Recent Comments
Riley Vadnais on Google Sheets: Valentine… jgvadnais on St. Patrick’s Day &… laurel cutting on St. Patrick’s Day &… Chris Hansen on Tap Tap Trigonometry jgvadnais on Tap Tap Trigonometry
Tag Archives: math
Desmos, Dilations & The Vertical Classroom
This is a story about a Desmos Activity Builder that flopped The changes that transformed it into a successful activity 1st time teaching the lesson: Mrs. Paine’s room I’m excited to test out the Desmos Activity Builder on Dilations with students. The lesson started … Continue reading
Desmos, Complementary Angles & SMP#3
********************************************************************** It started when my colleague, Mari, showed me her moveable pentagon. At one point, the pentagon transformed into an angle which sparked an interest in angles – creating angles, moving angles, measuring angles. I reached out to both Desmos and my … Continue reading
Posted in desmos, Uncategorized
Tagged angle relationships, complementary angles, desmos, math, math education, SMP#3
6 Comments
A Day in the Life of an Instructional Coach
Monday January 11, 2016 First day back from Winter Break! 7:30 a.m. I met with Kari and Jamie. Kari’s a 50% teacher who just picked up a math intervention class for second semester. Jamie’s our principal. We discussed a … Continue reading
Posted in desmos, math, math coach, Uncategorized
Tagged Algebra Tiles, desmos, education, math, Math coach, math education
6 Comments
Designing & Implementing a 3-Act Lesson: The Drumstick Dash
If we want innovative students, we need to be innovative leaders and educators. … Continue reading
Tap Tap Trigonometry
Tap Tap Trigonometry, a spin-off of Algebrainiac1’s Dance Dance Transversal, involves students tapping out the ratios for sine, cosine and tangent to a beat. As I described in my blog post, Dance Dance Transversal – A Guide, Algebrainiac’s the originator … Continue reading
Posted in kinesthetic, math, Math Education, Trigonometry, Uncategorized
Tagged kinesthetic, math, math education, sohcahtoa, tap, trigonometry
10 Comments
Desmos: An Introduction to Irrational Numbers
Recently, I co-taught a lesson with a colleague where students investigated square roots. The lesson revolved around the following Desmos Activity Builder task. Afterwards, I blogged about the experience and sent the post to my teachers. Peytra, a six grade … Continue reading
Posted in desmos, Irrational Numbers, math, math coach, Math Education, mathematics, Pi, technology, Uncategorized
Tagged desmos, education, Irrational Numbers, math, math education, square roots, squares
2 Comments
Desmos & Writing a line in Slope-Intercept Form
One of my teachers asked me to incorporate a different perspective on writing a line in slope-intercept form when given two points. As I drafted notes, I thought, “Why not write the steps in my blog”. I’ll have a hard … Continue reading
Posted in desmos, equations, graphing, linear equations, Math Education, mathematics, Slope-Intercept Form, Uncategorized
Tagged desmos, education, equations, graph, Linear, math, math education, points, slope, slope-intercept form, y-intercept
Leave a comment
Efficiency is in the Eye of the Beholder
For the past two years, I’ve heard many math educators push the idea of mathematical efficiency. The more I hear the word, efficient, the more I cringe for I feel its usage suggests: Students are thinking inefficiently in defiance. The algorithm is the … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged algorithm, decimals, division, efficiency, math, math education
5 Comments
Desmos Activity Builder – Intro to Unit Rate
In August of 2015, Desmos launched it’s newest feature, Activity Builder. Activity Builder gives teachers the freedom to create their own computer based activity to focus on a concept of choice. It’s a great formative assessment tool. From their computer, Teacher’s … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged activity builder, desmos, education, graph, math, unit rate
2 Comments
Communicating Mathematically 