Blog #2 Tool Review
Please share a tool (other than a Google App for Edu) that you currently use and find useful. Please try to share a tool we have not yet discussed in class. Explain why you might use the tool. Outline the tool’s capacity and explain how you use the tool. Please also share (based upon your experiences NOT the product’s website) the strengths and weaknesses of the tool. Be sure to also address the following questions in your post:
As a high school Math 1 teacher, I have found the website Desmos.com to be very useful. In the past I’ve used for its simplicity. I first started using it simply as a graphing calculator, and each year I’ve used it, I’ve learned a little bit more about it. Until today, I’ve never gone through a teacher tutorial, I’ve just explored by myself and learned a lot. I’ve used it primarily for students to graph lines, it takes some of the tedium of paper and pencil out. One thing I’ve really enjoyed is kids can graph multiple lines at once, and they show up in different colors and they can use this to compare. Last school year, during our stats unit, I discovered a whole section on stats graphs and we had kids graphing scatter plots, writing lines of best fit on their own, and then plugging the data into Desmos and it would give the exact line of best fit for the data including slope and y-intercept. It was a great comparison activity for the kids. I also discovered last year, the kids can login and create an account. This was extremely useful because often times with our PrBL math tasks we would be working on something for several days, and before I discovered this option, kids were spending time typing in all their data, the bell would ring, and they’d lose it all. Now that I have them login and create an account, they can save graphs and come back the next day and pick up right where they left off. Here comes the best part...today I decided to explore what they have for teachers and I discovered an awesome activity!! And it’s just one of many. I played with what they call a linear bundle, it’s 7 activities exploring linear equations. Very fun, engaging, interactive games and lessons where the students play other kids across the room on their devices. We are right now teaching linear equations, and I will be doing this desmos activity on Monday...it’s that cool. Without describing the activity word for word, check it out if you want (https://teacher.desmos.com/linear) Choose the first activity, Polygraph: Lines. I also tweeted the activity, follow me at @napamadigans.
1 Comment
Scott Marsden
10/4/2016 06:01:27 pm
Joe,
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