Ms.

Martinis Weekly Newsletter

Technology in the Math Classroom: Beyond

Calculators
Beginning this week, students will be starting their unit on algebra. We are fortunate to have many math
software programs at our disposal here at the high school that we will able to use for this unit!

Algebra Touch in

This program is a wonderful tool

for investigative learning.
Students will be using the classroom iPads to
work with Algebra Touch often as we learn
different topics within this algebra unit. This each problem. There is great animation that
program is very interactive because it allows
allows students to see these processes. For
students to solve and simplify a variety of algebra example, for a problem like x4x4, the students will
expressions and equations step-by-step. When watch it expand to xxxxxxxx so they can
they are using Algebra Touch, students will have explicitly see why it equals x8. For distribution
the opportunity to be active learners, rather than problems, there is a great animation that shows
passive. There are options to work with the outside term being applied to terms within
simplification, like terms, multiply-then-add, parentheses.
factors, elimination, equations, distributions, and
exponents. For the most part, it is organized in
order or increasing difficulty so students can start
on the easier topics that they should already be
familiar with in order to be able to move on to the

topics we will be learning about in class. For
concepts such as elimination and equations, I will
use this app in the classroom toward the
beginning of the unit. I will have students work on
iPads individually or in pairs to go through the
Another activity I have planned is for partners to
problems. Algebra Touch has problems at both
use the create your own feature on this app to
novice and master levels and only one problem
make problems for each other to solve which will
shows on the screen at once so students can really
be great for their learning. Algebra Touch is an
focus on the process. With each problem, there is
easy-to-use software program that will be great
a help option in the top right corner that will give
for introduction to some basic topics for high-
students advice on how to solve the problem,
schoolers and I cannot wait for students to start
which will allow them to be able to start seeing
working with it!
patterns and reasoning for the certain steps taken


The creator of the videos, Sal Khan, explains topics

deliberately and clearly, leading to a very sound
educational approach. If a student does not
understand something, these videos are an
Khan Academy appealing way to learn. Sal lays out the processes
and students could always pause the videos and
This resource is a website take notes as they go. In addition to the videos,
that is free to all students there are an abundance of practice problems in
and does not require an app download unlike the forms of quizzes and unit tests, so students can
Algebra Touch. Whereas Algebra Touch is a great check their progress as they go.
tool for introduction and investigation in the high
school years, I encourage students to use Khan
Academy for reinforcement and review. The other
program has a clear focus on algebra, which is
great for our current topic, but a wonderful
feature on this website is that it has resources for
a wide variety of topics. In fact, there are even
science and history topics, such as chemistry and
world history. My hope is that students will
become comfortable with this website and be
inspired to use it for years to come in a variety of
classes. Within each topic, there are many
individual lessons. For example, under algebra,

students can focus on solving equations and even
narrow it down further by looking at linear
equations word problems. The trademark of Khan
Academy are the video explanations.

Over the year, we will occasionally watch some of

these videos during class as an alternative to a
lecture by me, but I will mostly encourage
students to use this website at home,. It is very
easy to navigate and is appropriate for students of
all grade levels.