Lessons I Like 1: Introducing GeoGebra

Every once in awhile (sometimes in a LONG while), a lesson just clicks. It's some combination of the right planning, the right group of students, the right materials, etc. that just works. For myself, I'd like to start keeping track of those lessons so that I can build on them and refine, polish, or just re-use them in the future. For others, I hope I can provide some materials and ideas to help build a great lesson in other classrooms. I'm going to try to keep posting these as the "Lessons I Like" (LIL) series on this blog.

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A few weeks ago, I had the opportunity to take over a colleague's classroom for a day to introduce his students to GeoGebra. This was my first time fully teaching another teacher's class, and there are some parts of that dynamic that I would do differently next time, but the lesson went well.
Setting the scene

• 18 7th grade students, 1-1 laptops, partners
• No previous experience with GeoGebra
• Geometry- Basic rigid-motion transformations

Managing tech introduction
Introducing a new piece of technology can be super frustrating. I've learned from experience that it's best, at least for the instructor, if -at least for the preliminaries like account creating, passwords, etc.- I can keep all of the students on the same page. Otherwise, they can sort of get all over the place and the room becomes really difficult to manage. 
To curb this frustration and keep everyone together, I use Red/Green Cards (RGC) (two sheets of construction paper, one red, one green, sandwiched together and laminated, then cut in quarters).
​I've been playing around with these for awhile, but this is the first lesson where I was really intentional about using them as a management tool, and they worked pretty well. Here's the idea:

• Students sit in pairs, each with a RGC on their desk/table

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• Red side up means "I'm working on the task"

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• Green side up means "I've completed the task"

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• Students may not touch their own cards. Instead, they need to prove to  their partner that they've completed the task, and the partner flips the card to green

​Why this works

• Gets partners interacting with each other
• Gets students used to the idea of confirming their work with peers before going to the teacher
• Gives instructors a clear visual cue as to the progress of the entire class

Introducing GeoGebra
I decided to have the teacher set up a GeoGebra group to keep track of student progress. If you use GeoGebra in class, but haven't tried their groups, I strongly suggest you check it out.
Here are my slides for the introduction:

Some things to note

1. Google Chrome is the recommended browser for GeoGebra
2. If your school uses Google Apps for Education, signing in to Chrome and using Google accounts whenever possible makes password management a lot easier.
3. I learned the hard way that usernames matter when you're trying to assess and give feedback and using many different apps and accounts. Alphabetical order keeps everything lined up.
4. Acknowledge the content, but start with something fun! This is the hook. You just introduced your students to a powerful tool for learning, and there's no better way to get exploring than by starting with something fun, maybe even a little silly.

Which brings me to...
The content
I was lucky enough to stumble across this bundle of transformations exercises on tes.com by Mark Horley. It includes a paper worksheet and a bunch of GeoGebra files, which I've uploaded to GeoGebra (they can be found here).
I really like this blend of paper and tech, and the directions are very clear. These students would have benefited from a little more of an introduction, but they seemed to get into the activity pretty quickly. For a 40 minute lesson, this was a great introduction to one of my favorite math tools. Special thanks to Elizabeth (@eab69), Lilian, and Marty for supporting.