Secondary School Technology Mentors

James Kulich

Department of Mathematics
Elmhurst College
190 Prospect
Elmhurst, IL 60126
USA
Phone: (708) 617-3570
Fax: (708) 617-3739
jimk@elmhurst.edu

Click to access this paper: paper.pdf

ABSTRACT

Elmhurst College and twelve Chicago area secondary schools are in the second year of a three year technology project supported by a $700,000 grant from the National Science Foundation. The project supports summer technology workshops at Elmhurst College together with on-site work during the academic year at the participating high schools. The project's goal is the development of systematic use of appropriate technological tools in the mathematics curriculum at each participating school.

Project personnel include three faculty from Elmhurst College, six mentor teachers, and approximately 60 participating teachers. The mentor teachers have extensive experience using technology in their secondary school classrooms. The participating teachers are chosen from schools which have made commitments to support integration of technology into their mathematics curriculum.

The mentor teachers receive significant release time, funded by the grant, to work with participating teachers in their schools during normal class hours. During the summer, all project personnel meet for two to three weeks of intensive workshops. These workshops provide training on the use of calculators and software, examples of effective ways to use technology in the curriculum, and opportunities for participants to investigate specific ways to coordinate use of technology in their own classes.

In this presentation, I will discuss the above material on the nature of the grant. I will also present a few specific examples of materials produced by participants and activities at participating schools.

Keyword(s): computer algebra systems, graphing calculators, teacher training, college algebra, geometry, precalculus, calculus