Week 5 Essential Question

What am I finding as I collect data?

This week, I found that data collection does not always go as planned.  Everything went smoothly Tuesday and Wednesday.  My students worked on challenge questions and were introduced to graphing calculators.  As expected, the challenge questions caused some frustration but stimulated lively discussions.  Some of the kids had prior experience with graphing calculators so I put them to work helping other students.  My intention was to observe and listen to the discussions that occurred while they assisted each other.  The attitude toward the calculators was positive despite this being their first experience with them.  I have used them extensively in upper level classes and have seen how much students appreciate their capabilities.  I assumed algebra 1 students would feel the same way.  As the kids worked together on the challenge questions, I walked around and asked them how they used the calculators, in what ways did the calculators help, and whether other forms of technology would be helpful.  The consensus was that the calculators were all they needed for the problems they were working on.  A few asked if there was a graphing calculator app they could download for their smart phones.  I told them there was but that the app would automatically call their mothers if they tried dividing by zero.  (You have to be a math nerd to understand that joke.  My students thought it was humorous which apparently means I am creating more math nerds.)

The rest of the week was not as productive.  Friday was an in-service day so I was not able to collect any data.  I had plans to use my interactive response system Thursday as part of a lesson.  My plan was to gauge the level of student involvement with an emphasis on a few of my quiet, introverted students.  Unfortunately, my computer’s display port had a meltdown Thursday morning that rendered my projector useless and froze the computer.  My backup computer did not have the software I needed to run the interactive response system.  I was not pleased that I lost a valuable day to gather information.  Next week is another short week with kids due to parent conferences and another in-service day, which will limit the amount of student data I will collect.  I should be able to collect data from parent surveys and interviews during our parent-teacher conferences.  It will be interesting to see their responses.  

Overall, my findings are predictable.  My data collection will continue as planned unless I discover something unexpected.  As I accumulate more data, I will continue to reevaluate my questions and my approach and will adjust as necessary.  Having an operational computer will help.