I-Touch Update

Well, I still am not convinced about the usefulness of the I-Touch.  I looked up the price.  Each costs approximately $230.00.  For an average class of students (29-30) that would be a total cost of (approximately) $6,670.00.  I did some further calculations and determined that for the same price, you could purchase between 7-10 basic notebook computers and one interactive smartboard and projector.  If you already have a projector -- BONUS! you can buy up to two additional computers.  Or you could buy one less computer and add a couple of high quality microphones and a portable video camera/digital camera.

Math Identity

Leatham and Hill (Exploring our Math, 2010) talk about peoples' (students, teachers) beliefs and attitudes about math as something that is generally more complex than we realize.  They have devised a series of activities to help students think about their own relationship to math as well as their beliefs about math.  Following up with whole class discussions is meant to shed light on the variety of perspectives about math. The intention of the reflection and discussion is to help "expand our beliefs about math and...reinforce the idea that math is creative".  As teachers, becoming more aware of how our students perceive math can help us design our classroom and lessons to empower rather than disempower students.