Making Best Use of DESMOS to Strengthen Your MATH Instruction (Grades 6-12)

Presented by Rachel Mane
Outstanding Secondary Math Teacher and National Presenter

Specifically Designed for Grades 6-12 Mathematics Teachers; Teachers of General Math, Algebra, Geometry, Pre Calculus, Calculus, Statistics; Math Curriculum Coordinators and Administrators

Dozens of practical strategies for best utilizing FREE Desmos to strengthen your secondary Math students’ engagement and learning
How to make best use of Desmos Calculator and Activity Builder to greatly enhance your grades 6-12 math instruction
Explore highly practical ways you can use Desmos on Chromebooks, computers, iPads, and mobile devices to increase your students’ success
Receive an extensive digital resource handbook and special online access so you can immediately link to the resources presented in this seminar

Practical Ideas and Strategies

This outstanding seminar is specifically designed for secondary mathematics educators who want to make best use of the FREE Desmos calculator and Desmos Activity Builder lessons to greatly enhance mathematics learning and instruction. Experienced secondary mathematics teacher RACHEL MANE will share practical, effective ways to use Desmos to build strong conceptual understanding and increase student success in math. Enable students to deepen learning by constructing their own mathematical understanding. Increase students’ confidence in their mathematical abilities, especially when faced with new concepts or challenging questions. Discover how Desmos online calculator is much more than just a replacement for a handheld device. Learn how to help students become mathematicians with Desmos – to conjecture, test ideas, notice and wonder, productively learn from mistakes, make connections between algebraic and graphical representations, and much more! You will leave this seminar with numerous practical ideas you can immediately implement to greatly enhance your math instruction.

Ten Key Benefits of Attending

Strengthen Your Math Instruction with FREE Desmos
What every grades 6-12 math teacher needs to know about fully tapping into Desmos and Desmos Activity Builder … The best, most useful aspects for strengthening your math instruction
Generate Excitement and Increase Student Motivation Explore
high interest, practical Desmos activities that spark students’ curiosity and strengthen their perseverance in problem solving
Quickly Adapt Premade Desmos Lessons or Create Your Own
Save time and incorporate or quickly adapt premade Desmos lessons perfect for your math students … Learn the keys to building outstanding Desmos lessons and how to easily create your own
Utilize the Newest Features of Desmos Calculator and Activity Builder
Desmos is constantly improving and adding features in response to teacher feedback … Leverage the newest features of Desmos, perfect for your grades 6-12 math instruction
Differentiate Instruction and Help Students Move from Concrete to Abstract
Incorporate activities that strengthen concept building by allowing students to advance when they are ready … Discover ways to challenge and engage highly capable students so you can focus more on the students who need you most
Essential Desmos Features to Help Students to Explore Mathematical Ideas
Discover and create dynamic tables, graphs and sliders students can use to make predictions, notice patterns, revise conjectures, construct understanding, and more!
Use Desmos to Help Students Adopt a Growth Mindset
Enable students to adopt a growth mindset and value mistakes in the learning process … Explore ways to help students refine their thinking before formalizing the math concepts they are learning
Strengthen Students’ Mathematical Vocabulary and Written Expression
Explore multiple lessons that develop students’ accuracy in their mathematical communication … Help your students refine their explanations based on feedback they see in a Desmos Activity Builder lesson
The Best Desmos Tips and Shortcuts to Streamline Your Instruction
Explore time saving shortcuts to make your instruction more productive … Practical ways to make demonstrations faster and easily save your work from one class to the next
Receive an Extensive Digital Resource Handbook with Special Online Access to Additional Resources
You will receive a digital resource handbook packed with ideas, suggestions and instructions for using Desmos to enhance your math instruction

Outstanding Strategies You Can Use Immediately

Practical strategies for making best use of Desmos Calculator and Activity Builder to enhance instruction and student engagement in your math classroom
Premade Desmos Activity Builder lessons you can instantly incorporate or easily adapt to enhance your mathematics instruction
How to help students test conjectures and investigate mathematical relationships
Ways to find, curate and share collections of Desmos activities with your colleagues
Numerous ideas and lessons to fully engage your math students in productive, collaborative learning
Classroom-tested Activity Builder lessons designed to increase your students’ growth mindset for learning mathematics
Ways to use Desmos in a single and multi-device environments, including Chromebooks, laptops, iPads, and mobile devices
Strategies for maximizing student learning with the teacher dashboard including pacing, anonymizing and pausing within a lesson
Explore multiple calculator features including tables, graphs, sliders, geometry, polar, parametric, lists, statistics, and more!
Valuable tips, shortcuts and ideas for organizing and sequencing learning to maximize instructional time
Activities that move students from concrete to algebraic thinking and encourage them to predict, test and analyze their thinking throughout the process

A Message From Your Seminar Leader

Dear Colleague:

As secondary math educators, getting our students authentically motivated and engaged in learning mathematics can be challenging! Are you tired of students asking, “When are we going to use this?” or “Will this be on the test?” Do your students fear making mistakes or being viewed as “dumb” in front of their peers if their answer is not correct? Have you tried using handheld graphing calculators only to find students get bogged down knowing which buttons to push or what syntax to use? What I find so exciting about Desmos is that it has the power to greatly enhance our math instruction and to help us address these and so many other challenges we face.

I have specifically designed this seminar based on my years as a secondary math teacher. I am excited to share with you how to make best use of FREE Desmos to greatly enhance your math instruction. Harness the power of Desmos and Desmos Activity Builder lessons to help your students make and test conjectures, link multiple representations, draw connections between different concepts, take intellectual risks, learn from errors, use informal understanding to build formal conceptual understanding, and much more! Watch as your students’ confidence, interest and enthusiasm for learning math grows.

Join me for a day filled with practical ways to make best use of Desmos to strengthen your math instruction. Increase engagement and get your students to take a more active role in their math learning. Discover how to use Desmos to answer students’ “what if” questions and reinforce the relationships between algebraic and graphical representations. Explore Desmos Activity Builder from the student perspective and how to maximize student learning from the teacher dashboard. Easily build your own lessons and explore a host of pre-made Activity Builder lessons you can immediately incorporate or quickly adapt. Since Desmos is constantly changing we’ll explore the latest new features and updates! Plus, you will receive my Desmos handbook, which is packed with practical resources and instructions.

Whether you are brand new to Desmos, an experienced user, or anywhere in between, this day is for you! If you have one or many Chromebooks, laptops, iPads, or computers, I want to show you how you can make the most of Desmos to strengthen your instruction and your students’ learning in mathematics.

Sincerely,
Rachel Mane

P.S. I have personally witnessed how Desmos can transform math learning. I can’t wait to show you how!

Who Should Attend

Grades 6-12 Mathematics Teachers; Teachers of General Math, Algebra, Geometry, Pre Calculus, Calculus, Statistics; Math Curriculum Coordinators and Administrators

Special Benefits of Attending

Extensive Resource Handbook
Each participant will receive an extensive digital resource handbook giving you access to countless strategies. The handbook includes:

Step-by-step guides for using Desmos to build strong conceptual understanding with your students
Screenshots to highlight various aspects of the teacher dashboard with practical suggestions for using them to maximize student learning
Suggested ways to use Desmos to teach concepts ranging from pre-algebra through calculus and statistics
A reference list for specific calculator syntax
Links to collections of activities that span secondary grade levels and courses

For in-person seminars, registrants will also receive a printed copy of the resource handbook as long as their registration is received in the BER office at least 15 calendar days before the event.

Share Ideas with Other Educators
This seminar provides a wonderful opportunity for participants to share ideas with other educators interested in making best use of DESMOS to strengthen their Grades 6-12 math instruction.

Consultation Available
Rachel Mane will be available to answer your specific questions and the unique needs of your own program.

Semester Credit Option
UMASS Logo Up to four graduate level professional development credits are available with an additional fee and completion of follow-up practicum activities. Details for direct enrollment with University of Massachusetts Global, a nonprofit affiliate, will be available at this program.

Meet Inservice Requirements
At the end of the program, each attendee will receive a certificate of participation that may be used to verify hours of participation in meeting continuing education requirements.

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