Annie Forest

Photo Credit: Lauren Johnson If you are a math teacher, perhaps you have heard of Desmos . They make an amazingly powerful, free, online graphing calculator as well as awesome math activities . Over the past few years, in pursuit of learning more about what teachers need as well as to build a network, they have developed a “Desmos Fellowship” program where about 40 teachers are brought to their headquarters in San Francisco for a weekend of collaboration and learning.  There have been 3 cohorts of teachers to be involved in the Desmos Fellows program. The popularity of the program growing so much that there were over 400 teachers to apply for Cohort 3 that just met this past weekend. I was very humbled and honored to be part of the group. If you ever have heard the saying, “if you are the smartest person in the room, you are in the wrong room,” just know if that is true, I was most definitely in the right room, as I was overwhelmed by the amount of people so much smarte...

My district hosts a student-centered conference called SIT (Students Involved with Technology) . It's a great event where students present their knowledge of tech to other students. It's held on a Saturday and open to kids in grades 3-12. There are students from our district and also kids from surrounding areas. There is even a kid keynote! Generally our biggest issue is kids running in the hallways... because they are so excited to get to the next session! The adults just help kids get set up and are there to supervise, but it's the students that present and learn from each other! Each year we cap off the day with raffle prizes. This year I was asked to make an Amazon wish-list of prize ideas. So, basically, I got to shop for $900 worth of fun stuff! I tried to get prizes that would appeal to kids that range from 8 years old to seniors in high school. I also put some artsy stuff on there, some coding stuff, books, toys, and t-shirts. Who do you think is ...