Desmos - Interactive and Engaging Math Tool

 There has been a lot of discussion around the Desmos app this week at my school. Many of the math teachers have been using it for a long time, but, as with many apps, our tech team is unaware so we have to go through the process of having it vetted for regular use. There are so many tools available to educators, but because Desmos is free, interactive, and engaging, a lot of the math teachers I know use it in their classrooms.

Even if you haven't used Desmos activities, you have probably guided students to use their graphing calculator. It's easy to use and creates simple graphs which I've used to build assessment questions for my classes. Last year the Colorado state assessments starting using Desmos as their built-in calculator for testing, and the school encouraged us to expose students to it before testing season.

Desmos activities are a whole other ball of wax. They usually come with some visuals for the teacher to explore and assess before deciding if it's right for their classroom. Topics are arranged by grade-level and at high school level they are arranged by course name (i.e. Algebra 1 or Calculus). Their search bar also makes it easy to browse for a topic and check out various leveled activities. With a teacher guide and a student guide for the activity students can work independently to explore the topic you've chosen on reflect on their learning.

In a school that is spread across the state, where the majority students are virtual, Desmos is a great tool to ensure students have time to explore, create, and reflect on math topics that build foundations for future learning. Would recommend!

Facilitating Online PD Sessions for Educators

 This week I was reminded about how challenging it can be to facilitate an online session for adult learners. My school learning & development department has created an incredible training to support those of us teaching educators. They are working on some updates and revamps, a few of us were asked to participate in some discussion questions so there will be something for newbies to see and respond to when taking the course. The questions go along with some great articles, but of course I didn't even read those until after I answered the discussion questions :D Leave it to me to make things harder than they have to be!

The questions for those taking the training ask them to dig deep and plan ahead - like What brings you here? Participants in the training are volunteers for the most part, so this is such a great question that ensures they know what they are getting into! Then there are some discussions asking participants to provide tips for designing engaging visuals, discuss how their planning changes when it's virtual or in-person, and provide tips on facilitating blended learning sessions.

Just engaging in these discussions made me really think about the skills I have acquired over the past few years and how I can continue to hone them. I'll be honest, I'm prone to using PowerPoint for conveying information, and you may thinking, really?!?! In this day and age? But yes, I think there are some great benefits to using PPT when facilitating a sessions in Teams - they talk to each other. Teams has this great feature called "PowerPoint Live" that allows you to share your PPT on the screen but it also makes it interactive for participants. They can click on links in the PPT and watch videos directly on it during the presentation. I can allow them to move around in the slideshow, or restrict them to seeing just what's currently on the screen. 

'Graphic Organizers' becomes a live link when presenting PowerPoint Live in Teams.

PowerPoint also provides some really great visuals including templates that can fit a theme or just look professional. The Designer button will also give suggestions! I love this feature because sometimes I have an image I don't know how to place well, or have some wonky word spacing. The Designer usually comes up with great suggestions and makes the presentation more engaging and professional looking. 

Screenshot of Designer with the given suggestions.

I didn't think I would go on-and-on about this topic so I will stop here for now and continue later. Check out the features of PowerPoint in your Microsoft suite or create a free Microsoft Outlook account to see the online features (not as great but still really useful)!

One of my favorite templates.