Using Spreadsheets in Math

Although I found many aspects of Mrs. Remille's lesson very interesting, one main lesson I learned is that using technology in teaching does not have to be complicated. I often remember my calculus teacher trying to use some complicated, fancy program to model one of our lessons. Sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn't. In either case, her program was not accessible to any of the students in the class. I now see that basic programs including Excel can be even more effective and much easier to use!

The benefits of using such programs as Excel go well beyond helping our math students understand the concepts. Familiarizing students with Excel will help students in all areas of school. To some individuals, Excel may appear complicated and intimidating. Thus, helping students learn about spreadsheets will have great benefits. The use of Excel, as mentioned in the chapter, allows students to learn concepts without having to continually perform calculations. This is one of the greatest aspects in my point of view because as a student, I always became frustrated when I understood what to do, but ended with incorrect answers because I had added or subtracted incorrectly. 

Another point of Mrs. Remille's lesson that I thought was notable was how she used a real-life example to keep the students interested. This is important to do because it will increase students' interest in the subject when they can see how math relates to everyday life. Beyond Mrs. Remille teaching with technology in her captivating lesson, she also introduced the students to math modeling.