When I got the email from my 1st grade son's teacher about coming in to teach a lesson to the class, I was thrilled. No, I was mortified. So many questions ran through my head.

What are they like?
Are they all missing teeth?
Do they smell funny?
Are they going to like me?
What do they know?
What if a kid pees his/her pants?
What if I talk too fast?
What if they think I'm lame?
How do I handle the potty passes?
Is my son going to be embarrassed?
Am I supposed to discipline if he acts silly? 

Rather than (completely) freaking out, I opted to reach out to the most useful group of people I could possibly think of: the #mtbos. Sure there are still nerves, but clearly they can help, and they certainly didn't disappoint.

OK, got it. So, all I need to do is:

• Practice my hugs (there will be plenty)
• Sing the Cookie Monster song (or something like that)
• Be prepared for random stories (I can only handle so much of this)
• Keep my standards high (game on, kids)
• Read a book with a math story (can I read them Tracy Zager's book?)
• Rehearse routines (hey, some things are the same w/ high schoolers)
• Be prepared to tell stories (oh I have a few of those)
• Keep them moving (what if we just go for a long walk?)
• BreakoutEDU (so I lock them in the room & make them escape?)
• Small chunks of info (good to know)
• Splat (Nice work, Steve)
• Poison (Wait... what's going on here?)
• Bring stickers, pens, something... (King size candy bars OK?)
• Don't make eye contact (now wait a minute.)

From the sounds of it, I'm screwed.

In all seriousness, I'm sure it's going to be a blast and I can't wait for the opportunity to work with my son, his classmates, and an incredibly comfortable teacher who is so willing to try new things that she's asking one of her students' parents to come in and take over the math portion of a lesson. I know that this isn't normal and I don't want to treat it as such. I want it to be special, even moreso than a regular day where I work hard to help students understand a concept. 

With that, you need more context, then I want to ask the same set of questions from you again... Tips? Ideas?

The standard that we will be working on:

CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.1.G.A.1
Distinguish between defining attributes (e.g., triangles are closed and three-sided) versus non-defining attributes (e.g., color, orientation, overall size); build and draw shapes to possess defining attributes.

The end of the school year is coming quickly, with only two weeks remaining after the lesson I will teach. She calls her class "the sweetest first graders on the planet!" My son is not embarrassed at all; in fact, he's super excited to have me come to work with his class. His class has access to a set of chromebooks if we would like to use them. His teacher is comfortable using tech, and they have used them a few times with success.

What do you do? What's that one lesson, technology or not, that will leave a lasting impact? Drop a line in the comments below, please.

As I'm reaching out and getting responses on this, I am quickly thinking about how a first year teacher might feel. I have almost too many good ideas (but keep them coming) to implement and can't help but put myself into that position. If I were a new teacher, would you offer the same advice? Is it because you know me? I am so grateful for the community we have and want to make everyone feel the way I do right now.

Happy "Stop Picking Your Nose" Fishing

***If you have not yet seen the blog posts from Keeler, Bell, and Curts, they are worth exploring.***

Math teachers have longed for the days when technology can be used to make math instruction better.

Nope. Scratch that. 

Math teachers have longed for the days when technology can be more of a useful resource and not an obstacle for high quality instruction.

There. I'm happier with that.

Google Forms and Google Docs, while incredible, powerful, amazing, and beautiful, really weren't built for math and physical science teachers. Thanks to John McGowan and the folks over at Texthelp, that has changed.

I hesitated to blog about this as soon as it was released because I wanted to process how this would be a game-changer in math education. I didn't want it to become a new way to do an old thing, but for some, it will. I didn't want it to become a hindrance on the quality of Google Forms, but for some, it will. I didn't want it to be intimidating, but for some, it will. With that said, here are three reasons why I think you should give Equatio a hard look:

Dang! What's the shortcut for the fraction again?! I forgot.

With Equatio's predictive machine, users can start typing and a list of options pops up. Not sure how to create a fraction? Here are a few ways to do it in Equatio's predictive math generator:

/
fraction
out of
over

See?! There are so many ways to say it in English and many of them are able to be picked up and turned into a fraction. For students who are creating representations of their learning using Google Docs (or filling out a Google Form), Equatio makes the learning accessible.

Did I read that right? Is that the quadratic formula? Sure is. It, and a bunch more, are also loaded in and available for you to use by simply starting to type out their names. How's that for the "easy to use" category?

Voice-to-text programs have been around for quite some time, and they are incredibly helpful for students with disabilities, as well as folks who find it easier to speak their emails than type them. 

Do you type your text messages? Or do you use the speech option? 

With the audio feature, users can speak into the computer's microphone and it works to only extract the math in the sentence(s). Takealookadis!

No, it isn't perfect. Yes, it is SUPER cool. And it's going to get a lot better over time.

And yes, it will be very helpful for students and teachers who want to verbalize their math. In the example above, the math it extracted wasn't perfect (and my example was rather silly), so I can go into the box on the right, change what I want to change, and then insert the math into my document or form.

This is all well and good, but it needs to work in Google Forms from the student side; oh yes, it does that, too.

See that blue box next to the "Your answer" section? Contain your excitement. I CAN SEE YOU GETTING EXCITED. Contain yourself.

When students have the extension added to their profile, a blue box shows up to any free response question and students can click on it to activate Equatio. 
​
Now, when completing a Google Form assessment, students have the option (and opportunity) to respond with meaningful and accessible mathematics.

... isn't that what we're going for?
​

I spent an entire weekend in Arcadia at the CUE Rockstar Math Camp talking about being mindful of what assessment platforms we use and why. Hopefully you aren't using the next best thing because it's the next best thing. Hopefully you are sitting down with your team (if you have one... if you don't, email me and we can chat) and writing down some things that you love and things that you don't.

Equatio has opened up a brand new window of opportunity for teachers and students to make math digital. Yes, Desmos exists and it is fantastic, as are Quizizz, GoFormative, and others. With whatever we do, though, we need to think hard about what we are giving, why, and how we are going to use it to drive instruction from that point forward.

If you have any questions about Equatio or how I am using it to support my teachers, please feel free to reach out.

Happy "Digital Math" Fishing

And as a bonus for making it all the way through the email, I want to give you a little teaser... Google Slides is going to be getting the Equatio treatment, too.

​Yup!