One good thing to come out of distance learning and teaching in the 2020-2021 school year was all of the digital activities! 

When everyone transitioned to distance learning, the panic set in and that is when teachers got creative. Teachers were transforming their paper resources and lessons into digital. And they did this in record time with the pressure of the world on their shoulders – Teachers are truly incredible! 

Here are my favorite digital activities that I used with my students during this hectic school year. 

Digital Self-Checking Worksheets

This is where I started. Once tried conditional formatting, I couldn’t stop! I took my paper worksheets and transformed them into self-checking worksheets with Google Sheets. Then, I was able to code the answer boxes to be self-checking. The answer box would turn green if the student answered the question correctly, and red if the student was incorrect. 

Converting my worksheets to digital made the engagement go through the roof!

Digital Task Cards 

After creating my digital worksheets, I realized that I could also convert my task cards into Google Forms. All I would need to do is take screenshots of my already created task cards and insert each one as a question into the form. I also was able to make each form self-checking by switching the setting to quiz and giving each question and answer. 

An additional bonus to using digital task cards is the way you collect data. All the student data is right there in Google Forms, or you can set it up so that the responses are all collected in a Google Sheet. The student data from digital task cards can be a great way to see how students are doing on different skills. Self-checking and data collecting! 

Digital Maze

When I was a student way back when, I LOVED to do mazes in math class. I thought it was so cool that I could answer a problem, find my answer, and it would lead me to the next problem. The unexpectedness of the next problem was very fun!

Now that mazes have been made digital, the element of surprise is totally different and way more engaging! Again, conditional formatting is my new bff with digital activities. When a student answers the question correctly, a path will turn green to lead the student to the next problem. If the student answers the question incorrectly, the answer box will turn red and no path will appear. 

Picture Puzzles

This is a new digital activity used with Google Sheets that has been used by other math teachers and teacher authors all – so of course I had to try it! 

Digital mystery picture puzzles have taken over the teacher instagram community by storm. When students answer a question correctly, not only does the answer box turn green, but a part of a picture will appear. As the student continues to answer the questions correctly, more and more of the picture will be revealed. So cool! 

Mystery Pixel Art

Now on to my absolute favorite type of digital activity: Mystery Pixel Art!

After playing around with conditional formatting and digital worksheets, I branched my skills into pixel art. I had set it up so that when students answer a question correctly, some pixels (the Google Sheet cells) will change colors. As students correctly answer more and more questions, more pixels will change colors and a picture will emerge. 

My favorite moment was after assigning a mystery pixel art assignment to my students was hearing all of them guess what the picture was going to be. I was teaching full time distance learning then and it was great to hear students unmute and shout their guesses with their peers. 

“It’s totally going to be a bear!” 

“No way! It is definitely a guy surfing. Open your eyes!” 

“Guys… I finished it. It’s a taco.”

Mystery pixel art activities are now my all time favorite activity and will remain in my teacher toolbox forever. I hope that you have learned about some new digital activities and try them out in your math classroom! You can check out my Teachers Pay Teachers Store to find digital activities for your secondary math classroom.