Amplify Classroom Quick Start Guide
Make mathematical thinking visible, then use it to move the lesson forward.
Start with one interactive activity, a clear question, and time to discuss student strategies. This 2026–27 guide helps teachers who knew Desmos Classroom find the current platform and use responses to plan their next teaching move.
Before You Begin
Your teacher account
Use your approved school account and confirm that you are opening Amplify Classroom activities.
Your first activity
Preview every screen and choose a short sequence that matches one learning target.
Your discussion plan
Decide which strategies or misconceptions you want to surface, compare, and revisit.
School-year readiness: Amplify Classroom is the current name of Desmos Classroom. This guide focuses on its free classroom activities. Paid curricula, including Amplify Desmos Math, have their own scope and access requirements.
Set Up for the School Year
Prepare one assignment and test the complete student-to-teacher path.
Open the current platform
Start at Amplify Classroom. Use your school-approved sign-in method and confirm your account before recreating older work. The platform includes free interactive lessons; subscribed curricula may also appear in the same environment. Choose an activity you can access with your current account.
Find and preview an activity
Search the activity library or explore a featured collection. Open Student Preview and complete the activity as a learner. Read teacher guidance, try incorrect as well as correct answers, and identify a small set of screens suitable for your first lesson.
Check graph labels, reading demand, keyboard operation, and any audio or visual supports on the devices students will use. Prepare an equivalent paper model or verbal response route for a learner who cannot use a particular component.
Choose a class or a single session
Use an existing class for ongoing work with the same students; the class invitation process supports joining at the beginning of the term. Assign the activity and follow the displayed sharing instructions. If using a single-session code, check the sign-in and teacher-approval settings before creating the invitation.
Share the exact current student link or code generated by the platform. Keep it within the intended class. Review incoming names and approve known students for social features. These permissions affect whether students can see one another’s responses.
Test the dashboard before teaching
Open the assigned activity’s Teacher dashboard. During a supervised test, confirm that a student can join, enter a response, and return to the intended work. Find that response in the dashboard. Try the available pacing and pause controls, then return the activity to its starting state.
Plan which screen you will show publicly and keep student-identifying information out of a projected review. A practice session with a colleague can help you learn the controls without using instructional time.
Teach Your First Lesson
Use a short task to make student thinking visible and guide your response.
Choose a short proportional-reasoning lesson
Example target, grades 6–8: Distinguish a proportional relationship from a relationship with a starting amount. Choose an activity with tables, graphs, or written explanations that supports this target. The prompts below are original SDLA examples to use in a teacher-created activity or alongside a suitable library lesson; they are not a claim about a named activity’s screens.
Introduce two bike-rental plans: Plan A costs $4 per hour. Plan B costs $6 to start plus $2 per hour. Let x represent hours and y represent cost in dollars. Ask students to predict when the plans will cost the same.
Collect a representation and an explanation
| Teach it | Student prompt | What successful learning looks like |
|---|---|---|
| Connect a rule to values. | Find costs at 0, 1, 2, and 3 hours. | Plan A: $0, $4, $8, $12. Plan B: $6, $8, $10, $12. |
| Use a graph or equation. | Represent both plans and explain the starting values. | Writes y = 4x and y = 6 + 2x, or graphs matching points; identifies the $6 starting cost for Plan B. |
| Identify proportionality. | Which plan is proportional? Explain. | Names Plan A and connects its constant $4-per-hour rate to passing through (0, 0). Explains why Plan B’s initial fee matters. |
| Interpret an intersection. | What does (3, 12) mean here? | Both plans cost $12 for 3 hours; uses units rather than reporting an unexplained coordinate. |
Pause for a purposeful discussion
Let students commit to an initial response before discussing answers. Use the teacher dashboard to notice different methods. If available, use pacing to focus on the relevant screens and pause for a shared conversation. Explain to students when you are pausing and when they can resume.
Compare a correct table with an explanation that wrongly calls both plans proportional because both graphs are straight. Ask: “What happens at zero hours? Why does that matter?” Invite students to revise their explanation before you reveal a model.
Respond to a specific misconception
Feedback example: “Your graph is a straight line, but proportional relationships also pass through the origin. What does the point at zero hours tell you about this plan?”
A successful revision explains that Plan B starts at $6 even when no rental hours have accumulated, so cost is not simply a fixed multiple of hours. Students who finish early can explain why Plan A costs less before three hours and Plan B costs less after three hours.
Use a fresh exit task
Ask students to compare Plan C: $3 per hour and Plan D: $4 to start plus $2 per hour. Which is proportional, and when are the costs equal?
Look for: Plan C is proportional; y = 3x and y = 4 + 2x meet at 4 hours and $12. Ask for a sentence linking the equation or graph to the context. For younger learners, use tables and drawings. For older learners, ask students to derive the intersection algebraically and discuss a reasonable domain.
Review, Respond, and Troubleshoot
Look at the actual work, choose a next step, and resolve access issues.
Return to the correct session
On Educator Home, use the Stream to find assigned work. Filter by class or student when applicable. To find a single-session activity, use All classes; check archived work if the session is no longer in the current list. Open the relevant dashboard and verify the activity and group.
Read the thinking behind the activity status
| Evidence you see | Next step |
|---|---|
| Correct values, representation, and explanation. | Ask the student to generalize or compare a new pair of plans. |
| Correct graph with an incorrect proportionality claim. | Revisit the origin and the meaning of the starting amount. |
| Correct intersection with no interpretation. | Ask the student to explain each coordinate with units. |
| A numerical error with a sound method. | Have the student check a table value and revise the representation. |
| An empty or incomplete screen. | Check pacing, connection, and task understanding before treating it as a mathematical error. |
Collect individual evidence after discussion
Dashboard progress indicates where students are working. Correctness indicators, where present, depend on how the activity was built. Inspect the response itself and use the fresh exit task to see whether the student can apply the idea after class discussion. Record a short next-step note in your approved assessment record.
Resolve common first-week problems
| What you notice | What to check first |
|---|---|
| Older bookmarks lead to an unexpected page. | Open the current Amplify Classroom address and sign in with the established school identity. |
| A student cannot enter the activity. | Check the active invitation, sign-in requirement, and whether the code has expired. |
| Students cannot see peers’ responses. | Review teacher approval for social features and the activity’s design. |
| A student cannot advance. | Check the teacher’s pacing or pause controls before troubleshooting the device. |
| The dashboard appears empty. | Confirm the assigned session and student entry link; a preview is not the live class session. |
| A resource requests a subscription. | Check whether it belongs to a paid curriculum and choose a free activity when that is your intended route. |
First-Week Readiness Check
Ready for students
- School account, current access, and class membership confirmed.
- One short assignment previewed on classroom devices.
- Needed supports and a workable backup response route prepared.
Ready to act on the evidence
- A learning target and successful response are clear.
- The teacher can find and interpret individual work.
- Feedback, revision, and a fresh transfer question are ready.
See the Strategy. Ask Why. Revisit the Idea.
Begin with one manageable lesson. Use what students show you to plan what comes next.
2026–27 edition. Official vendor documentation reviewed September 10, 2026; links appear beside the relevant instructions. Menus, features, and integrations vary with school configuration and access. Instructional examples, success criteria, and readiness checks are provided by SDLA.