Since Weds, Feb 14th I have observed a plethora of responses to the massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. My emotions have run a literal marathon. While many of our youth and educators are finally speaking up and having their voices heard I cannot sit back and not listen to some of the ridiculous things I've heard and seen. I know I'm preaching to the choir here, but the answer to this situation is NOT to arm all the teachers!  Putting metal detectors in all schools is not the answer. Planning walkouts for months away is not the answer; especially on state testing days. The ..read more

Since starting at my current school I've created an Algebra I STAAR EOC review booklet for our intervention teachers to use during the intervention periods we have.  I've worked tirelessly on this booklet, adjusting it after the tests are released and adjusting things from what I see the students are able to do. I'm now starting to run out of ideas of how to change it up for the kids that have been in the intervention multiple times.   I try to mix in activities with sample released questions or similar questions As well as some more fun activities that involve coloring or w ..read more

As I've been checking on the #MTBoS tag today (which I try to remember to do throughout the day on the 11th of each month), I realized that I've been bombing on some of my goals for the year.  :( The things I've been great at keeping up with were sticking to my walkthrough schedules, getting more involved in educational policy, and I've done some impromptu co-teaching.  So that's 3 of my 6 goals that I'm keeping up with. While I did organize my twitter deck on my surface I haven't used it as much but I've been a lot better about not going down rabbit holes when I'm checking out my ..read more

So let me start with that I live in Austin and we definitely did not get the worst of the weather this last week like many of Houston and Coastal friends and family.  My heart goes out to them in this crazy time and I will be contributing to their recovery efforts anyway possible. Our first day of school was Monday and due to the copious amount of rain that came down in our area this weekend we ended up having a delayed start for the first day.  Talk about a different way to start the school year!  My first year teaching was when Katrina hit and I remember the school I ..read more

I saw Julie's post about two days ago and I realized that I really need to get into blogging and get a smoother system working for my Twitter so I can follow all my interests better and not be so ADD.  I figured I would jump on into #SundayFunday and #PushSend even if my blog seems short and not like something others would be interested in.  But of course today something interesting happened that was one of my goals to start doing more of. I'm going to list my goals in order of most attainable to year long goals.  But the theme is... Stay Involved and Organized! Goal 1 - Or ..read more

So today was interesting and exhausting!  One of my teachers was home sick with laryngitis for the 2nd day and  one was surprisingly out today.  I had told the one with laryngitis that I would be stopping by their room throughout the day to check in on their kids and I ended up having to step into the other teacher's classroom for a few periods to cover since we didn't have enough subs. Actually 6 of the 21 math teachers on my campus were out today and only 2 had subs that picked up and showed up for the jobs.  But that's a whole different story. What ..read more

You know that wonderful feeling when you complete a large review book that you're putting together for your students. Yeah, I had that feeling today. Took me two weeks to get the book put together based on Texas' EOC reporting categories and today I finally finished making the answer key. Oh, and that other wonderful feeling when  a student you no longer have realizes it's time to grow up and focus in passing his classes are tests? Yeah, I had that feeling today too. Put together a bunch of resources, videos and his STAAR test history so he can knock out that sucker out of the park this y ..read more

Why is it that the shorter weeks always are so exhausting?!  The holidays were great! While it was a challenge to celebrate the holidays with all my family and not have my mom around we all eventually made it through. It might have helped that we took in two feral kittens that showed up on a neighbor's back porch.  The two weeks back at school flew by as I prepared and was planning out my plan for individual coaching with the teachers while also nursing my injured Achilles. (It amazes me how much that one ligament is actually used in daily walking!  And then this week ..read more

After hearing from coworkers, friends and family I decided to make this my last post on Facebook this morning and I wanted to share it here as well. This is going to be my last post on politics but I URGE you to read this. I know many people that voted for Trump and many that voted for Clinton and what I have to say rings true for all. I woke up Weds morning and said to Brian that I'm glad neither of my parents lived to see this day but now I'm glad neither of my parents lived to see how my friends, dear friends, family and the nation are tearing each other apart. I've heard both sides and I ..read more

So I went to the AVID Math pathway in Dallas last week and either caught a cold there or my allergies went on high alert with the change in weather that blew in this weekend.  As a result I had some very interesting thoughts while watching the first few hours of the election results come in before passing out. So this is how my Tuesday started: Election day should NOT keep a rediclinic from opening on time!  Thank goodness it didn't and the doc gave me an awesome nasal spray! After an some interesting Instructional Coaching training and collaboration with other ICs around my dist ..read more