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are as curious about how the equations are graphed and simply desire to finish their work with a mini- mal amount of effort. Just as with Photomath, stu- dents can use the website to answer their home- work problems and avoid the struggle of graphing functions on their own. The app can be downloaded to your phone or other device, so it can take the place of the ex- pensive TI-84 which can cost students $100. Some standardized testing websites are beginning to incorporate the Desmos software into their test to save students the burden of purchasing an expen- sive, out-of-date, piece of technology. During the test, students will be restricted to the use of the graphing software and the testing site (King, 2017). In the classroom lessons, however, students can still become side-tracked with distractions from their phones or other websites. In my experience, the students find the software enjoyable to use which increases their likelihood of staying on task and avoiding the myriad of other technological distractions. Along with the graphing software, several lessons have already been created by the Desmos team to further students’ mathematical understand- ing. To access all of the features of the pre- designed lessons, teachers and students must create an account with Desmos. Students must sign in with a Google account or provide their name and e- mail address. There are several activities that are appropriate for early middle school students all the way into trigonometry. Students can see other stu- dents’ answers to free response questions once they have submitted their own and submit work to their teacher. As the teacher, you can see all of the stu- dent responses and restrict access to specific pages if you would like to pace the group as a whole. Some of the questions during the lesson will al- ready be marked as correct or incorrect; however, to assign an accurate grade, the instructor would need to review each student’s work individually which could be quite time-consuming. The lessons have come pre-designed and many cannot be changed to be more appropriate for your students. Many of the lessons and activities have been de- signed to work on a tablet or computer, but not on a phone.

During my time teaching at-risk 8th grade students, we had additional time after a day of testing and I had the students explore the Desmos page. As the kids used the website, they began exploring the graphs of trigonometric functions and posed questions about asymptotes. Some students realized how to graph a circle (which soon became the talk of the class) and others noticed the differ- ences between an equation's graph and an inequali- ty’s graph. Students who are traditionally disen- gaged with the material were asking wonderful questions and were sad to pack up at the end of the day. If you have not had the opportunity to use Desmos in your classroom, I strongly encourage you to sign up for a computer lab day and see what you and your students have been missing. References King, Ian. “Startup Targets The TI Calculators Your Kid Lugs to Class.” Bloomberg.com, Bloomberg, 12 May 2017, www.bloomberg

.com/news/articles/2017-05-12/startup- targets-the-ti-calculators-your-kid-lugs-to- class.

Abby Smith Mathematics Teacher Pomona High School athompson85@radford.edu

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