MED 308

Assignment #1

  1. Become a member of NCTM (National Council of Teachers of Mathematics).  Do this by going to www.nctm.org and selecting membership, select Student E-membership, join online. The cost is $38, which includes a one-year online subscription to one of four journals and access to many resources.  Select either the Mathematics Teacher journal or the Mathematics Teaching in the Middle School journal, depending on your interest.  Bring a copy of the email confirmation you receive a couple days later to class Thursday (the one that has your password on it, though you should cover that up!)
  2. Become a member of AMTNYS (Association of Mathematics Teachers of New York State).  Do this by going to www.amtnys.org and select Membership (in the column on the left), select New Membership.  Fill out the form and remember to choose "Full Time Student ($15 for 2 years)".  Bring a copy of the confirmation you receive to class Thursday.
  3. Purchase a TI-84 or TI-83 silver plus calculator (optional overhead version- see http://www.copcoinc.com/products/-84-lus-ilver-dition-iew-creen-alculator.htm ) and get Every Minute Counts by David Johnson. Bring your calculators to every class.
  4. Make sure you can log onto ANGEL.  All of our class communication will occur on this site.
  5. Develop a visual representation of the data collected in class today.  Be as creative as you like though I would like you to do this by hand - not on the computer, and it should be in an 8.5" by 11" format.
  6. Write down several ideas for an introductory lesson on quadratics to be presented to a 9th grade class.  You may assume that they have been introduced to quadratics in grade 8, but that introduction involved recognizing quadratic equations as being nonlinear – not finding solutions (they have had been introduced to factoring trinomials).  Write down the objectives for your lesson (i.e., what is it that you want your students to know at the end of the lesson).  Your ideas should be somewhat specific in that any problems you might present should be written down, or any tasks you develop should be summarized so another person could understand what you intend to do.