Logical Poetry

  3 good things from 2020... I got to be here for my kids' first day of school. It wasn't a milestone year for any of them, but I've missed the first day for the last few years because my district calendar starts before theirs. My 3rd grader's day starts before mine does so I was able to get him setup & going, and check in on my 8th & 10th graders right after they got started. It really meant so much to me to be able to see them start their school year & talk to them instantly about how their days went. We got a puppy! We got her back in February and she has been absolutely amazing during the pandemic. I am NOT a dog person, I was attacked by a Rottweiler at a very young age and have a lot of anxiety around dogs. But my husband did a lot of research and got us a corgi. She's small dog who doesn't jump on us or drool too much. She's super cute and snuggles with me all the time. I finally got the Planning to Change the World planbook, and have bee...

Me in my laundry room/office This year has been so different from any other years. SO much uncertainty.  I wanted to be super prepared so I read many, many books and articles and Twitter lists over the summer. I participated in webinars and Zoom meetings and tried to put what I found in one place but my brain doesn't really work that way, so I have some stuff in Google Keep, some stuff in Wakelet, some stuff written down. In the end I still felt unprepared for the first day of school. I have had so much anxiety in the last few days. I did set up assignments for my students before the first day of school. I used Howie Hua's  Math Autobiography  slides, and some of my students started working on them immediately. It's already creating amazing discussions and bonding between my students. The first day of school went well for me. I didn't plan much, I just shared a couple of slides about myself and then had my students do a community circle . It worked out well because it l...

This was an eventful first week of school! (Warning - This is kind of picture heavy) Monday was our district back to school event, and for the first time since I've been there, we were free to go to our rooms for the majority of the day. It was amazing, and I was very fortunate in that the event is always at my school site so I didn't have to leave to anywhere to get stuff done. Free to work in our rooms! Awesome tumbler with our district logo. It was filled with snacks and a healthy energy drink mix. Talked with my team about how we can use these awesome clips from Target so I went and bought 10 packs We were supposed to get bulletin board but they won't be in for a month. My coworker had the great idea to hang posters on a clothesline to be able to easily remove them when the boards come in. I also changed my Becoming the Math Teacher You Wish You Had posters and taped them to my door. The other posters are on magnets because the edges of t...

We went to the USWNT match against Ireland on Saturday! I was out of town Friday & Saturday so I didn't get a post up but I'm doing it now! Last year I got overwhelmed with soccer for my kids and back to school, and didn't blog past August but I'm hoping I can continue after because stopping to think and reflect really is good for my teaching practices. This is the first summer I didn't have professional development for the last two weeks of July so it feels like I've had more of a summer than ever before. At the same time, I've been slowly working throughout the summer because I knew I'd have more time to relax and prepare. I've been using Angela Watson's list making system  to try to prioritize what I need to get done and I think it's been really helpful. I have a brain dump page in my Rocketbook for work & home so I can get the thoughts out of my brain and onto "paper." Then I put them on my weekly spread, eithe...

Monday through Wednesday we worked on dividing fractions, yesterday we did distributive property, and today we had a quiz. It took many of my students the whole period to answer 6 questions, and they didn't do as well as I'd like. I know that we need to spiral and review and they'll do corrections, but it's hard not to beat myself up about it. I continued to love my warmups, and I finally got to do the clothesline! I just had them do numbers 1-10 just to discuss placement & spacing, but I think it went really well! My 4th period especially, because they worked as a whole class to get placement & spacing done without me directing them. I also really, really love my Chromebook. I've actually started to use it to lesson plan. (Sorry to my millions of planners I bought this year. Also, yes husband, you told me so) I really wish I'd had it before the school year started because I don't think I would have felt the pull of the Happy Planner qu...

This was a pretty good week! Another long, busy one though. I had back to school night, and so did all 3 of my kids. Declan, my youngest, had his the same night that I had mine! All 3 of my kids also have soccer practice, so every night this week we've been busy with something. I also did a 5k this weekend in San Diego, which was good because I got to spend the weekend with awesome coworkers, but also took away from some of my beginning of the year planning time.   I also had to be out this week for personal reasons, so it's just been a bit chaotic. I feel like I'm doing too much and not enough at the same time. I thought I'd be able to get ahead today but found myself still at work at 3:30, unable to really accomplish anything so I came home. I do feel like with doing the table folders, there's more pressure to have all of the handouts ready ahead of time, and I haven't been able to do a good job of that. I'm really hoping next week (and future weeks...

Man, what a week! I've never started school on a Monday before as a teacher. Our school district starts on a Thursday, and so I have always started on a Thursday. I always thought it was a little weird, but now I get it. I totally get it. This has been the longest week ever  and I have blisters on my poor little toes. It's been really good, though! I'm working on building connections with all of my students (just shy of 200) by using the name tents from  Sara Van Der Werf . It's going so well, students are asking me all kinds of questions and I get to know them better as well! The only problem is, it takes a long time  to write all of the responses. Like, way more time than I thought. I also wish I had used cardstock because regular paper is just a little bit  too flimsy But, I think they're going to be worth it. I also used Sara's  100 numbers  task the first day of school, which was amazin g . The top response I got on Monday was "...