Mr. Higgins’ Blog

Aug 13th, 2006 by Mr. Higgins

I am privledged to be part of a Tablet PC project in my local school district. There are so many ideas that surface in my mind when I start thinking about the possibilites for instruction. The Tablet PC is a Gateway M285-E model. There is a lot of great software installed such as OneNote, Windows Journal, and Equation Editor. Picture is seen below.

One interesting part of my teaching assignment is that I am being utilized as a teacher with a computer lab classroom, but I teach mathematics for a period. So, I am going to have a group of 24 Algebra II students in a computer lab with a small whiteboard, projector, Tablet PC, and my inexperience. At first, I was trying to figure out how I could manage this situation when the only model of instruction for mathematics I have ever seen is in a “normal” classroom. I have come up with some ideas…

I can use the tablet for our basic notes of course along with the small whiteboard; however, I really want to make an effort to create colorful graphs and equations on the tablet in Windows Journal and Microsoft OneNote.
I am going to use Virtual TI as my calculator emulator. This will give me a lot of freedom to walk around the classrom and have students do calcuations using my tablet. I may also incorporate Equation Writer into the process also.
I am going to use my Drupal website I created for homework and discussion as a means utilizing the computers.
Just have a great attitude and show the students that I really care.

Here hoping I get a few comments;

Posted in Math, Tablet PC

2 Responses to “Hopes for Tablet PC Use: Math Class”

on 14 Nov 2006 at 11:44 am1Susan Smith

We are doing the same things. I am trying to come up with other things to use. I’ve used Graphcalc http://www.graphcalc.com to put in my equations that I want to demonstrate to students in advance. We also use OneNote for all of our notes and save them to the server as MHT files so the kids can get the notes if they need them. Have you found and EASY way to put graphs into your notes. I’ve been opening a template that I made that has one .jpg with a graph and then copying and pasting it into OneNote where I need it. It sure would be nice if Onenote had an “images” toolbox or something that I could open and just DRAG the graphs I need (small, medium, large, with coordinates, without etc.) Am I missing something?
on 28 Nov 2006 at 11:20 pm2David Jacobus

Susan, I just record my lessons as I teach with the tablet pc: I use Camstasia and a wireless vga adapter hooked to a video projector. Graphs are easy to put into one note I just use powerpoint and then send it to one note: Here are some of the lessons for you to see:
http://gohs.tvusd.k12.ca.us/TeacherWebs/CareerTechnical/jacobus/Geometry%20A/CH%202/CH%202.htm