A pleasant surprise on the way to creating a math community.

Well, we have completed the first week of virtual school. My biggest concern was not having our online platform, Blackboard Collaborate work correctly. That is what happened in the spring. But to all our surprise it worked! My next concern was how I was going to engage 25-30 students who weren't right in front of me.

To that end, I want to share the story of my end of the day algebra class. I have not used the breakout groups much nor had I used the google application, Jamboard. Today I combined the two and I was very happy with the outcome for creating engagement in my math classroom.

To increase the discourse in their breakout groups, I let my students suggest a couple of friends in the class they would like to work with. While I made breakout groups, my students took the time to work on a rich task independently. Once I was done with the groups, I instructed students that they would be moving to their groups. They should share their findings and come to a consensus on their answer.

Once each group had an answer they logged into a Jamboard I had set up and each group put their findings on a post-it. After the six groups posted their work, we were able to have a class discussion about each groups' answer. All students could engage with the answers and critique each others' work.

My experience in class today far outdistanced my expectations and I have high hopes for continuing to enhance my math community in a virtual world!!