in this discussion. Beginning in January, we will cover a chapter each week, ending just prior to the International Conference. We will use Twitter to share our thoughts with each other, using the hashtag #T3Learns. With a…

09Nov 2015 by Lucas Allen

Why You Should Attend a Texas Instruments T³™ Webinar

Online Learning

Re-posted by permission of Lucas Allen, Tech Powered Math @techpoweredmath http://www.techpoweredmath.com/ Originally posted on October 6, 2015 My wife was good enough to pick up extra bed time duty with our kids tonight so I could take in the latest Texas Instruments T³™ webinar, STEM Behind Health with TI Technology. As is always the case with these webinars, the content was excellent, incorporating interdisciplinary content from science and statistics. This particular webinar focused on TI’s Stem Behind Health, which I talked about more in a previous post. The content in their latest module focuses on breast cancer. I was quite taken with how they were able to both address mathematical and scientific issues while at the same time addressing a very serious health issue in a thought provoking way. At…

09Sep 2015 by Michelle Bonds

CAS with Unit Rates

Mathematics

The Computer Algebra System (CAS) enables students to investigate unit rates, opening up a world of options because the device recognizes words as variables. Teachers can actually enter "one cup of sugar makes two cookies" in fraction form on a TI-Nspire™ CX CAS and get the results shown here. To promote deep thinking about the topic and engage students in a discussion, ask questions like: Why are these equations true? What stays the same? What changes? What other ratios would work? What other ratios would not work? Asking the right questions is key to starting effective discussions, but what then? Multiple representations help students visually see what the math is doing, which in turn leads to better understanding and skill mastery. Look at the following situation: Joe can mow…

01Jun 2015 by Jill Gough

Use Technology to See, to Ask, and to Think

Technology

Leverage tools. See. Question. Think. Show what you know. Learn. We want every learner in our care to be able to say I can attend to precision. But, what if they can’t? How are we practicing, teaching, and growing as we attend to precision? What is your precise answer to the question: What is a fraction? Is your answer descriptive, clear, and precise for a 5th grader? a 6th grader? a 7th grader? You see where I’m going, right? What if we use technology to visualize new concepts and interact with math to investigate and learn? What if we pair a process learning progression with a content learning progression? I can explain and illustrate that a fraction a/b is the quantity formed by a parts of size 1/b, and I…

28Apr 2015 by Julie Shouse Riggins

The Lesson That Helped Me Be a Presidential Award Winner

Lesson Design

I just returned from the most excellent trip to Washington, D.C., where I collaborated with great math and science teachers and shared practices and needs with people from NSF and the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. Best of all, I shook hands with President Obama when he presented the Presidential Award for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching (PAEMST) to me! What an incredible experience, and one that I want all of my science and math teacher friends to experience, so I thought I would share a little about the application process and the lesson that I submitted. Presently the application portal is open for K–six and seven–12 in alternating years. There is talk of combining them, however, so you could apply any year regardless of grade.…

14Apr 2015 by Michelle Bonds

CAS with Percentages

Mathematics

When I was first introduced to a Computer Algebra System (CAS) device, I thought it was a great tool for my AP Calculus class. The more I used CAS activities the more I realized it would be a great tool for all math students. I believe student investigations are key in deeper understanding of mathematics. CAS devices such as the TI-Nspire™ CX CAS handheld and the TI-Nspire™ CAS App for iPad® give students the opportunity to investigate the why's and how's of math. As I think about important skills for students, percentages stand out to me as an important skill for both elementary and middle school students to learn that is not understood completely. The students memorize the algorithms we set before them but never really reach the mathematical understanding…

04Mar 2015 by Jennifer Wilson

Trig Ratios

Lesson Design

How do your students experience learning right triangle trigonometry? How do you introduce sine, cosine, and tangent ratios to them? NCTM’s Principles to Actions includes build procedural fluency from conceptual understanding as one of the Mathematics Teaching Practices. In what ways can technology help us help our students build procedural fluency from conceptual understanding? Until I started using TI-Nspire Technology several years ago, right triangle trigonometry is one topic where I felt like I started and ended at procedural fluency. How do you get students to experience trig ratios? I’ve been using the Geometry Nspired activity Trig Ratios ever since it was published. Over the last year, I also read posts from Mary Bourassa: Calculating Ratios and Jessica Murk: Building Trig Tables about learning experiences for making trigonometric ratios more meaningful…

24Feb 2015 by Jeff McCalla

Classroom Routines That Enhance Learning

Classroom Practices

I start every class with a PSAT practice problem. Every school has a standardized test that is important to them: ACT, end-of-course exam, SAT, etc. I teach at St. Mary’s Episcopal School, a high-academic all-girls school in Memphis, TN. We find that focusing on the PSAT during the student’s sophomore year helps prepare them for many of the standardized tests they will take. Some teachers never use multiple-choice questions when they teach, thinking that it doesn’t challenge their students as much as an open-ended question. Actually, there are a lot of advantages to asking multiple-choice questions in a class. There are a limited number of choices, and the wrong answers are intentionally meant to be distractors. If you are using a standardized test question, you can be assured that a…

17Feb 2015 by Steve Phelps

Visualizing 3D Shapes in Algebra

Mathematics

For the past few years I have taught an advanced Algebra 1 course. Some students in this course may have taken Algebra 1 in eighth grade and maybe did not do as well as hoped, while others may have taken Pre-algebra and did extremely well. In any case, these students typically had a good grasp of linear functions; they understood slopes and intercepts and constant rates of change. I was looking for ways to extend these topics and also integrate them with geometry. It was through the 3D graphing features on the TI-Nspire, using the cross-sections of a cube, that we could integrate geometry and algebra and extend their understanding of key concepts. If you have never used the 3D graphing features on the TI-Nspire, I have created a short…