Well, you’re allowed to use calculators on tests (with the memory factory reset). A Chromebook isn’t going to work for that.
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I’m glad that pretty much all of my college classes had open book tests, because remembering something isn’t the same as being able to apply it.
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I see these TI calculators all the time in thrift stores, the hardcore ebay re-sellers won’t touch them.
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Most science and math tests I took in high school had formula sheets.
Those would typically be purchased out of pocket by the teachers themselves or donated by students who are finished with them.
We don’t really budget for school supplies in public school districts anymore. The teachers I know get a pittance as a per semester stipend to purchase their own supplies, or some token amount of supplies per semester. Usually a ream or two of printer paper and a single box of pencils. Everything else they pay for themselves.
My brother, a history teacher, recently raided my folks house for old graphing calculators. Very few of the students at his school can afford them and the best way they could figure to line up a whole lot of them was to have younger staffers collect old ones from friends and family. Anyone involved in proctoring tests tends to buy 2 or 3 of them.
In large part most of your taxes in terms of schools go to underpaying teachers and athletic programs.
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just a reminder that pretty much no other country in the world allows this insane monopoly. Many have superior standards of math education too, so there is no excuse
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The division of labor! We got to support that calculator industry!
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Right? I’m currently teaching a dual enrollment class at a local HS, and the math prof has his class right after me, and they are using them in a college level course, too. But much like @anon61833566 noted above, they all have chromebooks!
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I taught myself TI BASIC at age 12, my first programming language. I spent my time in math class ignoring the teacher, and instead I made games for my TI-82. By 13, I was learning C. They really should have just put me into a more advanced math class, but that experience of TI BASIC gave me the foundation and confidence to teach myself not just other programming languages, but many other skills.
I’m not advocating for TI BASIC, or the TI line of graphing calculators, but my life would be quite different if I never used one for goofing off.
On the other hand, I definitely used the TI-89’s integral and derivative features way too much in AP Calc.
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Just a quick PA for the kids who read that: ignoring your math teacher is usually a terrible idea. UGH had a different path and has been lucky that the skills she/he developed are needed in today’s economy. But math is a beautiful thing that frames your mind properly, if taught by someone who knows how to do it.
Another PA: UGH ignored her/his math teacher prolly because the teacher sucked. So, it’s ok to learn it by yourself - in special circumstances.
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Yes, this. Math is magic, and it’s too often taught incorrectly.
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Don’t know if they still do, but when I bought a TI-81 in the before times, it came with a text book that included instructions for programming TI-BASIC. A quick googling informs me there are now plenty of online resources for the same.
https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/TI-Basic_Z80_Programming
I learned on Microsoft BASIC. Whatever gets someone interested in programming is a positive by my lights.
Apparently you can also directly program the TI’s Z80 processor in Z80 Assembly…
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Which essentially makes it a less-than-ideal Gameboy—but with more buttons!
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ok. I stand corrected. I will add that the day that my youngest brought home a calculator because he thought he lost his, it was still sealed in a new white box with the charging cable and that crazy calc-to-calc cable. I assumed the school bought them in bulk with that kind of packaging. Luckily he found his under his bed that week. Now you are making me feel guilty - i should look for his old calculator and donate it to the high school….
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Didn’t know that TI had a part in ramping up math requirements. It’s bullshit. I was an English major, yet I had to take Calculus. My mind simply isn’t suited towards advanced math. I took the class over the summer and struggled like hell to get a C. It was my lowest grade. A week after class ended, I couldn’t tell you a damn thing about Calculus and in the 20 years since, I haven’t needed it once. I agree that abstract thinking is an important skill, which elementary Algebra or Statistics teaches.
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I really dig the design of that TI-30. The calculators I grew up with were so ugly.
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LUXURY!!
I’m so old I wasn’t allowed ANY device - calculator or slide rule - in class. I seem to recall books of log tables.
ETA I see @Mindysan33 beat me to it with the ‘Luxury’ meme.
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You can never have too many LUXURY memes!
But you tell the young people today, and they don’t believe you!
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I cannot believe these things are still being sold over $120.
I was looking at getting one for home shop use in case I dropped my smartphone, and my jaw dropped that these are literally the same calculator I was forced to buy in high school twice and college once, and they are still charging this obscene fee for what is something that takes less than $5 to make.
Their monopoly is absolute bullshit more than anything I can think of in America.
I work as a machinist, and use an awesome calculator app that does more than a TI 83 for like 3$. It’s actually a free app but I paid for the full version because I use it professionally dozens of times an hour. I get paid to do trigonometry and basic algebra practically.
The app is HiPER Calc Pro. I highly recommend it.
A calculator in the Modern Age should not cost as much as a cheap Chromebook. It is ridiculous that I even have to say that
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