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it. Thankfully, GM has a complete help library of videos and tutorials (see Figure 3) that can help teachers new to GM learn all of its features and how it works, for example. Teachers who are inter ested in trying out GM in their classroom should navigate to the Tutorials page and spend some time

watching the How - To videos, because they will help teachers decide if GM offers something at tractive for their own teaching practice, and it will show teachers how they might use GM in the courses they teach.

Tips from Practitioners

In this section, we present reflections shared by practitioners based on their experiences. The authors, our Virginia mathematics practitioners, Sara Badgett and Kendra Amis, extend their invitation for further conversations. We too, invite the readers to join this conversation by writing to the ‘ Tips from Practitioners ’ section in the next VMT journal.

Engaging Students in the Digital Math Classroom: Sharing Our Experiences

Sara Badgett and Kendra Amis

It has been said numerous times over the past year that this has been the hardest year for teachers and students. Imagine twenty - five bright and shiny fac es interacting with their teacher all in one room with their peers to now having twenty - five silent initials on a computer not communicating with one another. This is an example of what many teachers have experienced over the past year while teaching during the pandemic. One of the hardest things that

teachers face on a day - to - day basis is getting stu dents to interact with them and their peers. Teach ers had to get creative when it comes to keeping students engaged and making sure they learned. Math is an especially hard topic to turn virtual when we have been encouraged to make math as hands - on as possible over the past few years. A few strategies that teachers have implemented have been Sticker Wars, virtual manipulatives, interac

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