On Tuesday mornings my alarm clock goes off extra early since I have the pleasure of weekly meetings with the 7th/8th grade Monroe math team every week at 7am. The team has held these meetings for as long as anyone can remember in order to make sure they have time to touch base, share resources, and use their collective brain to generate awesomeness. This morning's meeting was a special treat. 8th grade teacher Anna Lawrence declared, "I am going to try Marbleslides with my class today." Within minutes, the entire team had engaged in a sample lesson and began discussing ideas for classroom implementation of Desmos' latest tool. While Marbleslides utilizes the Activity Builder feature of Desmos (easiest way to sum this one up is the Nearpod of graphing), it takes it a step further by adding a gamification element. The goal is to get your marbles to slide by making necessary mathematical adjustments (today's lesson was on lines). For those unfamiliar with Desmos and the features of Desmos Activity Builder, feel free to click here to view my previous post for some background knowledge. But now... let's talk getting rolling with Marbleslides!
Since this was a new tool and parts of the lesson pushed deeper than the content already covered in class, Anna reminded the students that they would experience some frustration. They discussed how frustration supports their learning, and students were allowed to buddy up to work through these frustrations together.
It wasn't long before exclamations of "I got it!" started erupting around the room, and students were getting out of their seats to coach peers through the process. The room was alive with excitement around learning, and students were eagerly engaging in productive struggle.
Not yet sold? Check out what Dan Meyer and Michael Fenton have to say about Marbleslides! Please let me know if you would like help in planning and launching a Desmos lesson in your room and I would be more than happy to help. Using the Activity Builder tool, we could build a lesson together for any grade (yes 5th grade, even you!). Anna and I both agreed that having two of us in the room allowed for "collaboration in action" (her brilliant words, not mine) since we were able to discuss pedagogical ideas around implementation, trouble-shoot, and reflect together in real time.
