Last year, we flew 39 teachers to Desmos HQ in San Francisco, CA, and the
Demos Teaching Fellowship was born.
In the months since, that cohort has been utterly indispensable to our
company’s growth – offering us criticism and counsel on early editions of our
products and activities – and we’ve done our best to become indispensable to
their growth as well. They trade ideas, tips, and questions in a private Slack
team. Several of them have now become Desmos Certified Presenters, working
with teachers on our behalf at conferences, keynotes, and workshops.
The success of that first cohort guaranteed a second. We want to meet
more of you. We want to help you with your work and for you to help us
with ours. If that sounds interesting (and we don’t see any reason why it
wouldn’t!) click on through to
the application. It’s due March 31.
When I think of what a professional learning community should be, I point to
my experience as part of the Desmos Fellowship.
I would highly encourage any teacher looking to grow in their profession to
apply. The Desmos Fellowship community has given me a place to ponder my
teaching practices and help me to grow. It has been incredibly helpful to
see what other teachers are doing and knowing I can always receive help and
feedback from anyone.
We launched the first Desmos Fellowship cohort six months ago. Cohort 1
comprised 39 math teachers spread across the United States from diverse
backgrounds, experiences, and interests. We brought them all to San Francisco
for a weekend and we’ve continued that work online ever since.
Desmos has benefitted enormously from the Fellowship’s counsel and
criticism. Our Fellows receive the first look at every new feature and
activity we produce and we fold their input into the public releases. Our
company wouldn’t be the same without them.
We’ll be opening applications for Cohort 2 shortly and we think you
should apply. We’ll learn lots from you, and we’ll also make sure you get as
much as you give. For example:
Access to the best resources, collaboration and feedback.
Fellows receive membership in a private Slack channel where some of the
sharpest educators gather to trade awesome activities and resources.
If you haven’t tried Jenn Vadnais’
Mini Golf Marbleslides
on coordinate graphing, you should. All 6th grade teachers in my district
did it in PD last month in anticipation of their graphing unit and I am now
getting giddy daily emails from various teachers with how much they love it.
Conversations around pedagogy and purposeful use of technology.
Desmos Fellows share more than great activities. We select Fellows who
demonstrate capacity in technology and pedagogy, but who also demonstrate a
willingness to learn and to help others learn. The result is a chat channel
full of people who help each other daily become better teachers and coaches.
You’ll now find them featured at state and national conferences and in
positions of leadership at their schools and districts.
I’m super excited that our Director of Schools has decided that Activity
Builder should be a tool used as part of our district-wide equity
strategies. I did an activity with the school board last week were board
members literally interrupted me with “WOW!” more than once.
Community
Teaching is difficult work that gets easier and more satisfying as the
community surrounding you grows stronger. Desmos wants to support exactly that
kind of community, taking interesting educators and supporting their growth.
Being connected to so many teachers via Desmos has been one of the best
continual professional development activities. Each day, some how, makes me
love teaching math just a little bit more.
And More
Early access to our newest features and activities.
An all expenses paid trip to Desmos HQ in San Francisco to meet some of the
most passionate and interesting math teachers around.
A chance to join the Desmos team and earn income as a Desmos Certified
Presenter.
Interested in joining Cohort 2 of the Desmos Fellowship? Stay tuned for
announcements on the
Des-blog
or Twitter.
We’re pleased to announce our first cohort of Desmos Fellows.
Desmos loves teachers. Many of our family members are teachers. Much of our
company is former teachers. And because our goal is to help the world learn
math and love to learn math, we also need teachers. It’s through
math teachers that we help math students. Math teachers tell us what their
students need from our technology so we keep in close contact with teachers –
engaging them in conversation at our office, at happy hours, at conferences,
and online.
With our Desmos Fellowship, we’ve deepened our commitment to teachers.
We have invited 39 teachers to participate in a program through which
they’ll receive community, mentorship, early access to our best ideas
and technology, and a free trip to our headquarters in San Francisco this November.
We selected those 39 teachers through an application process that drew 200
applicants. We looked for applicants with:
Advanced experience using our free technology. Our cohort has created
over 1,000 activities and used our
calculator for tens of thousands
of hours. We look forward to helping them get even more value out of those
tools.
Experience working with teachers at any level. Our cohort has given
presentations at the local, state, and national level. They’ve taken on a
variety of formal and informal leadership roles, including instructional
coach, new teacher mentor, PLC, department, and school leader.
Excellent writing and presentation skills. The Desmos Fellows will
inevitably be asked by their colleagues, “Why Desmos? What’s
special here?” We’re looking to equip effective communicators
with effective answers.
Diversity. We want a fellowship that reflects the diversity in the
schools we want to help learn math. So we looked for applicants along the
spectrum of race, gender, and geography
We look forward to supporting and learning from them the following teachers,
our first cohort of Desmos Fellows:
Adam Poetzel. University of Illinois. Champaign, IL
Allison Krasnow. Berkeley Unified School District. Berkeley, CA
Anna Scholl. Xavier High School. Cedar Rapids, IA
Ayanna Ramsey. Chicago, IL
Bob Lochel. Hatboro-Horsham High School. Philadelphia, PA
Daniel Anderson. Queensbury School District. Queensbury, NY
Daniel Henrikson. Topsail High School. Wilmington, NC
David Sabol. Saint Ignatius High School. Cleveland, OH
Gerald Smith. Indiana High School. Indiana, PA
Glenn Waddell Jr. University of Nevada, Reno. Reno, NV
Harsh Upadhyay. Jefferson County Public Schools. Louisville, KY
Heather Bolur. Elmhurst Community Unit School District 205. Lombard,
IL
Heather Kohn. Marlborough Public Schools. Hudson, MA
J.J. Martinez. Redlands Unified School District. Redlands, CA
Jade White. High Tech High. San Diego, CA
Jedidiah Butler. Perris Union High School District. Murrieta, CA
Jenn Vadnais. Redlands Unified School District. Redlands, CA
Julie Reulbach. Cannon School. Mooresville, NC
Kendra Lockman. City College of San Francisco. El Cerrito, CA
Linda Saeta. Boston, MA
Lisa Bejarano. Academy School District 20. Manitou Springs, CO
Mark Alvaro. Monongalia County Schools. Bridgeport, WV
Meg Craig. Birmingham, AL
Nathan Kraft. DHH Lengel Middle School. Pottsville, PA
Nerissa Gerodias. East Side Union High School District. San Jose,
CA
Nickolas Corley. Northfield School District. Marmora, NJ
Nolan Doyle. Chesterfield County Public Schools. Midlothian, VA
Patty Stephens. Northshore School District. Bothell, WA
Paul Jorgens. Palo Alto Unified School District. Newark, CA
Samantha Falkner. Eau Claire Area School District. Eau Claire, WI
Sara VanDerWerf. Minneapolis, MN
Sarah Vandivort. French American School of Puget Sound. Seattle,
WA
Scott Miller. Naperville Central High School. Naperville, IL
Sean Sweeney. Woodlynde School. Philadelphia, PA
Serge Ballif. Nevada State College. Henderson, NV
Stephanie Blair. Hillsboro School District. Hillsboro, OR
Stephanie Woldum. Minneapolis Public Schools. Minneapolis, MN
Suzanne von Oy. Newtown Public Schools. Newtown, CT
Tony Riehl. Billings Public Schools. Billings, MT
Keep an eye out for their awesome work online and in person.
