When I used Desmos the first time to teach it was with my Algebra 1 courses. The activity I built involved graphs, tables, media, video, and more. When I was building the lesson I found that there is definitely a learning curve using Desmos. Everything wasn't that simple, but after about an hour I was getting the hang of things.

The class started where I had all the students log into Google Classroom. On Google Classroom I went over what was expected from them that day and what the plan was. Using screen share I showed them different ways to use Desmos so that when they logged into the activity they wouldn't have any issues. After the initial discussion, I had the students remain in Google Classroom and then pull up the Desmos activity by going to desmos.com and typing in the code generated for that class. I had the students paced so that they couldn't go past the review slides. After the review, I changed the pacing so that the students could do all of the questions. During this part I found myself bouncing from giving encouragement and giving assistance for questions. If a student filled out a graph wrong I would ask a question like "Look back at question 1, what was the rate of change? How would that affect your equation?". Desmos allows you to see if students read your responses which was handy. If they read my comments I knew I could add more hints for them if they were struggling.

While the students answered their questions, multiple students struggled to get their tables started. So I paused the activity and the students returned to their Google Classroom so that I could give some clarification and instruction. During the class, I noticed that I could monitor which students were falling behind or pretending to work. With those student's I was able to send them messages encouraging them or telling them to keep going. For pacing, I was able to keep some students from racing through the material and missing the key points. Once the class was over I was able to wrap up on their review and touch on the key points through Google Classroom. Later on, I was able to go back to the activity and grade students on their participation during the class.

Click the Button Below To See The Activity I Created

The hardest part with Desmos is that there are hundreds of things that you can do. If you want different translations of a lesson there's a button for it. If you want to land planes with graphs and use different games in your slides, there's a button for it. There is so much that a teacher can use Desmos for that it can seem overwhelming and stressful. When I made my first activity it took me a long time. When I made my second activity it took me half the time. Now that I have made several activities, it takes me almost no time at all.

Another thing I learned was that students have a learning curve with Desmos too. If you want your students to do well, take some time to show them what to do and how to operate the different slides on your activities. You should know that what seems simple to you might be overly complicated for a student.

Even though I found Desmos to be an amazing tool, there was another aspect that I struggled with. While teaching an activity there isn't a way for students to directly ask you questions through Desmos. A teacher can write notes to them which they can see, but a student is unable to respond to those notes. Therefore I would suggest using a virtual social platform as a shared space during the activity. Such as zoom, email, messenger, etc.

By using a virtual communication method, you can add the lecture into your class and have students work on Desmos at the same time. It's as easy as switching screens on one's devices.

The more you use Desmos the more comfortable you and your students will be with it. I observed a college class with over a hundred students using one activity at the same time. Desmos worked perfectly and you could see the combined results of all the students. This made me feel like I was a part of the class rather than a face on a screen.

Here are a few observations I made after reviewing how the students did on the activity.

First off, looking at the confidence checks, the students' averages went down from being confident to being a bit below confident. This could be due to the fact that the questions for the review steadily got harder and harder. So when the student's made it to the final question, they struggled and lost some of their steam.

Another interesting thing I noticed was that the students who participated in the activity had a better average test score than those who logged on but chose not to actively participate. Therefore there is potential for Desmos to show a teacher a rough estimate about what the students know and could accomplish.