Though I’m on spring break, I’m still scouring Twitter for ideas for upcoming curriculum topics. I’m spoiled rotten. There are so many kindred spirits doing amazing things, and I get to learn from them and add their work to my classroom, which benefits all the learners in my classroom… including me!
Take Mrs. Steph Reilly – her recent quadratics transformations post was *exactly* the type of investigation I was looking for. I plan to use the PDF below as an exploration for my students to complete in my absence with a sub after break (a textbook adoption committee meeting calls!) Students will open the PDF in an annotation app, answer the questions, include required Desmos screenshots, and file it away as “notes” for the day.
To hold students accountable, they’ll also explore Michael Fenton’s “Match My Parabola” mini-challenges (thanks for that suggestion Mr. Vaudrey!) taking screenshots of successfully matched graphs (no bragging rights that you matched the graphs if you can’t produce a screenshot as proof!)
Finally, students will take this ThatQuiz assessment, which I wrote by combining Steph’s questions with a few of my own. (To snag this quiz, create a free ThatQuiz account, choose Browse to explore quizzes others have written, and search for the words Quadratic Transformations.)
Upon my return after having a sub, students will submit their screenshots via this Nearpod so we can have a classroom follow-up discussion about quadratic transformations and the “Match My Parabola” tasks.
Not related to quadratics is a genius idea shared by Andrew Stadel. Using the Post-It Plus app to create simple sorting and ordering activities about blew my mind today. Between this awesome strategy from Andrew and Mr. Orr’s novel use of Explain Everything for digital hands-on puzzles, there’s a whole new level of digital content-creation at our fingertips.
Speaking of puzzles, who among us isn’t getting sucked in to Justin Aion‘s hexagonal hysteria? As I type, 18 bags of Target hexagons are in transit to my home. Yes, I commissioned my parents in Pittsburgh to visit their Target store dollar bins (since Austin doesn’t seem to carry these novelties) and they managed to find 18 bags before Justin got to them. Can’t wait to “play”.
Thanks to all who share – your work is changing classrooms and benefitting kids globally!
