I agree that abuse of calculators will lead to the possible prohibition of their use in may schools. A student in high school myself, I have first-hand knowledge of the problem.

But let us not lay blame with students or Texas Instruments. The entirety of the blame lies with the teachers! If a teacher is losing in his or her competition with a calculator, the teacher is the one at fault for not keeping the students' attention! Before the advent of calculators, many students doodled or passed notes in mundane classes. However, in those classes with the great teachers at my school, who captivate students and are capable of holding their attention, students' eyes rarely stray from the front of the room.

The root of the problem stems from poor teaching and the fact that few bad teachers are willing to admit that they aren't doing a good job. The difficulties students have with paying attention in class don't come from access to calculators, but from exposure to incompetent educators and boring school material.

This comment is for the most part a crock. I have had wonderful teachers and yet I still played games during classes. The teachers are not to blame. Blame it on the lazy students.

Thats your self control problem. In good classes (a few), I pay attention. In boring ones, I don't.

If the teachers were more interesting there would be no problem with calcuator games! Like my Computer programming class, no one is ever bored! Science on the other hand, Read pages 53 through 123! <b>Why?</b>

I am one of the two kids at my school that actually have a graphlink to use, my math teacher doesn't mind if we play games once in a while, he even encourages it to a degree, but we don't play them that much, I have an 82, and an 85 but that doesnt allow me to load many other types at all I ussually get 2 or 3 different ones a week to load, ussually an 82, 83, or an 85, but that's about all so if you want to blame me for distribution you may, cause without me there probably wouldnt be good games in this school...

taking calcs home to load is a good idea for freinds but once the word gets out you'll be taking home two or three a night. I tried it freshman year but soon decided to start charging for select programs to be loaded for $3 worked great since i live in texas where the gap between proggrammers and users is immense. it put tires on my car

A very good point. If students didn't play with the TI calcs they would find some other way to entertain themselves. Are they going to ban notebooks in class to stop doodling during class?

I'm doodling right now... well, more of using my notebook computer in class, not the like teacher can tell the diffence. Hehe :)

Who's your teacher? Satan?

???????????????????????????????????????????
What does satan have to do with notebooks??
???????????????????????????????????????????

Satan And the notebooks ???

Is'nt he the creator of Windows 95/98/CE for theses computers.

He should make an os for the Ti,IT CRAHES IT SELF
and teachers d'ont have to Reset It !

MUFF

While some teachers are boring and others are more exciting, that is irrelevant. Teachers are NOT there to teach you, they are there to HELP you learn. I TEACH my dog tricks, but I LEARN Calculus from my teacher. Did you ever hear the expression "you only get out of it what you put into it"? That applies here. Don't play the games at school - you'll ruin a good thing. Instead, play them at work :D

Ummm...when you teach someone, they learn it. The words are not separate. For example, someone who learns something on their own isn't self-learned, but self-taught.

Blaming the teachers??? Who's playing the games? The students, of course! Who said school's sole purpose was to entertain the student? School is a place to learn (gasp!). I'm certainly not against playing calculator games (especially during those boring lectures), but blaming the teachers for the student playing games is outrageous. It's the student's choice to play games during class. If he/she is caught, it's his/her own fault..NOT the teacher's. The person who blames the STUDENT playing caluclator games on the TEACHER has no integrity, and can't admit when he does something wrong. Shame.

It's not the students' fault that you *have* to go to school. If a teacher is payed to teach, then they should teach. Most people don't play games when the teacher is up in the front of the room, *trying* to explain it to the students. But when the teacher says, "Okay, let's read pages 15-253" or "Do problems 31-83 on page 28" without teachers explaining, then they're not teaching. If this were meant, then students would not have to go to school. All they would have to do is stay home and read a book and do an assignment. If the calculator player is being disrupting to the class, then that person should be punished. If someone decides they want to get a "Fail" in a class, it's their choice. People shouldn't be forced to get "A"s by the teachers. They should want to get that grade. The teachers are being payed, and if the students can get as much as they want to out of learning, then everything's fine.

preach on i here ya

im guessing he's a teacher

What a bunch of Bu11 $h!t!!!!

The next time you walk into class look around.
Does the room look like you local mall?
Does it even remotely resemble a movie theater?
NO!

Teacher's priority isn't in entertaining you, it teaching you!
You're there to learn not to be entertained.
You're preparing yourself for either work after graduation, or higher education.

That doesn’t mean that school is supposed to be boring, it just means that if YOU'RE having trouble paying attention, don't blame the teachers. Blame yourself.
You always hear kids say "I'm bored" you never hear the teachers say "I'm boring."

If you don't want to learn what the teacher is presenting you with, don't expect him/her to drill it into your skull. It's not their job to make you like it!

The original article was ONE student who DECIDED not to pay attention not an entire class. Just because the teacher's teaching format isn't up to your illustrious standards doesn’t mean it's bad. The rest of the students may think he/she is that one great teacher, "who captivate students and are capable of holding their attention"

Keep that attitude up, and you won't even keep a job at McDonalds fishing fries out of the grease.
You'll be to busy complaining that the job isn't entertaining enough.

There comes a time in EVERYONE'S life when you should stop expecting the teachers to baby you.
IT'S CALLED THE FIFTH GRADE!!!!
It's people like you that make kids like the Jonesburo kids shoot their classmates.

Grow up.

Good point, but I just want to know if I have permission to use the frase "You hear kids say 'I'm bored." But you don't hear teachers saying 'I'm Boring'" in daily conversation. That's funny.

Well, I've read all of these replies to the original comment, and I feel I only need to say in response to this specific one that your last sentence there is a little harsh, don't you think??? How can you say that about someone who is just voicing their opinion?!?!? Talk about rude!

Also, at my school, at the start of the year, the # of students w/ ti-86's has grown exponentially, but has now dropped of in around late october. At the start of the year, you *HAD* to have DrugWars and *HAD* to have Tetris, and so on and so forth. But after just 1 strict lecture to all students in their respective math classes, it seems to have died down greatly. It hasn't disappeared, though, and I don't mind. I don't play in class anymore myself, but I feel if ur responsible to have them, then there is no reason not to.

It's really a hard issue to take one stand on. On the one hand, programmers need a "market" (even though no money is made). Without those *regular folk* who buy the calcs solely for games (which was the main reasone most people at my school wanted a calc, purely for games. That irritates the f*ck out of me), sites like these and tons more would have no point in being up, programmers would have no need to learn the language other than for themselves, etc. You see the chain here.

On the other hand, if a teacher catches a student during class, that takes away valuable class time, and that student loses his calc mem and is, odds are, laughed at for being caught. The student will be pissed, and will probably do it again. Then stricter punishment is enforced, then EVERYONE gets punished by banning calcs from the classes or using ones provided (My Calculus class has a set of TI-81's. How convenient. Do the job and no link jack...).

Aaaahhhhh. Feels good to say that. I'm Mike Mitchell, and that's "my two cents."

Mike M.
mike@wride.com

Wride.Com
http://www.wride.com
--TI-Reviews
http://www.wride.com/ticalcreview.htm
--TI-Projects
http://www.wride.com/calcprojects.htm

I know how you feel, I lost someone's 85, and had to replace it. The ONLY thing he used it for was games....and he doesn't even do that now. grumble grumble. Now when I take someone's calc home to put games on it, they sign a disclaimer.

I'm sorry I was speaking my mind! I forgot free speech was nonexistant and this was an authoritarian country!

I give cheers to calculator games! As an honor student, I think it is safe to say I have experienced my share of boredom. Many other game-playing students are also bored to death by the redundancy of school material. When the other kids are too stupid to understand the concept of rounding the fifth time they hear it, my limit of tolerance flies to the wind. If it weren't for my calculator, I'd probably have been severely repremanded countless times for emotional outbursts. Instead, I have two grades in science and skipped four grades in math, passing the Calculus AP exam at the age of 15. My average is 97. If it hadn't been for calculator games, I probably wouldn't ever have made it through the laborious tedium of public education.

As for those students who simply haven't any desire to learn whatsoever, taking away calculators won't get to the root of their problem, no more than a skin lotion can cure small pox.

A good teacher reaches out to students and holds their attention. Enthusiasm, dedication, and knowledge are the halmarks of a good teacher, and are often lacking in unqualified teachers. Any teacher who is incapable of holding the attention of his or her students ought not to be teaching. When a teachers sees that his students are playing games or chatting while he is speaking, that teacher ought to reexamine his methods. Confiscating calculators won't get to the root of the problem, either. Students in classes with such teachers will still be bored out of their minds, and will probably manifest their feelings in other, more disruptive ways.

Well, first I must say that I feel honored to be graced by the presence of a true genious. Wow! skiped four grades in math, I'm glad that you're speaking for the majority of people here, and not some normal Joe Shmoe who might have to actually pay attention in class once in a while.

Blaming the teachers because they are boring is not the answer, nor is taking away student's calculators. Seriously though, how interesting can you make a math class. As for teachers reaching out to students, I have never met one teacher who did not, and I've met very few who did not approach teaching with enthusiasm etc. It is the students who have to want to be embraced.

Also, as for your theory that teachers should change to meet students needs, just forget it. First of all, you'll never have a teacher who can compliment all students learning styles perfectly. Trust me on this because I've had a teacher who tried, and I must say that I learned less with the variation of teaching styles, than when I've only had to deal with one. My teacher tried very hard to make the class, spnaish 1, interesting. We had games, "free fridays" in which if we did good all week, we got to watch a movie or have a party and all sorts of other things. However, just as in all classes, the kids who did not want to learn goofed off, and the ones that did, learned some, but were hurt by the constant changing of teaching styles.

Like others have said, the purpose of school is not to be entertained, and i must say that if that is what you're looking for, you're going to be one disappointed guy when you get to college.

As for the students who don't want to learn, they should not be there, plain and simple. All they do is disrupt the others from the learning experience that they wish to have. They are not going to want to learn no matter how interesting the class is, unless its slacking 101. Also, the ones who usually play games in class are the one who are more interested in learning. If you have not noticed, the ones who really don't care about learning have found a great joy in disrupting class, and thats what they do and they do it quite well.

That said, I must say that I too have played games during class. But, I don't play them when I should be paying attention, because I am not the most gifted person in the world. I work hard to get the grades that I do, and can't afford to sit in the back of class praying to my calculator god.

Finally, I know this is a little off topic, but I can't help but write about you're idiotic comment about your first amendment rights. For someone to say that because another person made comments about what they said, they've been violated of their constitutional rights, is just stupid. You might be wonderful at math, but try a little harder in your civics classes, you might actually learn some things about the constitution.

I agree with both of the preceding people. I am a junior in high school and am two years ahead of a normal junior. If not for these calculators, I would have gone insane long ago from the endless mind-numbing ideas coming from some of my teachers mouths. The problem is not the games. The problem is that we don't have respect for the teachers. In reality, the teachers shouldn't care less if you're paying attention or not; its your education, of lack thereof. If a student wants to screw off and play games, that should be his choice and he should pay the consequences for it. If that student suffers none, then he should be in a higher level class.

(Sorry for any misspelled words)I am a Senior in High School, I dont know how to program calculaters yet, but I at least have a Graph Link. I can honestly say, that I play games in class only when things get too boring. In my opinion, teachers arent suppose to maintain attention, but would be greatly appreciated. Most of my teachers want their students to succeed, or at least thats what they say. I dont think they should take away calculaters or erase calculaters because if the student wants to divert his attention to a game instead of the class lesson, then thats his choice to take a risk. I've done well, with just a Casio scientific calculater.
I also think that erasing one's programs or taking of one's calculater should not be allowed. It is the individuals property. The calculater does not (usually) disrupt the classroom and other people's learning. The individual calculater poses no threat to the education system of learning. A teacher cannot force one to learn but can only teach and hope the students interact in way that encourages the laerning process. Despite popular belief, I think the most boring subjects can be spiced up to be more enjoyable to learn. This may be done by the way it is setup. Now, it doesnt have to include real life examples or field trips, but favors interaction with students. The more interaction, the more learning is done. The goal of the teacher should be to teach required subject, and to increase the learning ability of each student as possible.

But in relaion to game playing of calculaters during class, the game playing should be allowed. Teachers arent enirely to blame, remember school involves both student and teacher. If that teacher just plain sucks, then the student should speak up to the administrator. Its what several of my classmates an I did once to one of my teachers in my freshman year. A year later that teacher was fired because the students didnt retain enough information. I feel sorry for that teacher now-a-days, but I didnt learn a thing from that class.

I must admit this post has too much discussion on school and not calculaters. I apologize for the lost time.

We are practicing OUR right to free speech in replying. It works two ways you know.

Strange, I make As and Bs in High School, play games a lot, wish I had a gun to shoot some ppl with, and hey, I'm gonna get a job. Besides, this is the way kids act everywhere, who the HELL likes school? Wonder why you see so many kids playing games. Besides, taking from what you someone said, kids learn, they are not taught. If they want to learn, they will. And what are they gonna do, fly to Europe to mob this computer? hehehe...

Hey man, I'm sitting here in England and taking all this flack about who the hell likes school and stuff. I go to an expensive private school and it is the best school I've ever been to. Maybe unlike your school, mine is here for the student, not for an office for teachers. And yes, I am in a position to come over and 'mob' your computer.

Firstly, I've never been to your school.

Secondly, here I am in Australia attending a school that is corrupt, repressive and unjust. If it wern't for calculator gaming, I would have taken action and probably got expelled.

Calculator gaming is saving my education

Man, you have a really bad attitude. Have you ever tried to sit through AP Calculus after having a year of psyco-babble from the Pre-Calculus teacher the year before where you understood absolulely nothing? All I can say is that it's not fun being in an AP class when you almost failed the year before in Pre-Calc. Not everyone HAD a good teacher and calculator games are sometime the only way to keep your head from explodign in frustration. The only conclusions that I can make about you is A) you are a teacher harrassing people on this beard, B) you had horrible teachers throughout school and want everyone to suffer, or C) you're one of the super geniouses that don't need to work or study to get everything right. I just don't think it's right to say that teachers don't have certain obligatoins to students when they get paid for teaching. And as for me, I stumble through AP Calc with a extremely low D because of my old teacher's idiocy in teaching. (Hear that Medvetz!) Oh well, my $.02

I don't think anyone is to blame. It's like saying computers make mistakes. We can't blame Texas Instruments because they're just keeping up with demand. Teachers can't hold the blame. Some subjects are boring no matter how good the teacher is. Finally, when they are bored, students will lose interest & start doing other things with or without a TI graphing calculator. I only have a TI-80 & TI-81 & usually find myself writing in my journal when I'm bored. I don't even have any games on my calculators. Calculator games is just something that just happened.

80 and 81... EEW!!!!!!!

YUCK YUCK YUCK YUCK YUCK YUCK YUCK. That's not too much calculator power!

Well, you people will have to excuse me if I don't have a top of the line calculator. I got both the TI-80 & TI-81 for $5. I can't just fork out $175 for a TI-92 right now. Perhaps if you would like to buy it for me.......

Hey, mon... I only have a 81 'n 89 mon... dey dont have no games mon... I'm proud of dat mon... calc games are shit mon ...my $.02!

Have fun.
I have an 85 and 92+
The more games the better.
I'm already in the college of my choise, I just have to get a diploma. D is for diploma, it is good enough for me. As for a job If I worked all year around I'd make more than the algebra teachers do.
TI 80 EWWWWW
It doesn't even link,
what's up with that

Of course, most people in this forum do not even realize the true origin of school itself. It was largely based on the Prussian model of schooling.
Public education's job is only to teach subordination and dependency to a central power, and little more. It's no wonder the diversion of game-playing is so popular.

I suggest reading:

http://www.cantrip.org/gatto.html

If you think I'm a bit paranoid or odd, I'd recommend looking for the essays on public education by Thomas Dewey and Andrew Carnegie, as well as books on the 19th century Prussian model of public education. The true purpose of public education becomes painfully clear.

you bring up some very good points that I have been concerned about myself, as when I finish up I'll be certified to teach high school level math. *ducks all the tomatoes* but what would you suggest as an alternative? or a reform? I'm highly interested in what someone who has read and put some time into the topic has to say about it. As you've seen from all of the posts here, laying blame is easy, but coming up with real solutions is quite difficult. It takes time and effort that most people who lay blame don't like to deal with.

and generally to everyone out there, what have your favorite math teachers done to help make the topic more relavent to you? or capture your interest? I happen to believe that you can't motivate a student to learn, the student has to motivate his or herself. But you can make it easier for him or her to get and stay motivated. Teaching required classes in high school isn't the most interesting job to have. The math I'll probably be teaching for the first few years at least won't be all that interesting to me, especially compared to what I'm taking in college now. On top of that, the low level courses are required for most students and there will be a lot of students who aren't interested in math enrolled. that's probably my biggest concern about being a teacher. so from your own experience, how have your teachers handled this well? how have they handled it poorly?

all replies are appreciated.
jack

Your last sentence sounds like an excerpt from a math book itself. All you have to do is put some humor or fun into math classes. Realize that most people already know the material and try to teach it differently. Also don't give too many homework problems which bog down the rest of the student's work load. I, for one, am the type of person that doesn't have to pay attention at all or even do homework or study at all to ace a quiz or test. Also realize that the students who don't understand the material will probably understand it by the end of the class period.
Anyone who is playing calc games in class, or even goofing off, either (1) understands the material already, or (2) is bored to tears. If you notice this try to make the class more lively. The loudness of your voice can also create interest. Vary the pitch of your voice a little, this can create a type of tempo that can generate interest in what you are saying. If possible, try to create a test that can get a student into a higher level that way both your time and his/her time isn't wasted.
The truly best way to run a school is too offer a test on the first day of school that allows you to upgrade the class you are in with either an honors course or just to the next year. A score of 90-100 gets you into the next year and a score of 80-85 gets you into the honors classes. I know one thing, the honors courses at my school are totally ridiculous. I have an IQ of around 165 and I am not enrolled in an honors science or math course. Does that make sense? For example; to get into World History Honors at my school you have to had gotten an A in both Theology and English. Does that make sense? I am only in one honors class and it's English 2H. Tests that test your IQ are based mostly upon sience and math. The only two reasons that I am not in at least science and math are that (1) in science I was not exact in measure which was hard with my lab partners, I could have taken the test but didn't because they said I should've taken that book and so I later realized that I could've after I had completed basic chem. the year before, and (2) in math I skipped steps that I did in my head because of the ease and the saving of paper. That is not right especially since I got a 92 on the math final with only around 10 mins. of studying for that whole semester. I am the kind of person that looks at something and remembers it, and now I'm punished for skipping steps I understood and always got right. Frequently on tests I got around 102%. How could I not be in honors? Life isn't fair to me in these later years. I also go to a Jesuit school as well. I mean to get A's at my school is supposed to be difficult but it's really not. I even got an A in Latin, which is hard but not as hard as people think. I feel my talents for intelligence are being wasted.
So after that long, off-track discourse I will now stop babbling about how life is acting unfair upon me and ask that any comments be posted or sent to me (preferably).

So the question is, would students ignore a good teacher for a calculator game? I was diagnosed as Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) a few years ago, and have been trying to find teachers interesting enough to engage my attention for years. It's not impossible for a teacher's class to be more amusing then a video game-I've had several teachers I wouldn't miss for love or money.

However, I have also had a few who make me want to scream. They teach half-heartedly, they get information wrong, and they bully their students. The US education system does not seem to have any provisions for bad teachers. They may have completed the requisite courses, but some of these people just cannot teach! A teacher who helps a student to learn will get more information across. A teacher who just assigns work for the student to learn on his own and ignores them gets paid just as much.

I say that we should spend more time improving the quality of the delivery of education. We fight about rules and curriculum, but as we do, children are growing up alienated and bored, because the classes aren't working. Tight education budget? Fire the lousy teachers! Apathy and inertia are not good excuses for selling the children of my country short!

#end rant

I've found that in many classes where I use the calculator, it's actually more relevant to my future career to be making games than to be listening.

The teacher should make math games that are fun and distribute them to the class.