New TINspire user

[Bob]

Hello everyone. I just received a set of the regular (blue) TI-
Nspires (20 of them) for my classroom. I"m very excited about
learning about this awesome technology and incorporating it into my
classroom. I also have my own regular nspire as well as my own CAS,
plus I have teacher edition versions of the software for both the
regular Nspire as well as the CAS that I can use with my LCD projector
and Mimio system. My students will be using the 20 of the regular
Nspires that I recently received.

As a brand new user of the TINspire for the classroom, can you offer
me some suggestions, advice, etc. on how to best implement the use of
it in the classroom, especially at the beginnig of the year? For
instance, any activities to introduce the kids to the handheld, etc.
before diving in with deeper and more involved activities? Management
issues, etc?

Any advice and suggestions you can give me regarding being a brand new
user of this technology would be most helpful and appreciated! I"m
looking forward to learning more about the handheld and being a member
of this group! :)

Thanks very much.

Bob

[Sean Bird]

What level do you teach?
I start out before the start of the year in Calculus with http://covenantchristian.org/bird/TTT/TI-NspireCASprimer.pdf
(The Word doc corresponding to the pdf is available toward the top of http://covenantchristian.org/bird/Nspire.html so you can adopt it and make it your own if you would like. Please share changes if you do use it. For example you will likely delete the CAS section and make up your own age appropriate follow up questions.)

You may find helpful the 2.5 MB pdf http://covenantchristian.org/bird/TTT/BirdTTTcalcSMARTnspireSeattle09.pdf (The SMART Notebook document version appears toward the top of http://covenantchristian.org/bird/TTT.htm )

I may start out the year with some activities that were written at the introductory level but allow the students to jump right into the math. For calculus that would include "Local Linearity" or "What Is Calculus?". The first does NOT require loading a tns file. Both are available on timath.com (more specifically http://www.timath.com/calculus/archive/tinspire-cas ). They are the first and last activities posted during this past school year.

TImath is a valuable resource for all the other high school math subjects.http://www.timath.com/
Also many excellent activites that include tns files, student worksheet and teacher notes for algebra and geometry will be available soon at http://www.ti-algebranspired.com/

Did you get Connect-to-Class yet? You can get it free (but not quick) - check out http://education.ti.com/educationportal/sites/US/nonProductSingle/syllabus_program.html

Also regarding management issues, you may enjoy the article http://bird-godlydominion.blogspot.com/2009/01/storage-and-traveling-with-ti-nspire.html

Welcome to the group,
Sean Bird
Covenant Christian High School
Indianapolis, IN

[Bob]

Sean,

Thank you very much for all of the information!! Awesome! I'll look
forward to checking all of those out!

For the upcoming academic year I will be teaching 1 section of
calculus, 2 sections of pre-calclulus, 2 sections of geometry, and 1
section of college algebra. My schedule for second semester will be
the same for the most part, with the exception that I will be teaching
college trigonometry to those students who took college algebra who
want the trig.

I've had the opportunity to attend a 1.5 Day hands on Nspire workshop
this summer, and I'm getting ready to attend the 3-day session this
upcoming week. Looking forward to it. I've also had the opportunity
to attend some regional conferences where I've been introduced to the
Nspire and thoroughly enjoyed them.

Sean, do you think the decision to get the regular Nspires was okay?
Most of the students in our area take the ACT, and since the CAS is
banned on the ACT and since the Nspire can also be used as a TI-84
(which we currently make quite a bit of use of), we felt like we
should go this way for now. I have my own CAS as well as the teacher
software for both versions of the handheld, so I'm thinking that I
will use the CAS software primaily for classroom demonstrations and
discussions, etc. Any thoughts on this?

Regarding Connect to Class, I just sent off for it this week, so I
doubt that it will be here by the time school starts. One thing I'm
concerned out is that as far as I know Connect to Class isn't
availalbe for the MAC OS X operating system, and I haven't heard of
any plans for it to be available for MAC in the future. I use a
Macbook laptop in my classroom. However, my tech guys have gotten me
a program that would allow me to run Microsoft Vista on my Mac, so
hopefully that will work with the Connect to Class. I'll be anxious
to see how that goes.

Thanks, Sean! I sure do appreciate all of your help!

Bob

On Aug 1, 10:44 pm, Sean Bird <covenantb...@gmail.com> wrote:
> What level do you teach?

> I start out before the start of the year in Calculus withhttp://covenantchristian.org/bird/TTT/TI-NspireCASprimer.pdf
> (The Word doc corresponding to the pdf is available toward the top ofhttp://covenantchristian.org/bird/Nspire.htmlso you can adopt it and make

> it your own if you would like. Please share changes if you do use it. For
> example you will likely delete the CAS section and make up your own age
> appropriate follow up questions.)
>

> You may find helpful the 2.5 MB pdfhttp://covenantchristian.org/bird/TTT/BirdTTTcalcSMARTnspireSeattle09...

> SMART Notebook document version appears toward the top ofhttp://covenantchristian.org/bird/TTT.htm)
>
> I may start out the year with some activities that were written at the
> introductory level but allow the students to jump right into the math. For
> calculus that would include "Local Linearity" or "What Is Calculus?". The
> first does NOT require loading a tns file. Both are available on

> timath.com(more specificallyhttp://www.timath.com/calculus/archive/tinspire-cas). They are the first

> and last activities posted during this past school year.
>
> TImath is a valuable resource for all the other high school math subjects.http://www.timath.com/
> Also many excellent activites that include tns files, student worksheet and

> teacher notes for algebra and geometry will be available soon athttp://www.ti-algebranspired.com/

>
> Did you get Connect-to-Class yet? You can get it free (but not quick) -

> check outhttp://education.ti.com/educationportal/sites/US/nonProductSingle/syl...
>
> Also regarding management issues, you may enjoy the articlehttp://bird-godlydominion.blogspot.com/2009/01/storage-and-traveling-...

>
> Welcome to the group,
> Sean Bird
> Covenant Christian High School
> Indianapolis, IN
>
>
>
> On Sat, Aug 1, 2009 at 11:18 PM, Bob <roberteb...@hotmail.com> wrote:
>
> > Hello everyone.  I just received a set of the regular (blue) TI-
> > Nspires (20 of them) for my classroom.  I"m very excited about
> > learning about this awesome technology and incorporating it into my
> > classroom.   I also have my own regular nspire as well as my own CAS,
> > plus I have teacher edition versions of the software for both the
> > regular Nspire as well as the CAS that I can use with my LCD projector
> > and Mimio system.  My students will be using the 20 of the regular
> > Nspires that I recently received.
>
> > As a brand new user of the TINspire for the classroom, can you offer
> > me some suggestions, advice, etc. on how to best implement the use of
> > it in the classroom, especially at the beginnig of the year?  For
> > instance, any activities to introduce the kids to the handheld, etc.
> > before diving in with deeper and more involved activities?  Management
> > issues, etc?
>
> > Any advice and suggestions you can give me regarding being a brand new
> > user of this technology would be most helpful and appreciated! I"m
> > looking forward to learning more about the handheld and being a member
> > of this group! :)
>
> > Thanks very much.
>

> > Bob- Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -

[Sean Bird]

Bob,
Based on the ACT test, the blue numeric TI-Nspire seems to be a reasonable decision. Will students be using some of the handhelds from your class set for taking the test? If not, then you could have gone CAS in your classroom. If they purchase TI-Nspires, then they will feel right at home with the user interface wether they are using the TI-Nspire or TI-Nspire CAS. The only difference they may notice is on a calculator page: menu > Algebra & Calculus will not appear on the numeric Nspire. The ACT won't test them on the point of inflection that can be found on a Graph & Geometry page when the Calc Menu is enabled (from HOME > System Info > G&G settings).

Of course, your calc students will enjoy using the CAS for exploration and then on the calculator required sections of the AP exam. There are some of the activites on TImath calculus that utilize CAS (e.g. "Exponentially Fast Derivatives"). None of the other subjects require its use. (Unit conversion is utilized on page 1.3 of Raise Your Cup in Algebra 1 http://timath.com/algebra1/archive but it doesn't require the user to do the conversion.)

- Sean

[Bob]

Sean,

Another reason we decided on the blue numeric Nspire is that it is
approved for the Kansas State Mathematics Assessment exams, whereas
the CAS is not. I do have students throughout the year who request to
check out calculators from my classroom set for the ACT. I'm
anticipating that there will be some students who will want to check
out the blue Nspire for that as well and also possibly for the Kansas
State Math Assessment in the Spring.

One of the main concerns we have about the CAS is that it being too
helpful, especially for algebraic skills that students should know how
to do without the aid of a calculuator. However, I can see how great
the CAS could be for discovery, making conjectures, etc. We'll try
the blue Nspires that we got for this year, and perhaps I can order
some CAS versions later depending on budget issues, etc.

I'm thinking that using the CAS would be great if I could make
calculator and non-calculator parts of exams. Also, even though we
will be using the blue Nspires primarily, do you think I could still
make effective use of the CAS using my computer software and Mimio
system via whole class discussions, etc.? That's my plan at this
point.

I sure do appreciate your insight and expertise! I"m really looking
forward to using the Nspire! :)

Bob

On Aug 1, 11:19 pm, Sean Bird <covenantb...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Bob,
> Based on the ACT test, the blue numeric TI-Nspire seems to be a reasonable
> decision. Will students be using some of the handhelds from your class set
> for taking the test? If not, then you could have gone CAS in your classroom.
> If they purchase TI-Nspires, then they will feel right at home with the user
> interface wether they are using the TI-Nspire or TI-Nspire CAS. The only

> difference they may notice is on a calculator page: *menu* > Algebra &

> Calculus will not appear on the numeric Nspire. The ACT won't test them on
> the point of inflection that can be found on a Graph & Geometry page when
> the Calc Menu is enabled (from HOME > System Info > G&G settings).
>
> Of course, your calc students will enjoy using the CAS for exploration and
> then on the calculator required sections of the AP exam. There are some of
> the activites on TImath calculus that utilize CAS (e.g. "Exponentially Fast
> Derivatives"). None of the other subjects require its use. (Unit conversion

> is utilized on page 1.3 of Raise Your Cup in Algebra 1http://timath.com/algebra1/archivebut it doesn't require the user to do the

[Sean Bird]

Bob,
I think you are spot on.
As you know, AP Calc exams assess with technology and without the aid of graphing calculators.

Sometimes when I teach a topic I show student how to use the TI-Nspire CAS to check their work, and I tell them they will be quizzed the next day on relatively easy questions where they will not be permitted to use their handheld.

I think you can do some nice teacher-led discussions and investigations. We can do the "What do you think is going to happen if... ?" You can even ask students if there is anything else they want to try. "Who want to make a conjecture about what is going on?" Some teachers even try to promote the engagement of students my naming theorems after students. "So what does Joe's theorem state about this situation? When does the Mean Value Theorem apply? When does Joe's Theorem apply?"

- Sean Bird