Why Desmos Is My Favorite Technology Tool

      Earlier this year, I started writing about some of my favorite technology tools, and I've even written about Desmos as one of those tools.  But I'm here today to tell you even more about how much I love Desmos!  Previously I wrote about how much I love the teaching activities part of Desmos, but my love of Desmos started with the graphing calculator part of Desmos. Here are a few of the features that I love on the graphing calculator side of Desmos.

1.  Linear regression
I can't even begin to tell you how much easier it is to use Desmos than a regular graphing calculator.  I teach one section of Integrated Math 1, and I always used to completely DREAD the lessons on linear regression.  You know, like, give me a stomachache and make me not want to get out of bed that morning kind of dread. I would spend forever the day before making sure that every graphing calculator was working and had all the right settings....and it never mattered.  I would still spend the entire hour running around, fixing settings and putting aside the calculators that I couldn't figure out what was wrong.

But not with Desmos.  With Desmos it's soooooo easy!  No settings to worry about, much easier to enter data.  It's just EASY!  Plus, they have a super easy tutorial.  You just need to click on the question mark in the upper right-hand corner, and the tour to show you how to do regression is right there.

2.  Create tables and graphs I can screenshot to use in other things
When I'm making a test or activity for class, I often find myself using Desmos and taking a screenshot.  Easy peasy!

3.  Label axes and zoom in and out on your graph
This is kind of a subpoint from above, but I have recently discovered that you can label the axes on your Desmos graph. Plus you can easily zoom in or out depending on the view you want to see of your graph.   Makes it even better!

4.  Export and share your graphs 
This is also useful in addition to taking a screenshot.  I find that the lines are a little bit darker than a screenshot, so sometimes I prefer this method.

In addition, you can also share a graph this way.  For example, if you had created a graph that you already set up some of the labels or axes for your students, you could share it with them.

5.  You can add photos to the background of your graph.
This is a great way to incorporate real-life situations and help students connect them to the real world.

6.  Students can easily graph systems of equations and see the point of intersection with accuracy to the nearest tenth.
Last year, I was teaching a lesson from one of my favorite units, Moving Straight Ahead.  This is a unit about linear relationships, and we were working on the Henri and Emile problem.  This is a problem about two brothers who are racing.  They have different speeds, and the older brother gives the younger brother a head start.  Students are supposed to decide how long the race will be so that the younger brother wins a close race.
Most of my students solve this using a table or guess and check.  I was so excited to watch one group of students decide to use Desmos to solve the problem.  They graphed the equation of each brother and could clearly see the point of intersection (where the brothers are tied).  I thought it was absolutely amazing that students saw the technology of Desmos as a tool to help solve the problem, and understood how to use it and how to interpret the answer.  The rest of the class was so impressed with this solution....and wished they had thought to use it! 

7.   Add sliders to let students play around with concepts of slope and y-intercept.
This is such an easy way for students to play around with what happens to your line as you change elements of the equation, without having to graph everything by hand.  It helps students to see the big picture and analyze patterns.

If you haven't yet, it's time to give Desmos a try!  Leave a comment telling me your favorite feature of Desmos!

Favorite Techology Part 1: Desmos Teaching Activites

         I'm going to spend a few blog posts talking about some of my favorite technology sites and applications to use in my classroom, and my favorite features of each.

       Usually, I'm a "save the best for last" kind of gal, but for this I've decided to dive in with my favorite....Desmos!  I have written before about how much I love Desmos, but today I want to tell you about a few of my favorite features (and a little bit about how to use them!).

     There are tons of cool activities that have already been created to use on Desmos.  If you've never tried any, poke around and find one to try.  My favorites are MarblesSlides and Inequalities on the Number Line, but there are tons of great ones to pick from!

     Here are a few reasons that I love creating my own Desmos teaching activities:

1.  One of the things that I love about Desmos activities that I create myself is all of the different options that I have for what I can add to them.  Here is what you can add to your Desmos activities:

• graph
• table
• sketch
• media (picture or video)
• note  (you give information to students)
• input  (students input text or math equations)
• choice questions (choose between multiple choice, multiple mark, or explanation)
• card sort or marble slides activity

You can even combine more than one of these things on to a single screen.  For example, you could have a graph on the screen and an input box where students have to respond to a question about the graph.  

2.  Another thing that I love is that I can see all of my students work on one screen.  I can quickly see who has finished which slides.  I can click on a student's slide to get a closer view of their work.  This really allows me to give students real-time feedback!  Having everyone's answers in one place also allows for terrific use of student work to guide discussion, as I can quickly scroll through answers to find ones that I want to highlight in class.

Notice that Brahmagupta has made a mistake on the purple line.  This makes is so easy to find mistakes and talk with students.

3.  My class really likes to have me use the "Anonymize" feature, which assigns each student the name of a famous mathematician.  It's fun to hear, "Cool, I'm Katherine Johnson!" or to see kids looking up mathematicians to find out who they are.  I also like this feature because when I notice a problem, I can call out "Pythagoras, it looks like the second point on your graph is off.   Please double check it" and give kids feedback without embarrassing anyone.

4.  I like to set up my activities so that students get to see the answers of other students after they complete a slide.  I think it's really helpful for students to see what other classmates were thinking, and how they justified their thinking.

5.  Another feature that I really love about Desmos is the fact that you can carry forward a graph from one screen to another and kids could continue to work on a graph from one screen to another. 


If you're ready to create your own Desmos activity, go to https://teacher.desmos.com/ and choose  choose "Custom" on the menu on the left side of the page.  Then click "New Activity" in the upper right hand corner.    Then click "New Activity" in the upper right hand corner of the next screen.

This short video should give you some ideas of how to add things to your Desmos activity.

Good luck, and I hope you love creating these activities as much as I do!

Have I Mentioned that I Love Desmos.....

I know I've said this before, but I really love Desmos.  Today was one more example of that.

We are working on proportional relationships right now.  We've been working on  proportions and unit rates, but now it's time to move on to the next level of understanding.  I'm trying to get students to see the connections between what we have learned about unit rates, and tables, graphs and equations.

The last couple of days I've been doing a series of partner activities about proportional relationships.  The first activity was a breeze for the kids....find the unit rate.  The first time around all of the kids had the same unit rate so they could check each other's work.  Then we did another activity where they kids had different unit rates and had to compare and choose the better deal.

Then I had the kids graph the unit rates.  I don't know why I'd never thought to do this before, but it was a great addition to this activity.  On one graph, I had the kids graph both of their points (such as 12 books for $48 and 6 books for $24).  Then they graph the unit rate (1 book for $4).  It was a good chance for kids to make the connection about all of the points in a proportional relationship falling on a straight line.

With the second activity, I decided to save some time and show some graphs on Desmos instead of having kids graph them.  It may have been a split second decision, but it worked out great! In one class, the Desmos graphs brought up a major misunderstanding that I wouldn't have realized otherwise....and Desmos made it so much easier to clear up.  We were looking at this graph below, and my students though that the green line was a lower unit rate because the line was shorter...that was all they could see.

Luckily, with Desmos it was so easy to take care of this misconception.  I quickly changed from the tables I was using to equations, as shown below.  

As students watched me type the equation and saw the lines become longer, it was like I could see the light bulbs come on, and within a couple of questions they could explain not only which unit rate was better but what they had misunderstood.  This was definitely a case of technology supporting understanding, in an immediate way that other tools couldn't have done...this is technology at its best.  Simple, but awesome!

5 Best Things from Last Year...as I Start Thinking about Next Year!

Well, it happened today.  My least favorite day of the summer.....the day my letter came.  You know the one that tells me all about reporting back to work.  That reminder that summer is drawing to a close...oh no!

But, now that I've had a little while to take it all in, I've decided the best thing to do is reflect back on the best things from last year to get me excited for next year.  So here is my top 5 discoveries last year.

1.  The "Train Problem" from the MidSchool Math conference.  This was the most amazing conference I've ever been to, and the train problem was my absolute favorite part!  It was your traditional train problem....you remember (perhaps with horror!) the kind....two trains are headed on the track....blech!  Anyway, same math, but presented in the best way.  We signed up as "spy teams", and we had to save the world.  From two trains.  Headed towards each other on the same track.  It was totally  your classic story problem, but if you change up the way it was presented, it was AMAZING!  

      

Unfortunately, my team did not save the world.  But this did help me realize that the key word in "story problem" is STORY.....take the math and put it in an interesting story that the kids can't resist.  

I tried one of my own math stories about a killer vine that was taken over a compound in the post-apocalyptic future, and the kids loved it.  The kids took on the role of groundskeepers that had to use a map with the growth pattern marked to determine how long it would take until the vine would bein to threaten the buildings.  Then they had to figure out the "combination" to the safe, and finally they had to find the right mix of chemicals to kill the vine.  That was definitely the most excited my kids were to figure slope all year long!  When the kids got the "safe" open, the directions told them where to find the next clue.  It also mentioned that they should be "low-key" and not tip off the other groups where to find the next clue.  This was the best part to watch...7th graders are so funny!  This was definitely one of my favorite days last year, and the kids loved it!  You can check out this math story and others that I have created.

2.  I discovered escape rooms....and Breakout EDU!  My family went to an escape room and had such a blast, I was excited to find out about Breakout EDU.    It's basically a box and a bunch of locks, and the students are trying to get in to the box, solving a series of puzzles.  I didn't get my breakout box until the very end of the year, so I only had time to do a couple of breakouts, but they were fun!  It was awesome to see some of my kids that are usually disengaged in class taking a role as leaders.  Looking forward to more of this next year!

3.  Desmos was a great discovery.  I used to absolutely dread having to teach anything with graphing calculators because I would spend the entire lesson running frantically around the room resetting calculators that were working at the beginning of the day!  This year I used Desmos, and it was the most stress free time teaching linear regression I've ever had.   It worked easily, no settings to redo, plus the added bonus of being able to easily use "real" data from the internet instead of the lame data in the book.  My kids would even think of using Desmos as a tool to solve problems without being prompted....that's what technology is supposed to do!

4.  Desmos....again (and that is not a typo!).  At the end of the year, I discovered the capability of creating lessons on Desmos and it was awesome!  Kids work through the lesson screen by screen, but the best part was I could go to one screen and see every single answer given to a certain question.  What a great way to give immediate feedback to students.

5.  And speaking of feedback, my final one is quia.  Trying to give kids useful feedback, not just a checkmark, has been a goal of mine for the last couple of year.  Quia is an excellent way to do this....this online platform allows you to create quizzes....no big deal.  The cool part is you can put in different feedback for if they get it right or wrong, and set it so that they get the feedback while they are working if that is what you want.  I really like this feature, plus it lightened my grading load.  A win-win!

Feedback for incorrect answers....that's the best part.  They learn while they're taking the quiz!

Whole Class Participation Techniques

         As this school year begins, I've been excited about how my classes have been taking shape so far.  The kids are great, and the classroom is starting to feel like community.  We're all starting to get to know each other a bit, and the kids are starting to understand my expectations.
          I read a book over the summer about total participation techniques.  I was really excited about this idea of getting every kid to answer questions, rather than just one kid.  So as I started planning for building my classroom climate, this was one of my major considerations.  I really wanted to utilize technology in a way to increase whole class participation whenever possible.  These have been the things that I've been really pleased with in the first two weeks when it comes to increasing class participation.

1. Go Formative--I was introduced to GoFormative as one of the sessions at Space Camp this summer and thought it had potential.  I tried it last week and loved it!  I have used online quizzes on Google forms or quia, but what is different about Go Formative is that you are seeing data real-time (not just when kids finish).  And not only can you see it real-time, you can send kids individual feedback, and they can make corrections based on the feedback you sent them.  So here was a sample question:

The answer I was wanting was that students disagreed, because the numbers were not in order.    

Here is an example interaction between one student and myself.

The student's initial response (which you can't see because he fixed it) was "agree", so I sent him the first message about "What do you do first?"  This helped him realize the numbers weren't ordered, and he then changed his answer simple to "disagree".  However, I also wanted students to justify their answer, so I sent the second message about "Why do you disagree?", leading to his final response.
            I was impressed with how powerful these interactions were, and look forward to using this tool more in my classroom!

2.  Desmos--I have written before about being a big fan of Desmos, but this week as I used it as a way to encourage whole class participation and formative assessment.  We were doing one of my favorite lessons, one about students who are going into business together.  My class has to analyze the business plans in terms of how much money each partner initially has, and how much they save each week.  It's a great activity to teach distributive property, combining like terms,  and the appearance of linear functions with positive/negative slope.  I have always loved this lesson, but Desmos added something to it.  We did most of the lesson on paper, and then I used just a few Desmos questions for real-time formative assessment.

I love being able to see everyone's response to a question on one screen.  I also like being able to quickly show several different strategies for determining whose graph it was, while highlighting student work.  It was fantastic!

3.  Response Cards--This was my low-tech whole class participation technique...but still effective.  We were having a debate about a question I had on the board, so I had students take out the "agree, disgree, or not sure" cards. I was able to get a quick feel for the mood of the class, as well as who might present arguments for each side to further our discussion.  Quick, easy method for formative assessment!  (You can get these response cards free at my Teachers Pay Teacher store, by the way)

4.  Google Questions on classroom--I really enjoyed using the question function on Google Classroom.  I played a video which showed a visual representation of mean, and then asked students to respond as a Google Question whether they thought the video represented mean, median or mode.  Again, quick, easy formative assessment.  Some classes got it right away, and that was great.  Other classes were split down the middle at first, but after viewing the responses in the question, every class quickly concluded that is was mean

The whole interaction probably only took 10 minutes, and it was extremely effective!

5.  Kahoot--This is certainly not a new one to me, as I used Kahoot frequently last year as well.  This year, I'm trying to refine a few things about Kahoot.  A couple of things I'm planning to incorporate in my Kahoots this year are spiraling review and trivia. I want to add just a couple of spiral review questions to every Kahoot, just to keep skills sharp.  And the trivia is just for fun...the kids love knowing that every now and then I'll throw in something random just for fun!
       I also love to use Kahoot to teach error analysis, and trying to get the kids to figure out what error had to be made to get the incorrect answers.