We have been restructuring our study hall to be more of an advisory time for students. On Thursdays, we do Tutorial Time and teachers offer different sessions for academics and wellness. Students sign up on Monday based on the list of session descriptions and this session "sold out" fast this week! Neurographic art is a process that comes from psychology and is super science-y! Neurons engage and your worries go away! This was a great way for students to have a few minutes of down time to release some stress and worry. I did a video tutorial that is linked at the bottom and the st ..read more

  Book Tastings! I was seeing more and more teachers use them as a way to connect students with books they may love. I knew I wanted our students to be a part of an exciting event like this so the planning began. There was nothing out there for high school students! Since I love bringing the excitement of elementary school to high school, I knew I had to adapt. I wanted our students to experience the joy and love of reading for only that purpose. WHAT IS A BOOK TASTING?! A stack of books, a menu of the titles, and a little cafe theme to set the mood. Students simply move around to each ..read more

  I use PowerPoint for EVERYTHING! I get asked all the time how I make different forms or slides or handouts and my answer is always POWERPOINT! I even did a professional development session on it and included how to get some great fonts. I received a lot of great feedback from that! I decided to make a short tutorial on my favorite tricks and tips that will make text standout and your backgrounds pop! I treat my first slide like a mood board. I collect images from Pinterest, Instagram, Google, old PowerPoints, any wallpaper or backgrounds that inspire me and put them on the first sl ..read more

One of the first things I was tasked with at my new school was planning a whole day of professional learning for the entire math department. My passion is to make math super fun in all the classrooms so I knew I had to make the professional learning fun for my teachers. Every good thing has a theme so that's where I started! I made lists of activities and games and EDTech that I had loved doing in my classroom. I then sorted the list into categories and from there the theme just popped off the page! A MATH PLAY DATE! What math nerd would not want to spend the day "playing" with math?! It was ..read more

ZAP! The BEST review game ever! It is super old...I have been using it since literally 2012, which really only adds to its street cred! It is definitely a classic!  5 REASONS I LOVE ZAP! 1. ZAP! is easy and cheap to create. The first set of ZAP! cards I made was with library card pockets that I had left over with handwritten index cards inside. I gifted that well used set to a math teacher when I became a coach and needed a new set. I had only one library pocket left, so I made a template from it and used cardstock to create my own. You are welcome to use my template found at the e ..read more

So many math concepts connect directly to visual art. I love to be able to end a concept or unit with art! This project is one of my favorites. It could be used for rigid transformations with rotations, rotational symmetry, measuring angles, and even with the unit circle. The results are incredible and students are always amazed that they created something so beautiful...and with "pencil ink!" Let's get to it because you will love this! CREATE DESIGN PIECE Students use one eighth of a circle to create a simple drawing. Simple designs work best because they will be tracing it eight times! The ..read more

Leveraging social media to teach students can be a huge win in your classroom. Finding ways to bring students' worlds into the classroom not only adds high interest, it also gives you that sneak attack advantage to learning! Music says a lot and is a huge part of our lives, especially our students' lives. Having students curate a playlist could be a way for them to show concepts they have learned, their perspective on characters, or their view on a historical event. I was visiting a senior English class that was finishing up Canterbury Tales and they were playing a review game of the charac ..read more

*The photos in this post were taken before COVID, before masks and before social distancing but could still be done in this crazy time we are in. I first learned of Spheros at Space Camp. We programmed these clear spheres to go over mountains and through rivers to gain sols on Mars! It was so much fun and I knew I had to have these in my classroom! I wrote a grant and once the adorable, glowy spheres arrived I could hardly wait to play. But I had no idea what to really do with them to get the most educational value out of them. That only lasted until I went to the Sphero community and found ..read more

One of our electives is Creative Writing and it is amazing to see each student's unique writing voice. The teacher is phenomenal but she wanted to add some technology to the students' writing. As a math teacher twirled into an instructional coach, writing is not my one of my top skills! But this teacher makes the coaching easy and tech is one of my top skills! She is the best at developing students' writing skills and fostering their untapped passion for narratives and stories.  In this class, students learn about setting, characterization, and different types of conflict and plot thro ..read more

I don't know about yours, but my google drive and files are not ready for company to come over! I can't even hide things in closets folders to make it look tidy! With all the digital things in our teacher lives, sometimes it is hard to find the things we need on the reg. So I wanted to create a digital hub or binder or clipboard, if you will, to be able to easily access those things.  A teacher website just for YOU with all the digital things you use like daily slides, checklists, lesson plans, communication logs. All the things that have gone digital but go missing in your ..read more