Monday, July 23, 2018
Thursday, March 22, 2018
Speed Dating
When I first found the MTBoS, one of the first things I heard about what "speed dating." Perhaps it's just what I remember because it seemed so out of place in a classroom.
For whatever reason, in the years that followed, I have never used the structure. Last week was our annual week of mission trips and life skills classes. That meant returning to eight days of classes this week and next before Spring Break. Our factoring test will happen right before we leave, so I needed something to fill these few days with practice since we did all of our learning before the week of trips.
Enter: speed dating. I pulled together an assortment of factoring problems (GCF, grouping, trinomials, special cases) and wrote each on a quarter sheet of paper. We set the tables in parallel rows and had the students on the interior rotate each round. By my third class, I added in conversational aspects where they greeted their partners and asked them a random question. We are a small school where most of our students know one another, but I was so pleased when these questions helped create relationships between my students who talk a lot and my students who rarely engage with anyone else. They spent ten seconds sharing something about their life (favorite color, plans for spring break, which trip they went on last week), and it promoted really positive conversation. I don't often work on that relationship building because our general school culture provides so much time for it outside of class, but experience made me want to do more.
With regard to the activity itself, the ownership students took over their learning was huge. I had students telling me that they felt like they really understood factoring! They were so proud of themselves. By the end, they were standing up next to each other showing each other how it worked whenever their partner was stuck. For as much as I've harped on them helping each other, with this structure, they really did it!
For whatever reason, in the years that followed, I have never used the structure. Last week was our annual week of mission trips and life skills classes. That meant returning to eight days of classes this week and next before Spring Break. Our factoring test will happen right before we leave, so I needed something to fill these few days with practice since we did all of our learning before the week of trips.
Enter: speed dating. I pulled together an assortment of factoring problems (GCF, grouping, trinomials, special cases) and wrote each on a quarter sheet of paper. We set the tables in parallel rows and had the students on the interior rotate each round. By my third class, I added in conversational aspects where they greeted their partners and asked them a random question. We are a small school where most of our students know one another, but I was so pleased when these questions helped create relationships between my students who talk a lot and my students who rarely engage with anyone else. They spent ten seconds sharing something about their life (favorite color, plans for spring break, which trip they went on last week), and it promoted really positive conversation. I don't often work on that relationship building because our general school culture provides so much time for it outside of class, but experience made me want to do more.
With regard to the activity itself, the ownership students took over their learning was huge. I had students telling me that they felt like they really understood factoring! They were so proud of themselves. By the end, they were standing up next to each other showing each other how it worked whenever their partner was stuck. For as much as I've harped on them helping each other, with this structure, they really did it!
Sunday, January 28, 2018
Assessment in Desmos
We had a wacky fall semester. Because of some construction, we started later than usual, then we lost a week to Hurricane Irma, and before I knew it, I had to bump two topics I usually teach in the fall (systems of linear inequalities and absolute value functions) to the spring.
As I was looking through activities in the Desmos Bank, I found one that I really liked and thought I could actually adapt into an assessment since this entire "mini-unit" is comprised of graphs. We did multiple Desmos activities for each, and I prepared my students from the beginning that this test would be different than other tests they've taken this year. This is the assessment
On test day, we used iPads and Apple Classroom. I was able to lock their screens into Safari (though not into that specific tab) and see that they remained in Desmos the entire time on my iPad. Through the Desmos Teacher part of Activity Builder, I could see their specific work and progress through the activity. Having both seemed like overkill at times but was also really nice for a well-rounded perspective.
After the test, I gave them a quick survey to get feedback about their experience. Every student but one had incredibly positive comments.
For the first class, I neglected to give them paper. They are used to writing on the white board table with dry erase markers, but for integrity reasons, I didn't want them doing that. After their feedback about how hard it was to do without writing anything down, I gave my other two classes a blank piece of paper. And I gifted that first class an extra point (out of 25) for being my guinea pigs (which I don't ever do).
I wasn't sure how I was going to grade/return their tests, but I ended up creating a score sheet that listed the screen number and a brief description. Then I had a blank next to each possible place for earning points. I like being able to pause the activity so that I know they can't get back into it and change their answers, but I don't like pausing the activity because I want them to be able to go over their work.
**The above is the blog post I intended to write last weekend after giving this assessment. Then this week happened.**
The results of this assessment blew all other tests out of the water. I had higher scores than ever, and they had answered in really interesting ways. However, I had a few students who REALLY struggled. Since it was such a unique experience in the classroom, I knew we had to spend some time discussing it after the fact.
From the teacher dashboard, I was able to anonymize their names so that we could speak about individual student work without them knowing who was who (and even without knowing who they were themselves!) In one of my classes, the resource teacher was sitting in to check in with some of her students, and her reaction to the depth with which we could discuss work was one of my favorite parts. No one said, "Aristotle is stupid. Aristotle doesn't know anything. etc." instead, they made comments like, "Aristotle didn't read the directions. Aristotle needs to ask more questions in class. Aristotle should come see you for help." We were able to talk about why students who had used inclusive inequalities that went through the point were correct but those who had a dashed line even though it looked like it went through the point didn't actually include the point. There were so many "aha" moments for students who had memorized this idea but didn't really get it until that discussion. We could also speak about how different answers could all be correct and how elegant some of the solutions were. That discussion might be the best thing we've done all year.
Unfortunately, I'm not sure I can really work something like this into my assessments for the rest of the year, but it was a total hit. I'd love to move this direction in the future.
As I was looking through activities in the Desmos Bank, I found one that I really liked and thought I could actually adapt into an assessment since this entire "mini-unit" is comprised of graphs. We did multiple Desmos activities for each, and I prepared my students from the beginning that this test would be different than other tests they've taken this year. This is the assessment
On test day, we used iPads and Apple Classroom. I was able to lock their screens into Safari (though not into that specific tab) and see that they remained in Desmos the entire time on my iPad. Through the Desmos Teacher part of Activity Builder, I could see their specific work and progress through the activity. Having both seemed like overkill at times but was also really nice for a well-rounded perspective.
After the test, I gave them a quick survey to get feedback about their experience. Every student but one had incredibly positive comments.
For the first class, I neglected to give them paper. They are used to writing on the white board table with dry erase markers, but for integrity reasons, I didn't want them doing that. After their feedback about how hard it was to do without writing anything down, I gave my other two classes a blank piece of paper. And I gifted that first class an extra point (out of 25) for being my guinea pigs (which I don't ever do).
I wasn't sure how I was going to grade/return their tests, but I ended up creating a score sheet that listed the screen number and a brief description. Then I had a blank next to each possible place for earning points. I like being able to pause the activity so that I know they can't get back into it and change their answers, but I don't like pausing the activity because I want them to be able to go over their work.
**The above is the blog post I intended to write last weekend after giving this assessment. Then this week happened.**
The results of this assessment blew all other tests out of the water. I had higher scores than ever, and they had answered in really interesting ways. However, I had a few students who REALLY struggled. Since it was such a unique experience in the classroom, I knew we had to spend some time discussing it after the fact.
From the teacher dashboard, I was able to anonymize their names so that we could speak about individual student work without them knowing who was who (and even without knowing who they were themselves!) In one of my classes, the resource teacher was sitting in to check in with some of her students, and her reaction to the depth with which we could discuss work was one of my favorite parts. No one said, "Aristotle is stupid. Aristotle doesn't know anything. etc." instead, they made comments like, "Aristotle didn't read the directions. Aristotle needs to ask more questions in class. Aristotle should come see you for help." We were able to talk about why students who had used inclusive inequalities that went through the point were correct but those who had a dashed line even though it looked like it went through the point didn't actually include the point. There were so many "aha" moments for students who had memorized this idea but didn't really get it until that discussion. We could also speak about how different answers could all be correct and how elegant some of the solutions were. That discussion might be the best thing we've done all year.
Unfortunately, I'm not sure I can really work something like this into my assessments for the rest of the year, but it was a total hit. I'd love to move this direction in the future.
Saturday, December 23, 2017
An attempt at SBG in a non-SBG environment
For several years now, I have given a group task instead of a test for our unit on functions in Algebra 1. We do so many collaborative group activities as we explore patterns, domain/range, and functions/relations that giving a group assessment seems the only reasonable choice.
Students (in groups of four) travel to seven different stations around the school. Many of the tasks are open-ended, all are more challenging that I would give on a standard test. While I like the activity a lot, this year I spent a good deal of time thinking about assessing the task. I wanted it to be out of a certain number of points that was not necessarily the same as the number of parts within each station. Rather than grading each step for its own sake, I was forced to consider the entire body of work and determine the students' level of understanding. I realized that this is essentially how SBG works and why I find it so preferable to traditional grading. In traditional grades, it might be the case that one student misses more parts of problems (and thus earns a lower grade) but has better overall understanding than another student who has a surface level understanding but can better complete the steps of a process. Of course, this also speaks to the nature of the question being asked.
It may have taken me four years, but I finally understand why I love my assessment plan for this unit more than any of the others!
Students (in groups of four) travel to seven different stations around the school. Many of the tasks are open-ended, all are more challenging that I would give on a standard test. While I like the activity a lot, this year I spent a good deal of time thinking about assessing the task. I wanted it to be out of a certain number of points that was not necessarily the same as the number of parts within each station. Rather than grading each step for its own sake, I was forced to consider the entire body of work and determine the students' level of understanding. I realized that this is essentially how SBG works and why I find it so preferable to traditional grading. In traditional grades, it might be the case that one student misses more parts of problems (and thus earns a lower grade) but has better overall understanding than another student who has a surface level understanding but can better complete the steps of a process. Of course, this also speaks to the nature of the question being asked.
It may have taken me four years, but I finally understand why I love my assessment plan for this unit more than any of the others!
Thursday, November 23, 2017
Checking in
This has been a challenging year. Between starting later than usual (construction), a missed week for Hurricane Irma, and the loss of one of our 8th graders to cancer, it was a really difficult first month. We never seemed to be able to get in the groove.
Because of the later start, we also lost all of our days off between Labor Day and Thanksgiving. That was rough. Even with two days off for a conference and a personal day after a half marathon, I was really close to feeling burnt out. One of the greatest gifts of the MTBoS community is a mutual understanding of how difficult teaching is, especially at certain times of the year. I really appreciate being able to have someone else who is totally outside my circumstances also say, "Yes, this is a tough week. It will get better." Because then I realize that my annoyance isn't my students, co-workers, or school, it's just a rough time of year. And it will pass.
Teaching four different classes is harder than I expected. Mostly because I have three single sections, and I often leave them thinking about how I'd do something differently next time. Only to realize that "next time" is next year, if that. It's hard to try to grow when I don't get another chance in the immediate future. It's overwhelming to make sure that I have everything ready for each class every day when there are so many moving pieces. There are certainly been some panicked moments when I realize that I didn't actually make the copies I needed for my next class.
Algebra -
This has been the constant in my career. I've always taught algebra - although the look of my class has changed entirely over the years. It's still evolving. This year has been a real struggle. I like to think that my class is more fun than most other math classes they've taken. I don't really lecture, we do tasks like Barbie Bungee, and have a lot of good discussions based around Estimation 180, Which One Doesn't Belong, and the like. However, motivating this group has been a challenge, more so than in the previous few years. I'm growing curious about having a classroom structure without homework. The value seems to be less than ever. I always felt like that practice would be key to students finally mastering skills like evaluating expressions when the value of the variable is negative or solving a system of equations. It sounds depressing, but I've become skeptical that some will ever master these skills (and whether it's really that important).
Geometry -
My experience with these students has been key to my questioning of homework. Because of my disappointment with the online portion of our new book, I stopped assigning homework after unit 1. It was clear in unit 2 that our conversations were not sufficient, and they needed some real practice. So we started with Delta Math in unit 3 but really only in class. I taught half of them last year in algebra so it's enlightening to continue along with them and be able to recognize what they have retained. I know that factoring has been a struggle over the years, so I think I'm going to start doing some regular practice with factoring as a warm up as we move into the second semester. We spent almost our entire congruent triangle unit doing proofs - which, to my surprise, they loved! I don't love geometry, but this particular group has been really fun to move through the concepts with.
Calculus -
I've heard for so long that conceptual based, exploratory learning may work in algebra, but there's no way to do it in higher level math. Calc honors has been my chance to prove that wrong, and it's been better than I ever expected. Because it's honors and not our AP class, my students typically have weaker algebra skills and we explore the calculus topics from a higher level. I can't count the number of times that we've done a Desmos activity, and, when we've turned our attention to notes, they look at me like I'm an idiot when I try to explain the concept to them. Because it's completely unnecessary at that point. They've already figured it all out through Desmos. This is truly the class where I wish I had a second opportunity and more time to develop tasks. Last week we started curve sketching, and I was completely blown away that they could match graphs of f and f' without any direct instruction. It was just something I offered to them as a quick intro after we finished our test. I've been using materials from the teacher who taught the class the past two years (because I have four preps) with a bunch of Desmos tasks and problem sets from Jonathan thrown in. We don't do e, ln, log, inverse trig, etc. But I'm curious about whether that might be something worthwhile to include moving forward.
Social Justice
This is my non-math class, obviously. We use a text from St. Mary's Press, but I'm thinking about going open source in the next semester/year. The book we use the most is just selected readings...and most of them are available online for free anyway. I would just need to curate them. To be honest, it would probably be easier than using the book for the simple fact that online access to this text is a 12 step process. Clicking a link would take two seconds opposed to the five minute sign in. Otherwise I'm pretty happy with the course. It's a nice change of pace from math. And I have about four girls in both social justice and calc (on opposite days) so it's fun to do such different things with the same kids. We have well rounded lives, you know?
The Thanksgiving break has been a good one. Sleeping in, relaxing at Disney, shopping for the upcoming trip to Iceland, and catching up on school work/reflecting on my classes thus far. It was a much needed break as we gear up for the four week sprint between Thanksgiving and Christmas.
Thursday, November 16, 2017
What Learning Looks Like
It's been about eight years since I first heard about SBG. Having taught for only a few years at that point, I knew already that something wasn't working in the math classroom. We had recently switched to a PBL-style spiraled workbook for pre-algebra (although I didn't know either of those terms at the time). In my Algebra 2 class, I could tell that students weren't learning the first time and felt helpless in overcoming that.
Enter Dan Meyer and SBG. I was fascinated with this idea of mastery and giving students multiple opportunities. I modeled my tests after the examples he posted and gave my students a chart to document their mastery. Eventually my admins started asking questions. They loved the idea of mastery but had some questions about how much timing was allowed. Shortly there after, I left the school and moved home to Florida.
My first year here was the worst year of teaching that I've had. It was the only year I taught on a straight (non-block) schedule. I always felt rushed, and I knew my students weren't learning well so I curved a lot of grades. Looking back on that year of teaching, I never want my classes to be like that again. Something had to change.
Various things changed over the next four years, and eventually I ended up where I am now. All of our lessons and activities are aligned to specific objectives that we discuss on a regular basis. Tests are broken down by objective and sub-scored so that students have a clear picture of what they do and do not understand. I allow them to go back and reassess over any skills that were not fully mastered on the test. A select few take advantage of the system, but those who do benefit tremendously. There is almost no visible test anxiety among students because test day isn't a one time chance. The opportunity to grow is always available. I don't expect to be perfect at something the first time I try it, how could I ever expect that of students who are learning so much at one time across a variety of disciplines?
-----
Along the way, I read Mindset. Carol Dweck and her anecdotes of growth in diverse fields made me reflect on my own learning experience and how differently it could have gone.
As a new teacher, I was stunned when I saw students standardized test score reports (those that show percentiles) and realized that not all students have bars that go across the entire page. Now, as a math teacher, it should be fairly obvious that if we're showing percentiles, there have to be students in each of the percentiles, but my scores had always been in the top 95% and above so I assumed everyone else's were too.
In high school, I took advanced coursework and did well. It was rare that I had questions so I never learned to ask for help. I could get by with memorization so my understanding of concepts was shallow. Somehow I got 4s on AB and BC calculus without any true learning.
Then I went to college, and my first semester was a disaster. As an engineering major (because people told me that if I was a girl who was good at math, that's what I should be), I enrolled in Chem 1 and Calc 3. I ended up dropping chemistry when it was clear that I would not pass. Never once did I see out help from my professor or TA. Asking questions signaled that I was weak or dumb, and I didn't want to be seen as either of those things. Instead I quietly withdrew from the class and looked into changing my major. Calculus was another story. Without a conceptual understanding of the basic ideas, working in multiple variables was next to impossible. The fact that my professor refused to answer questions only reaffirmed my belief that if I was smart enough to do this, I shouldn't have to ask any. I got a C- and ended up retaking the class the next semester. Never in my life had I had to withdraw or earned a C! What was happening?
To be honest, I'm not sure that I learned much in college. I steered clear of the classes that were difficult for me and was very successful in classes where I could mostly memorize. The same was true for both of my experiences in grad school. Along the way, I suppose I learned some analysis skills, but my professors were largely happy with me being able to regurgitate what they had said in a different scenario or format.
When I read Mindset, particularly the sections about the high achieving students who felt like failures when they suddenly were not perfect, I felt like I was reading about myself. My entire identity had been that I was "smart" and "good at math." I'd never had to work for that. I had no idea how to work for it. I had no idea how to learn. When I suddenly wasn't just good at it anymore, when I encountered a time that I had to try, I lost all hope in myself and my ability. I felt worthless because without that ability, it seemed that I had nothing.
This reflection on my own experiences in learning has completely transformed how I approach learning in the classroom. I often think that if I had a growth mindset as a student, I would have stayed with engineering, I would have worked to my "potential," and I would probably be doing something different with my life. In some ways, I'm very grateful that I didn't have that mindset and that I ended up where I did. I love teaching, and I can't imagine being this happy doing anything else.
Finally being free to ask questions, I have learned so much about math as a teacher. Concepts that never made sense as a student come alive with manipulatives, Desmos activities, and more. Even better, concepts that I am afraid to teach because they were so hard for me become alive when I can do more than simply lecture about them.
There have been a number of times this year when I gave my students an activity about a challenging topic (chain rule, related rates, etc) and then go to "explain it" via lecture, and they look at me like I'm an idiot for thinking it needs to be explained. Because it isn't hard for them, they already understand it because of the activity. Just yesterday it happened with curve sketching. We went over nothing other than the derivative having an output value of zero when the original function would have a horizontal tangent line, and they figured out everything else they needed to sketch the graph.
-----
I don't know where this leaves me. Yesterday I was reading a study about assessment and grades. One of the closing lines was, "We don't give grades in order to sort kids." I think that sums up my biggest distinction from a number of colleagues. Grades aren't to show who is the smartest or to make some feel good about themselves (and others feel bad), they are a tool to inform instruction and encourage all to work towards mastery.
[In thinking about real world evaluative processes, we don't hope to get a better "grade" than our co-workers. We want everyone to be doing their jobs well. We don't compare rubrics of observation to see who was the best. That's flat out silly. Yet our students do it with test grades all the time. One of the biggest mindset changes for me was when I heard a statistic about school being the only time in life that we are given a once chance opportunity. There is no other test, no other opportunity that you have only one chance to "pass." If that were the case, our growth would stagnate - and what kind of world would that be? So why in the world would we set up schools that way?]
Enter Dan Meyer and SBG. I was fascinated with this idea of mastery and giving students multiple opportunities. I modeled my tests after the examples he posted and gave my students a chart to document their mastery. Eventually my admins started asking questions. They loved the idea of mastery but had some questions about how much timing was allowed. Shortly there after, I left the school and moved home to Florida.
My first year here was the worst year of teaching that I've had. It was the only year I taught on a straight (non-block) schedule. I always felt rushed, and I knew my students weren't learning well so I curved a lot of grades. Looking back on that year of teaching, I never want my classes to be like that again. Something had to change.
Various things changed over the next four years, and eventually I ended up where I am now. All of our lessons and activities are aligned to specific objectives that we discuss on a regular basis. Tests are broken down by objective and sub-scored so that students have a clear picture of what they do and do not understand. I allow them to go back and reassess over any skills that were not fully mastered on the test. A select few take advantage of the system, but those who do benefit tremendously. There is almost no visible test anxiety among students because test day isn't a one time chance. The opportunity to grow is always available. I don't expect to be perfect at something the first time I try it, how could I ever expect that of students who are learning so much at one time across a variety of disciplines?
-----
Along the way, I read Mindset. Carol Dweck and her anecdotes of growth in diverse fields made me reflect on my own learning experience and how differently it could have gone.
As a new teacher, I was stunned when I saw students standardized test score reports (those that show percentiles) and realized that not all students have bars that go across the entire page. Now, as a math teacher, it should be fairly obvious that if we're showing percentiles, there have to be students in each of the percentiles, but my scores had always been in the top 95% and above so I assumed everyone else's were too.
In high school, I took advanced coursework and did well. It was rare that I had questions so I never learned to ask for help. I could get by with memorization so my understanding of concepts was shallow. Somehow I got 4s on AB and BC calculus without any true learning.
Then I went to college, and my first semester was a disaster. As an engineering major (because people told me that if I was a girl who was good at math, that's what I should be), I enrolled in Chem 1 and Calc 3. I ended up dropping chemistry when it was clear that I would not pass. Never once did I see out help from my professor or TA. Asking questions signaled that I was weak or dumb, and I didn't want to be seen as either of those things. Instead I quietly withdrew from the class and looked into changing my major. Calculus was another story. Without a conceptual understanding of the basic ideas, working in multiple variables was next to impossible. The fact that my professor refused to answer questions only reaffirmed my belief that if I was smart enough to do this, I shouldn't have to ask any. I got a C- and ended up retaking the class the next semester. Never in my life had I had to withdraw or earned a C! What was happening?
To be honest, I'm not sure that I learned much in college. I steered clear of the classes that were difficult for me and was very successful in classes where I could mostly memorize. The same was true for both of my experiences in grad school. Along the way, I suppose I learned some analysis skills, but my professors were largely happy with me being able to regurgitate what they had said in a different scenario or format.
When I read Mindset, particularly the sections about the high achieving students who felt like failures when they suddenly were not perfect, I felt like I was reading about myself. My entire identity had been that I was "smart" and "good at math." I'd never had to work for that. I had no idea how to work for it. I had no idea how to learn. When I suddenly wasn't just good at it anymore, when I encountered a time that I had to try, I lost all hope in myself and my ability. I felt worthless because without that ability, it seemed that I had nothing.
This reflection on my own experiences in learning has completely transformed how I approach learning in the classroom. I often think that if I had a growth mindset as a student, I would have stayed with engineering, I would have worked to my "potential," and I would probably be doing something different with my life. In some ways, I'm very grateful that I didn't have that mindset and that I ended up where I did. I love teaching, and I can't imagine being this happy doing anything else.
Finally being free to ask questions, I have learned so much about math as a teacher. Concepts that never made sense as a student come alive with manipulatives, Desmos activities, and more. Even better, concepts that I am afraid to teach because they were so hard for me become alive when I can do more than simply lecture about them.
There have been a number of times this year when I gave my students an activity about a challenging topic (chain rule, related rates, etc) and then go to "explain it" via lecture, and they look at me like I'm an idiot for thinking it needs to be explained. Because it isn't hard for them, they already understand it because of the activity. Just yesterday it happened with curve sketching. We went over nothing other than the derivative having an output value of zero when the original function would have a horizontal tangent line, and they figured out everything else they needed to sketch the graph.
-----
I don't know where this leaves me. Yesterday I was reading a study about assessment and grades. One of the closing lines was, "We don't give grades in order to sort kids." I think that sums up my biggest distinction from a number of colleagues. Grades aren't to show who is the smartest or to make some feel good about themselves (and others feel bad), they are a tool to inform instruction and encourage all to work towards mastery.
[In thinking about real world evaluative processes, we don't hope to get a better "grade" than our co-workers. We want everyone to be doing their jobs well. We don't compare rubrics of observation to see who was the best. That's flat out silly. Yet our students do it with test grades all the time. One of the biggest mindset changes for me was when I heard a statistic about school being the only time in life that we are given a once chance opportunity. There is no other test, no other opportunity that you have only one chance to "pass." If that were the case, our growth would stagnate - and what kind of world would that be? So why in the world would we set up schools that way?]
Thursday, November 2, 2017
Checking in on #1TMCThing
I saw a tweet the other day that reminded me that the time has come.
To be honest, I had to go back to my TMC post to remember what my thing even was. I knew that there were two. It turns out that I've sort of been doing both!
The first was more engagement with the MTBoS community as a whole. In general, I have blogged more this year than ever before. I have been more active on Twitter than simply liking or retweeting. And, I spent time at the MTBoS booth at NCTM regional in Orlando (which was actually one of the highlights of the conference for me).
The second was about Desmos Activity Builder. Specifically, I wanted to create my own activities. I have yet to create an entire activity because I'm completely overwhelmed by having four preps. We've done a ton of Desmos activities this year, and I'm feeling more comfortable using the dashboard and teacher pacing.
Last week I assigned my calculus students a project where they would be using tangent lines to "pop the pigs" in Angry Birds. It's basically the same activity that my colleague assigned a year ago. As my students started working though, I thought about how great it would be via Desmos. That made me open Activity Builder and start messing around. I can't use it this year, but it might be helpful in the future - plus it's a good place for practice.
Then yesterday when I started thinking about my 1TMCThing. And I realized that a lot of the things I wanted to do in my activity are part of computation layer. I received access during the Desmos day at TMC this summer but hadn't had a chance to really do anything with it. I knew during that time that I didn't really know what any of it meant, and I hadn't had time to really investigate. Now I really don't have time to be learning computation layer, but I got so into it that I ended up spending hours just trying to figure out how it all works. I was fascinated. I made zero progress with my activity, but I feel like I learned a lot just about building and structuring activities.
So I'm halfway there.
To be honest, I had to go back to my TMC post to remember what my thing even was. I knew that there were two. It turns out that I've sort of been doing both!
The first was more engagement with the MTBoS community as a whole. In general, I have blogged more this year than ever before. I have been more active on Twitter than simply liking or retweeting. And, I spent time at the MTBoS booth at NCTM regional in Orlando (which was actually one of the highlights of the conference for me).
The second was about Desmos Activity Builder. Specifically, I wanted to create my own activities. I have yet to create an entire activity because I'm completely overwhelmed by having four preps. We've done a ton of Desmos activities this year, and I'm feeling more comfortable using the dashboard and teacher pacing.
Last week I assigned my calculus students a project where they would be using tangent lines to "pop the pigs" in Angry Birds. It's basically the same activity that my colleague assigned a year ago. As my students started working though, I thought about how great it would be via Desmos. That made me open Activity Builder and start messing around. I can't use it this year, but it might be helpful in the future - plus it's a good place for practice.
Then yesterday when I started thinking about my 1TMCThing. And I realized that a lot of the things I wanted to do in my activity are part of computation layer. I received access during the Desmos day at TMC this summer but hadn't had a chance to really do anything with it. I knew during that time that I didn't really know what any of it meant, and I hadn't had time to really investigate. Now I really don't have time to be learning computation layer, but I got so into it that I ended up spending hours just trying to figure out how it all works. I was fascinated. I made zero progress with my activity, but I feel like I learned a lot just about building and structuring activities.
So I'm halfway there.
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