Skip to main content

My Creativity Comes at Night

I actually went to bed fairly early last night, 10 pm, that's my summer bed time. But as I lay there in the dark with my rain sounds guiding me toward a sweet slumber, my brain kicked into high gear. It started collecting and shaking loose all of the ideas that have been swirling around after reading some really great books (The Classroom Chef, What's Math Got to Do With It, and Teach Like a Pirate). As the clock ticked away, I started imagining my first few days of school. How I would attempt to connect and make them feel comfortable during that first awkward day? What can we do on that first day that will make them look forward to the second? Every question that I asked my brain came back with a engaging and inspired idea. I ran to get a notebook. I needed to jot these ideas down before sleep stole them away.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Facilitating PD

I love all the typical things about teaching high school math. I love seeing those light bulb moments. I love having kids leave class with a bit of spring in their step because math class was "fun". I really love when I have set up an activity so well that I don't actually have to do any teaching and the math-magic just sort of happens in class. But recently, I have been thinking about finding a different role. Trying to grow and flex my teacher muscles in a different capacity. Over the last few summers, I have been really diving into some personal PD, reading books and blogs, watching videos and going to a conferences. Every time I  finished a book I felt was particularly inspiring or left the last day of a conference I kept coming back to "man, I need to share this with EVERYONE!" So lately, I have been kicking around the idea of instructional coach or math coordinator as a potential move. The idea of leaving teaching, which I think I am getting better at eac...

My Math Autobiography

After reading Kent Haines blog "The Process Column" on how he incorporates math autobiographies into the first few days of his class, I have been inspired to try it in my class too. Class officially starts next week and I am going to read them mine and ask them to write their own version as well. I have invited a couple English teachers to write their math autobiographies too (like Kent did) so I can share experiences as well. I am looking forward to seeing what my kids say.  Here is my math autobiography: I remember very little about my math classes from school. There are a few things that stick out, but not for good reasons. I remember doing flash cards in first grade and feeling the victory of completing a set and getting to move on to the next and the utter defeat when I missed too many and I had to keep that set for a few more days until I got better. I remember playing around the world in fifth grade, standing behind my classmate trying to be the first one to ans...

Building Classroom Community

I gave a presentation at the Saint Louis Adding It Up conference on Monday on collaborative strategies that I use in my classroom. It was the first time I have ever presented outside of my school district, which I have only done twice, so I was pretty psyched for the opportunity. It was a small group but I think I everyone was able to take at least one thing away from it. I took a lot of time to share how I build community in my classroom because I feel that before I can ask my students to have deep meaningful discussions about math or collaborate with their peers, I need to establish a safe and supportive space to do that. Everyday, before we go over the warm up, I have my students talk with their partner by asking them a few of the following questions. "Hi, how are you today? How has your morning/afternoon been? What did you have for breakfast? What are you doing after school? Do you have any quizzes or tests today?" This daily check-in not only breaks the ice, it also he...