It takes a team to help a school and district function effectively, and all employees play an important role in the lives of children, families, and the community. Each month, we recognize math teachers who are making a positive impact in Tyler ISD.
FOR FEBRUARY, THE FOLLOWING EDUCATORS WERE SELECTED:
- Stacy Mathis - 3rd Grade, Owens ES
- Cheryl Allen - Algebra 1, Hubbard MS
- Shelby White - Algebra 1, Legacy HS
The Texas Council of Teachers of Mathematics (TCTM) has created a YouTube video series detailing the new item types that will be assessed on STAAR 2.0 beginning this year. The videos, 5-10 minutes in length, show example questions, scoring, and use of the embedded tools.
Click HERE to access the video series.
Lead4ward has created a set of what they are calling transitional items to help teachers visualize the new item types. This resource places a traditional STAAR item side-by-side with it's technology-enhanced counterpart. This resource has been uploaded into the same Google folder as your curriculum documents, in a folder titled "Lead4ward Resources."
For direct access, click the links below.
Do your students ever say things like, "I just know" or "I don't know"? What can we do with that? How can we help students have meaningful discussions about their thinking and why is it so important? Listen in to episode 128 to learn how we can help students clarify their thinking in order to be able to discuss their strategies.
Talking Points:
- When students say "I just know" because they just don't know what else to say or do
- We can do more than we can say and say more than we can represent
- Do, Say, Represent
- The importance of knowing your content and knowing your students
- Helping students grapple with and resolve disequilibruim helps clarify and solidify their learning
Painted Cube
Imagine that we paint a 3 x 3 x 3 cube blue on every side.
- How many of the small cubes have 3 blue faces?
- How many have 2 blue faces?
- How many have 1 blue face?
- How many have not been painted at all?
What Does ChatGPT Mean for Math Teaching?
ChatGPT and its successors will disrupt and transform many human activities—including education—for better or for worse. To date, most education reporting has highlighted ChatGPT’s potential to facilitate cheating and plagiarism. The bot’s ability to fabricate an admissions essay raises the question of whether colleges that no longer require standardized tests will need to drop the essay requirement as well. How do we respond in our teaching, knowing this tool is now readily available to students?
What about math? As of now, the bot can do things like describe Pythagoras and provide examples of how the theorem is used. It can solve simple math problems like addition, multiplication, percents, and the like. However, when asked to state common misunderstandings of Pythagoras' theorem, solve complex math problems, or solve an equation when typed out in complete sentences instead of numbers and symbols, ChatGPT struggles.
In the not-too-distant future, we may have intelligent programs that can tutor students in specific subjects—programs that can converse in natural language, draw on deep and accurate representations of subjects like geometry, and recognize and correct the common missteps and misconceptions that lead to wrong answers. But we are not there...YET.
Click here to read more from Education Next.
