In my last post, I shared briefly about workflow and tools during our continued COVID-teaching time. This. Is. Hard. Teachers across our nation and globe are finding themselves teaching under varieties of circumstances with challenges that test our every limit. When it comes to using technology to help students learn mathematics, tool CHOICE has always mattered… and the WAY those tools are USED has also always mattered. But we find ourselves in unconventional, long-haul circumstances where teacher-SURVIVAL (literally during a pandemic, and with respect to our practice) can matter as much or mo ..read more

Whelp, would you believe we’ve made it through the first quarter of this (don’t say it… don’t say it…) UNPRECEDENTED school year. For me, the year started with three weeks of 100% virtual learning. All teachers and all students learned from home using Zoom initially. Then, those of us with health waivers continued to teach from our homes while colleagues went into our buildings to serve 25% of our students in-person, and 75% who remained at home. Then, our phased-in plan required all staff (even those with health waivers from doctors) to go into our buildings to serve the 52-ish% of our studen ..read more

Greetings! Though blogging as a means to reflect and share seems to have died, I like to pass through these parts every now and again and share something potentially useful and timely! Perhaps you’ve already met your new crew of 22-23 students – if so, I hope your year is off to a fabulous start! Here in Texas, I’ll get to meet my new students this week, and I can’t wait! No Texas math teacher wants to think about our state test (STAAR) now… in August… but we must! This year, students will experience a plethora of new item types, and there’s no time like the present to plan for this, especial ..read more

Several weeks back, I packed up my classroom. Frozen in time, everything was set up and ready to go for teaching on Monday, March 23, post-spring-break… that day had LOOOONG come and gone, though my classroom was ready to propel to the “normal” routine. I couldn’t wrap my heart around why I was packing everything up, even though my brain knew full well that I had been quaranteaching for WEEKS already. My gloved hands went into autopilot while my exposed eyes fought back tears in my eerie, empty, silent classroom. Here we are, staring down the last week of school. The official school calendar ..read more

It’s been (at least) 7 years in the making! Next month, when students across Texas take an online state STAAR test, they will also {for the first time ever} see an *embedded* Desmos graphing calculator option in addition to a TI emulator. A “both-and” graphing calculator situation! Woot! Years back, we clunked our way through locking students into the original Desmos Test Mode app on iPads, but that only worked because students took paper tests. As state testing shifts to an online platform, having Desmos embedded was the hope, and here we are! I hope Desmos is also on your state test. I wante ..read more

Psssst… it’s me… you know… the math teacher that writes a post, say… twice a year anymore? And IT HAS BEEN A YEAR. Grateful to be on THIS SIDE of it with you! *WHEW* In my last two not-so-recent posts, I shared about the workflow I’d settled into, as well as when/how I used a few tools I adore. I plan to keep building on those ideas in THIS post. Recently, I attended a PD day here in ATX with fellow math teachers, and we got a glimpse of the (potential) new question types heading our students’ way in Spring 2023 for our (state) STAAR tests. I realize many states have had much more interactive ..read more

Why do I blog? Simply stated, I blog to both reflect and to share. However, in recent days, weeks, months… heck, we’re almost to the point where I can say for a whole YEAR it has been tough to just sit down, center myself, and reflect or share. My heart has been in a constant state of heavy for almost a whole YEAR, and I pray 2021 will turn around (SOON PLEASE) for the better in EVERY possible way…! We began our 20-21 school year 100% remote. I’ve been back “in person” teaching since mid-September, with what began as roughly 60% of my students “in-person” with me and 40% joining synchronously ..read more

The summer of 2020 felt sort of like “the summer that wasn’t”. We didn’t do any of our usual traveling or visiting family. The days sort of ran together much of the time, with the exception of watching the news TOO MUCH, taking lots of walks around our neighborhood, and the occasional delivery of groceries on the front porch. Just as the end of the 19-20 school year was mushy and abstract, this “summer” felt similarly mushy. However, this summer, more than I can ever remember, professional development online was ABUNDANT. From Twitter to Facebook groups to webinars to online courses and c ..read more

Here in Texas, we received official word from our governor that our classrooms are closed for the remainder of the school year. We knew this was coming. It still stings. Such an abrupt ending to the communities we’ve built since August. I can’t believe our before-spring-break farewells were actually the last time we’d meet in room 510… heartbreaking!!! Meeting twice weekly on Zoom from home sure helps! We’re keeping our communities and curriculum rolling in the best ways we know how. It has been exciting and exhausting to transition to 100% online learning. I lost a LOT of sleep the first few ..read more