Sarah+Jacobs

= **Sarah Jacobs** =

I am a senior from Greenville, SC studying mathematics teaching at Clemson University. I also play on the Lady Tigers Soccer Team, and I love every second of it! When I am not busy playing soccer, I enjoy spending time with friends and family. My parents and brother Alex are close by in Greenville along with my aunt, uncle, and cousin. Some of my favorite of life's simple pleasures include naps, peanut butter and jelly, thunderstorms, and reading. I also love cheering on my Pittsburgh Steelers! I look forward to discovering what my future holds as I pursue Jesus in community with my church!



I think technology can be helpful in some areas of mathematics teaching, however I think the use of technology is often pushed too much. It begins to make things more complicated for teachers and becomes more a hinderance that wastes time than a beneficial tool. However, technology also provides many new, exciting, and easier ways to present material and allow students to engage and explore.

Most of my math teachers taught in a very traditional way in middle and high school. One used an overhead and another used a smartboard. Both of these also used a form of showing a graphing calculator to the class via the respective method. The others simply taught by writing on the board.

In general, I use technology a lot! I am on my computer multiple hours each day and use my phone constantly. I have also become quite comfortable with using my calculator. Technology is also overflowing into education. My first memorable experience using technology was in Algebra I. I took this in seventh grade and we did it through the Carnegie Program. Two days a week we individually worked through math problems on a program in the computer lab that coincided with our lessons. I did not use much technology in math between this class and my senior year of high school when my teacher used the SmartBoard to teach. In observing, I watched two of four teachers use SmartBoards. My college professors have used technology to teach including the Maple software that performs amazing calculations and shows models. I took a semester long class that was taught using Maple.

=Online Assessment Tools =

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[|Vote Here!] This technology can be very helpful in allowing students to engage and interact in the classroom. It also lets teachers know what students are thinking and how well they are understanding the material. Challenges include having the appropriate technology to do so, time management and ensuring that students are not using the technology for other purposes.

I would consider using this technology in my class. It may be beneficial to have students answer math problems this way in class so I can gauge how well students understand concepts. This also allows students to take ownership in their work and provide a fun way for feedback. This also allows all students to feel comfortable answering questions.

= Video Recording =

This video is probably not very helpful for classroom instruction because it is simply a video showing a teacher writing on the board and teaching. I am afraid that a teacher would use this to be lazy and not teach the lesson themselves. However, I believe that an actual teacher in a classroom is much more effective than having students watching a video. This video could be good for students to watch or have access to if they are struggling. Giving them the link to watch at home or in the library may be helpful in assisting them in learning. [|Precalculus Video]

= Microsoft Mathematics 4.0 =



1. I would possibly use this in my classroom. I like that you can write on the smart board and it converts it to text in the calculator. It also has many helpful tools built into it. It is free and easy to use so that makes it appealing as a teacher. It is able to perform many functions in neat and easy to read ways for students. I am amazed at how much the calculator is able to do. I love how it explains the different steps to arrive at the solution in detail. This is very helpful for students studying and doing homework. However, as with all calculators, I want students to understand what is going on, not simply how to push buttons. 2. I would like students to use this at home especially if they did not have a graphing calculator of their own. Although I would be cautious about which assignments they are using it for and that they are not too dependent on the technology. Out of class assignments designed for the calculator may be beneficial. I love the feature that shows how the solution was found step by step. I think this is very helpful for students at home because they do not have someone to help them. This is probably my favorite reason to use the calculators. 3. Just in looking at the format, I think it makes math look more simple and easy to understand. It also makes math seem more fun because of the computer interaction. I think as a student I would enjoy math more as long as using the software wasn't a hinderance. I never liked when I couldn't do homework at school or during a break because I needed to be on the computer at home.

= 5. Smart Math Board Tools =

[|Smart Board Lesson]

Standard: MA.9-12.G-3.7. Apply the triangle inequality theorem to solve problems.

This presentation teaches and quizzes students on the relationship between lengths of sides and measures of angles of triangles. The activity can be best implemented using student voting. It provides true/false and multiple choice questions that include diagrams and examples. This is different from a normal lecture because of the student involvement and interaction. The voting and multiple choice questions allow students to test their knowledge right away. Also, because it is a SmartBoard presentation, diagrams are readily available for students to look and learn from. This also provides a good form of assessment for teachers to gauge student understanding in a quick and useful way without quizzes that penalize students. This lesson is different than MS Math because it deals with triangles and diagrams. Also, there are not calculations done, but instead it analyzes and compares relationships. Instead of knowing formulas, we must know theorems and postulates. MS Math would not be of much help in this area. In this unit, I think students will often try to memorize postulates rather than understand them intellectually. Memorization is more difficult. We must try to teach students to //understand// the relationships logically in order for them to fully grasp and remember.

= **6. GeoGebra Reflection** =

I think dynamic math environments do contribute to students' learning when used and done correctly. They have the ability to show students things they could never see with just pencil and paper due to difficulty. For example, it would be almost impossible to show students the line of best fit of polynomials and different degrees. Technology gives us so many more possibilities. However, it is very difficult to come up with these ideas and develop the programs and on your own. I would like to use applets that have already been developed for teachers. This will save me time and allow me to focus more fully on my students' learning.

I like GSP much more than GeoGebra. I learned GSP first and find it much easier and more user-friendly. I am easily able to access tools more easily. It is also easier to create dynamic objects and program things to work as you would like. I like the way the text is displayed when adding angles or lengths. I found syntax for GSP is much easier than GeoGebra which is much more difficult to understand. I also like the look of GSP better than GeoGebra. I find the colors, boldness, format, and graphics to be much more appealing. For these reasons along with others, I would choose GSP over GeoGebra.