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tive websites, and gamification practice. In this ar ticle, we describe these helpful strategies for en gaging students in the digital mathematics class room.

swered correctly, I wanted more students talking and engaging with the learning.

I chose to do sticker wars because in many classes I was interacting with the same students and other days in a few classes there was very little interac tion. I noticed since using sticker wars, that more students talked during class and shared their thoughts. I think this is because during sticker wars I was accepting and acknowledging wrong answers as well as correct answers, which in return boosts their engagement. Teachers had to take their hands - on activities and adapt them for the virtual platform. This is a task that is especially difficult for math teachers, we had to spend time to find virtual manipulatives and modify them for our students. Have you ever tried to teach modeling integer operations without using number lines or counters? Or have you ever tried to teach composite figures without having shapes to actually break apart and put back together? These are just a few examples of how hands - on math skills are difficult to teach in a virtual envi ronment. I find myself saying to my team more times than not, “ this will be a difficult topic to teach virtually, but let ’ s figure it out. ” Together we found useful manipulatives on web sites such as Didax, Math Playground, Math Learning Center, Mathigon's Polypad, and Desmos graphing calculator. These are just some of the websites we used to make math interactive, engag ing, and as hands - on as possible. Didax is a web site that has numerous virtual manipulatives avail able for all grade levels. It has counters, unifix cu bes, fraction tiles, base ten blocks, spinners, dice, Virtual Manipulatives

Sticker Wars

Teachers are consistently looking for any and eve ry way to increase engagement in their virtual classrooms. One popular video on TikTok shows teachers placing stickers on their faces. When stu dents engage and answer questions, the teacher will place a sticker on their face. The objective of this idea is to promote student engagement and in teraction during instructional time. When students buy into the silly nonsense, you will hear from stu dents that have remained muted for most of the year.

The first time I (Sara) did this with my students one of my classes had 98 stickers at the end of the block. Students thrive on competition, so I would keep track of the number of stickers each class had over the week and whoever had the most stickers at the end of the week won a prize. This led to the most interaction I had with my students all year since I began virtual learning. I would not recom mend doing sticker wars every week because it would lose its appeal. It is intended to be one of the many tools in a teacher ’ s toolbox. The few times that I did sticker wars, the requirements for accumulating stickers were modified to keep it fresh. The first time, every time a student answered a question, whether it was correct or not, they earned a sticker. The second time I did sticker wars I wanted more students talking. They would earn a sticker for each new person that answered the question. Again, I was not worried if they an

Virginia Mathematics Teacher vol. 47, no. 2

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