In the process of teaching my student teaching work sample unit, it will be necessary for me to have, at a bare minimum, a whiteboard or chalkboard with a matching writing implement as well as access to copying services.  That being said, it would be agreeable for me to have access to, in addition to the items above, an overhead or projector, a graphing calculator, and a Smartboard or Mimio. 

The whiteboard/chalkboard will be necessary to work example problems with the class.  That is the absolute minimum that I will need in order to successfully teach this unit.  With no means to do examples that everyone in the class can see, it will be necessary for me to work example problems with individual students which is unreasonable and inefficient.  Having an overhead is preferable to a whiteboard or chalkboard because it is easier to clean up and easier to use with color coordination.  Preferrable even to the overhead would be a Smarboard or Mimio.  Such a device would allow me to create example problems, run through the problems, and then post the solutions and work done on the example problems to the Internet for download.  Additionally, it would be possible to save the examples created without the changes made and would then be available for use with another class at another time without any clean up.  Additionally, students tend to get very excited at the prospect of being able to use a Smartboard in class.  Since these are not devices that students have in their homes, the idea of being able to manipulate large onscreen objects in front of an audience is very appealing.  Middle school students have little stage fright when volunteering to come to the front of the class and lead the class through an example problem.  This is a technique that I have used in the past and works very well in student motivation and overall learning.  This can go a long way to improving teacher effectiveness in the field of mathematics.

Graphing calculators, while not necessary in the strictest definition of the word for a linear systems of equations unit, would be nice to have because they can speed up the process of solving problems using the graphing method.  They can also be used to quickly check one’s answers gained through other means of solving linear systems of equations.  While I will disallow student use of graphing calculators to do this, as a teacher preparing lessons, examples, worksheets, and examinations it might be nice to have a graphing calculator that can change equations into y=mx+b form.  Graphing calculators can also be used to do menial mathematic tasks such as simplifying fractions and finding least common denominators.

While the above items are mostly in the “want” category rather than in the “need” category, with the above items in hand, students will be placed in a situation of maximized potential learning.  With students in that place of maximized potential, they will be able to make the most out of each day in the classroom.