Friday February 26- Blanton Museum "Geogebra"

Today a little over a dozen students from both sections participated in a 2 hour tour of the Blanton Museum on the campus of The University of Texas at Austin. The basic idea is the use of art to indicate geometric and algebraic concepts. Matt Chalker, a TA for the course, took the lead in the instructional aspect of today activities and did a wonderful job. Not all PBI students participated- only those working with teachers at Manor New Tech whose participating teachers plan to use Geogebra.

FROM THE SYLLABUS: Field Experience. A major portion of this course is the field experience. UTeach students will meet with and observe classroom teachers and “teach” approximately four times in high school classrooms. UTeach students will be required to complete an initial observation of at least two different classes at Manor New Tech High School (MNTH) by February 11. During the first observation they will select and rank the classrooms in which they wish to complete their PBI teaching experience. They will then meet, plan and coordinate as a team the implementation of an authentic project with the mentor teacher and the other UTeach students teaching in that classroom. The expectation is that the UTeach students will plan and implement the launch (beginning), scaffolding workshops (lessons) which must include pre and post assessments, and the final presentations of high school student projects. This teaching experience will occur during a 1-3 week time frame between March 1 and April 3. We will support and expect that UTeach students working with Sara Hawkins (Biology) will incorporate and conduct a field trip with the MNTH students to McKinney Falls State Park and those working with Tara Craig and Chris Fancher (Geogebra – a combined Geometry/Algebra course) will incorporate and conduct a field trip to the Blanton Museum of Art. These field trips will occur on the same day and will be scheduled for a Saturday, either in the middle or at the end of the project, with a tentative date for this trip of March 27, 2010. The expectation is that there will be a culminating class after the field trip during which MNTH students who participated in the field trip may present their findings to their fellow classmates.