FAQs: Classroom Activities

Teachers will learn about their students from the teacher dashboard, which you can access after you assign the activity.

 

In the dashboard, you can use the teacher view to answers questions like:

• How did all my students answer this question?
• What answers were most common?

 

The summary view will answer questions like:

• Which students have logged in?
• Where are my students in this activity right now?
• Which students are further ahead or behind than I anticipated?
• Were any questions particularly easy or challenging for my class?

 

Here is what these symbols mean:

• Dash: It isn’t possible for students to do any work on this screen. Save your time and attention for other screens.
• Check: Everything on this screen is correct.
• Cross: Something on this screen is incorrect.
• Warning: Something on this screen isn’t merely incorrect but indicates the student may have misunderstood the question itself—intervene ASAP!
• Dot: This screen needs human interpretation.
• Teal Flag: Written feedback comments have not yet been read by the student.
• Gray Flag: Written feedback comments have been read by your student.

If you are unable to find your teacher dashboard for a class from the activity page or dashboard history, you might want to check your archived sessions. If the dashboard has been unassigned or archived you will be able to reassign or restore the teacher dashboard by clicking on the three vertical dots to the right of the activity. If you still don’t see your activity please write to support@desmos.com.

Our professional learning modules are designed to support teachers, schools, districts, and various organizations in using Desmos for teaching mathematics. Whether you are a teacher exploring for the first time, a school or district seeking to increase staff Desmos knowledge, or an international education company, we’re here to help. To learn more about our free events and webinars check out our Professional Learning page.

To find an activity created or curated by the Desmos Faculty use the search bar at the top of the screen. To learn more about how to find activities not created by the Desmos Faculty check out this article on searching for activities.  A great place to start is in our Feature Collections and Most Popular Activities.

To edit an activity you found click on the three vertical dots to the right of the activity title and select ‘copy and edit’. To create a new activity from teacher.desmos.com, select the ‘Custom Activities’ tab on the left side panel. You will see an option to create a ‘New Activity’ at the top right of the screen.

Create classes to assign activities to the same group of students throughout a school term. Students will use an invitation code to join the class at the beginning of the term. Check out Desmos Classes to learn more about setting up your classes.

You can add your co-teacher from your classes tab located on the left side panel when signed in at teacher.desmos.com. Click on the three vertical dots to the right of the class you would like to add a co-teacher to. Next, select ‘manage co-teachers'.

If you need to share your dashboard once in a while and don’t want to add the teacher as a co-teacher to your class, you can share a dashboard link. To do this from the teacher dashboard, click on the activity title and select ‘share dashboard’.

To learn more about adding co-teachers check out Desmos Classes.

If you assigned an activity to your classes and then published changes to an activity, you will need to reassign the activity to students.

To embed the scientific calculator into your activity you will need to have the activity editor open. Click on the title of the activity and select ‘Enable scientific calculator on student screens’. Once you have the scientific calculator embedded you will need to publish the edits of your activity.

There is not currently a way for teachers to reset passwords, but we can help with this.

First, have the students go to student.desmos.com and click the Forgot Your Password link when they try to log in. They need to enter the email associated with their Desmos account. Normally, the password reset link will be sent to that email.

If your school/district blocks external emails you will need to write to support@desmos.com. We will need to know the email address for the students. We also need to verify you are a teacher in the same school (writing us from your school account is helpful).

Yes! Write to us at support@desmos.com using the email address associated with your account. We will need the title of the activity you would like to restore.

Make sure you are signed in at teacher.desmos.com and click on your name in the upper right hand corner. Click on Account Settings and you'll see an option to change your email address. A link will be sent to the email you currently use for Desmos.

If the email address you are changing your account to is already linked to a Desmos account you will need to write to support@desmos.com and request for your activities, collections and graphs to be migrated from one account to another.

Go to teacher.desmos.com and make sure to sign in. Click on your username in the upper right hand corner of the site and select Account Settings.

You'll see an option to Delete your Desmos Account? Click on the link and then select Send Delete Account Email. We will send an email to your current email address with a link to delete your account.

After 30 days of inactivity your account will be permanently deleted. If you sign in prior to the 30 days your account will be reactivated.