Are Graphing Calculators Obsolete?

Yesterday, mashable.com posted 8 Obsolete School Supplies and the Tech That Replaced Them. #1 on their list - "Graphing calculators replaced by newer graphing calculators." Really? Why do we continue to allow Texas Instruments to monopolize the technology in our math classrooms by selling us their antiquated hardware system. Sure, the TI Nspire can do some pretty amazing calculations... once you get past the layers upon layers of menus.

Today mashable.com posted what I presume to be a follow up to yesterday's article 6 Things You Didn't Know You Could Do With Your Graphing Calculator. The list includes the ability to draw something, play games, write in full sentences, upload photos. Are you kidding? My phone can do more than that! So why aren't we demanding more for our classrooms?

Well some of us are. There's no reason why we can't put touchscreen technology capabilities into the hands of our students. Desmos is doing just that. Not only have they created an app with the same capabilities of the TI calculators, they've created a platform that is more user friendly, intuitive and responsive. It even includes the ability to add sliders that allow students to see what happens to a graph when one or more parameters are changed.

Check out this demo graph, try one of your own, and then tell me why this shouldn't replace every Texas Instruments calculator in our classrooms.

What have I gotten myself into?

This year I was selected as a member of the LearnZillion Dream Team. The company kicked off the summer with TeachFest in San Francisco. Here are my reflections from the weekend that I sent to the LearnZillion Team as I sat in SFO awaiting my return flight home:

About a year ago I was told by my principal that after two years of teaching my contract was not being renewed because I was one year away from tenure and that it would be too difficult to get rid of me the following year. At first I felt like a failure, like I was a terrible teacher, rather than the victim of school/union politics. In addition, I was convinced that the non-renewal left me with a scarlet letter on my teaching career and that I'd never get another classroom teaching job. And that may be true. But this past year, I've been rewarded more than I could have imagined, by current students I am tutoring/academic coaching, and by former students who have written me letters of appreciation as they've been accepted to their college of choice. And then this. 

LearnZillion took a chance on me. At first I thought, there couldn't have been many applicants because I kept getting emails reminding me that the deadline to complete Part II of the application was approaching. But when I received the acceptance email telling me I was one of the 6% chosen to be part of the Dream Team, I was ecstatic! Finally, I was going to be able to conglomerate all of my skills and knowledge into something meaningful. LearnZillion saw my potential to do great things!

Admittedly, I was a little skeptical as I read the Facebook posts. I thought, "What have I gotten myself into? I'm not going to fit in with these people at all. They are way too enthusiastic about this." But then I arrived and looked around the room full of teachers the first night and thought, "What have I gotten myself into? I'm not going to fit in with these people at all. They have way more experience than me, and they're all classroom teachers." Then we met with our teams, and the skepticism began to fade and we began to collaborate. I heard teachers who were skeptical themselves about the Common Core, and I realized how lucky I had been my first two years because I had taught Integrated Mathematics, which seems to be much more aligned to the CCSS. I realized, I wasn't out of my league, that this was where I was supposed to be. And I began to think about what I could bring to the table, and how I could help the other people in my team. 

So, the questions changed from "What have I gotten myself into?" to "What can I get myself into?" TeachFest has gotten me excited to start looking for other ways that I can continue to make a difference by improving education from outside of the classroom. I don't know where this road will lead me, but I'd like to thank LearnZillion for helping to open my eyes to all of the possibilities.