We'll start the bidding at......

This past week I was introduced to another online tool, Tinkerplots.  I think this site would be great to use in my third grade classroom.  It sounds like it would fit better with my math curriculum than Fathom would and it comes with tons of data sets that I wouldn’t really have to load anything in. 

With all the budget cuts, it was great to get advice on how to obtain more items for my future classroom.  I will now accept everything anyone ever gives me.  It may someday come in handy!  I will also have a list of things that I would like for my classroom.  It never hurts to ask everyone and anyone for donations.  I figure that once you get the word out, someone will know of someone/a company getting rid of items that could be very useful in my classroom.  I also plan on finding out what the PTSA has in terms of class funding or scholarship money. 

Another thing that left me thinking is when the topic of failure came up.  Students should have the opportunity to fail.  We learn more from our mistakes than from when we get things right.  But if a student fails too much (that will depend on the student), at what point do you step in so that they don’t get so discouraged that they give up?  How do you encourage them to continue on?  Some students don’t do well in a subject/have difficulties and don’t end up qualifying for an IEP.  Sometimes they end up getting further and further behind.  Besides differentiating, what else can we do to encourage them to not give up? 

With the introduction of websites dedicated to answering all sorts of mathematical problems, it can make some students use those sites as a crutch.  What can we do in classrooms that will deter our students from using them?  Or do we have our students use them and say that it is okay to double check your answers?  Do we embrace these sites?

The above items will have a huge impact on my classroom.  Maybe not right away, but eventually they will.  I think that the use of technology in all disciplines can help students learn.  Tinkerplots gives students another way to use and look at data.  I hope to be lucky enough to have multiple computers in my future classroom so that my students can take advantage of the sites.  I also hope that by accepting all the items given to me, my classroom with be a creative one – using what I have!  Some people don’t think that math is a creative subject, but I think it is.  Hopefully, this will encourage students to look at math (and other disciplines) in a new and different way!