Inspires My Teaching
At our first TLC (teacher leader cadre) meeting, one of our instructors Jeff Lukens had us purposefully play with temperature probes. After a few minutes of play, we made connections to math and science. This inspired me to bring probes into my classroom. I have written and received two grants from the Pearland ISD Education Foundation and the Pearland High School PTA for CBR2 motion detectors, dual-range force sensors, temperature probes, and gas-pressure sensors. Now our PAP Algebra 2 students are able to collect data to model linear, quadratic, exponential, and rational functions and make connections to the real-world.
Several workshops I have attended incorporate the TI-Navigator into the presentation. I have also increased my use of the TI-Navigator in my classroom through quick polls, sending and collecting documents, screen capture, and live presenter.
Inspires My Learning
I do not tweet a lot, but I regularly follow #T3Learns on Twitter. I have grown professionally by reading and reflecting on the books for the book studies before the T3 International Conference and books suggested by Jennifer Wilson and Jill Gough.
T3 provides the best professional development, whether it is face-to-face or via webinar. I always leave with something that I can take back to my department or my class. As mentioned in a previous post, I was inspired to get my computer science certification after attending a mini PD day on coding with the TI-Innovator hub.
Inspiring Others
The math teachers in my district use the TI-Nspire CX. I want our teachers to embrace the handheld as a learning tool. I train teachers new to our district on the features of the TI-Nspire CX. Even though our science departments still have TI-83+ and TI-84+, our students are now coming to science having only used the TI-Nspire CX, so I have also trained our district’s physics teachers. This year I am going to work with the AP Chemistry teacher on my campus on integrating the TI-Nspire CX into her course.
I presented at the T3 International Conference (T3IC) in Chicago, IL in March on BreakoutEDU using the TI-Nspire CX. As a first-time presenter at the conference, I was shocked that I was given such a large room for my session. The room was packed (~80 people), and the session went very well. I received positive feedback from several attendees.
While at the Conference for the Advancement of Mathematics Teaching (CAMT) in Fort Worth, TX in July, I was waiting for a session to begin. The presenter was walking around before her session started, and she stopped to ask me if I was presenting at CAMT. Unfortunately for her, I had just given my first presentation, and she had a presentation the next day at the same time as my second session. She had attended and was inspired by the breakout at T3IC and wanted to come to my session at CAMT. Luckily, I was presenting the same thing at CAMT that I had done at T3IC, so she wasn’t missing anything new.
Just the Beginning
I have only been a T3 Instructor for a year, so this is just the beginning. I cannot wait to see how the T3 community continues to inspire my teaching and learning and how I can inspire others as well.
To learn more about T3, visit https://education.ti.com/en/professional-development/t3-our-mission.