How am I supposed to react to that email? My job is to support teachers with the implementation of technology, and I feel like my work has been well-received. Well enough, in fact, that a veteran teacher is now reaching out for help with all sorts of undertones asking for something more. So yes, I took the appointment.

Hurrying to the door 50 seconds after our scheduled time, Lia was apologetic as she held a stack of freshly-printed handouts, her lunch, her keys, and whatever composure she had left from what was evidently another stressful day. This was her prep, but it needed to be more than that; the feeling of being lapped by her colleagues, the data showing a good percentage of students struggling, and the helplessness all engulfing what truly is a good teacher who has worked hard her entire career.

"So, do you know how to assign homework in HMH? I found out how to create assignments, but I need something more for my kids. They just aren't engaged, and I need to try a new approach."

"Let's take a look. I think I can help."

I'm pretty good when it comes to using our online textbook, but even I was getting frustrated and she saw that. Lia was looking to me for an answer and all I was doing was co-signing her bill of "this is too much."

"So what is it that you want to do with the online textbook," I asked.

"I want to make it more interactive for the kids. Sometimes I show them the videos, but they think, well, they think he's kind of nerdy. Basically, I need them to be more engaged. Look at this (showing me a list of her class grades). They're bad, and I need to do something else. I need help. Here's what I made up for them; it's some of the problems from the textbook that I liked and so I hand-wrote them. Can you think of anything else?"

While Lia had heard of Desmos before, it was always something that "the other" teachers had done. But now, now there's a reason. We went over to the Desmos Bank and explored a couple of the activities that were on there to introduce linear and quadratic functions. They were good, not perfect for her situation. What was perfect was this:

"Those are OK, but it seems like I just need to make my own."

YYYYYYESSSSSSS!!!

We walked through the handout from the picture above, step by step, really talking through what she hoped the students would learn from the problems. With that basis pulling a thread through the entire activity, we came up with something for students to learn the basics of functions. Here you go:

Functions Desmos Activity Builder

For 18 minutes, Lia was empowered to really wrap her head around what her students would be doing with an activity, carefully building each step of the process. This isn't a perfect activity for your class, and probably won't be one she uses next year, but it was perfect for what she is doing and where her class is at right now. That's what technology can do for us as educators and for our students.

I get the chance to do a lot of fun, great, and cool things with my job. Not very much is more rewarding to me than giving an overwhelmed teacher the spark necessary to take a risk and try something new in the classroom. Lia is doing her self-created activity with students on Monday and I'll be waiting by the phone to hear how it goes.

​What are you doing to switch things up? How are you taking a risk with your students, your content, or your daily schedule?

​Happy "Spark" Fishing

Recently, I had the opportunity to visit Rancho Cucamonga High School, one of the eight high schools I serve as a technology coach. Jeff Jelus, an Integrated 1 math teacher asked me to come in and check out what his students were working on. Any time you ask me to work with students, I'm in, especially when it involves Desmos.

By the picture, it appears that I was having more fun than the class, but that's not true. Walking around the room was a blast as I heard things like:

• Wait, I coulda sworn that was right. Why isn't it matching?
• Huh? How'd you get that?
• OHHH DAAAAAAAYUMMMMM, I GOT ALL OF 'EM RIGHT!
• Let me see your screen. My answers must be off.

There were more, and there are certainly more students engaged in conversation around the room. Here is the activity that the teacher was having his students work on. While I loved everything about it, that's not what is important. Neither are the reactions from the students, although they're a nice byproduct of what really impressed me.

Two years ago, I was making casual rounds at RCHS and walked into Jeff's room to strike up a conversation. He was genuinely interested in using technology but didn't know how. It seemed like he wanted to integrate tech, yet had a system that worked and had been working for years.

Have you been there? Are you there now?

During our summer school prep training, he heard the directive that it was OK to try new ideas and experiment; that's all it took. This teacher immediately got interested in Kahoot, flipping his classroom, and using Google Forms. It didn't take long before Jeff and I were engaging in conversations about putting all of this together in a way that would make his life easier, and the tweet you see above is a direct sign of proof that it's working.

Students in his class are watching a video that's 4-7 minutes long, then coming in a working on Desmos to collaborate and work with the content. He's using Google Forms. To be honest, he needs to start blogging and presenting about his journey. 

When I asked him about what made him turn the corner, he said that "you gotta hit rock bottom. I was buried with doing things the same way and it was too much. I got the directive from (our summer school coordinator) and that was it. I'm never going back to the old way; I can't."

Rock bottom can mean a lot of things for a lot of different people, but his version was being so stagnant in growth until he rebounded and found inspiration in the form of Desmos, Chromebooks, and the desire to get kids talking more in class.

If you're in a role similar to mine, I hope you can help others rebound from their rock bottom. If you're in the classroom, reach out; there is a whole world of support to help you get where you want to be.

Happy "Rock Bottom" Fishing

As an aside, this same teacher has been contributing a lot of his work to the Desmos Bank. Go to bit.ly/desmosbank and search Jelus in the author section.