Desmos + New STAAR Item Types = Deeper Discourse STAAR has introduced new item types that go beyond multiple choice and griddable items. This session explored how to use Desmos to model these new items types, capture student thinking, and elicit more student discourse The goal of this session was to model new item types in Desmos, then show how… Read more →
NCTM Virtual Conference – Scaffolding Instruction for All Learners with Desmos Activity Builder Desmos provides free technology tools that build students’ math understanding through experimentation, discourse, and guided questioning. The Desmos Activity Builder allows teachers to modify tasks to support students with diverse needs. This session explores sample Desmos activities with specific strategies for differentiating interactive tasks. This session was… Read more →
This past weekend, I was honored to join 40 other new Desmos Fellows in San Francisco for a weekend to talk about access & equity, classroom practice, instructional coaching, math history, the future of math education, lesson study & we even squeezed in time to talk desmos.com and their online platform for visualizing math concepts! The welcoming crew at Desmos… Read more →
This session provided a short introduction to the Desmos Activity Builder, then explored strategies for scaffolding activities to meet the needs of struggling learners. Session Slide Deck Desmos Activity Builder: Differentiation Demonstration Desmos Activity Builder: Scaffolded Questions
I’ve mentioned the ice cabinets at this chain of convenience stores before. They provide some nice data points for a linear relationship. I finally built a short Desmos activity around the photos. Even though the short activity could be polished, it has a couple of nice features on slide #3 The user is prompted to enter an equation, and the… Read more →
Two of last week’s sessions at T3 in San Antonio highlighted some great strategies to differentiate for Special Education students using TI Nspires and TI’s Navigator teacher software. Andy Aguirre, from Northside ISD’s new Harlan HS, share very practical strategies for differentiating a TI Nspire activity to meet the needs of different learners. She began with a .tns file from TI’s… Read more →
If you haven’t heard of Desmos yet, prepare to explore some new horizons. Imagine an online graphing calculator that is intuitive, elegant, and powerful. Not imagine that is only one facet of a greater mathematics learning tool. That’s Desmos. I’ve been working with Desmos’ activity builder creating some new things, translating some of our old manipulatives to a new format, and… Read more →
Two interesting reads: To See Increases in Student Achievement in 1:1/BYOD Classrooms, Teachers Must be Given Curriculum with Technology Activities Baked in, from The Journal asserts that research shows that technology devices in the classroom will not improve student performance unless the technology is inherent in the curriculum — not just an add-on. Success requires “60 percent to 75 percent… Read more →
Today’s classroom goal was to build connections between the volume of a cylinder and its matching cone (same radius and same height) and the analogous prism/pyramid pair. There is a classic demonstration filling a cylinder/cone pair with water or sand. It takes three cones to fill the cylinder. An extensive youtube search shows only two videos of this demonstration: one… Read more →
Socrative… Thanks to MathyCathy for this one. You create a quiz. Students access the quiz online via a web browser or an iPhone/iPad app. The quiz gives immediate feedback as they answer each question, then emails the teacher a nice color-coded spreadsheet with each student’s response. Remind101… send text/email announcements to students/parents without ever sharing your phone number or email…. Read more →