Category Archives: blogging

Emergency Sub Plans for Math Teachers

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The topic for next week is “Your Favorite Math Task / Activity / Lesson“.  It can be a small task or an entire lesson!  Share what you love!   Submit your blog post here.

Blog posts appear in the order they were submitted. 

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Our topic for next week is, “Favorite Math Tasks”

Due: Sunday, September 17th, 6AM

   Submit your blog post here.

Helpful tips:

  • Submit your blog post (below) by Sunday at 6AM to have your post included in the weekly summary.
  • Tweet out your post!  Use the hashtags #MTBoS (Math Twitter Blogosphere)*, and #SundayFunday to get more traffic to your post.  This is especially important if you are new to tweeting because only your followers will see your tweets unless you include a hashtag.
  • Additional Hashtags:  Of course you can always add more hashtags to your Tweet so more people will be exposed to your post!  You can search any keywords to find a hashtag, and here are some of the more popular ones:
    • #ElemMathChat (Elementary Teachers)
    • #MSmathChat (Middle School Teachers)
    • #GeomChat (Geometry)
    • #Alg1Chat (Alg1 Teachers)
    • #Alg2Chat (Alg2 Teachers)
    • #PreCalcChat (PreCalc and Calc)
    • #MathChat
  • JUST  #PushSend!  🙂

Submit your post using the form below by Saturday at midnight! Just #PressSend

You can also click here to submit.

New to Blogging?

If you are like, “Wow!  This sounds like so much fun!  I want to blog but don’t know where to start!” then you must read “Mission 1: The Power of the Blog” on the Explore the MTBoS site.

** The hardest thing to do week after week is come up with great prompts.  Please help us out by telling us what you would like to blog about (or even read about) here!

* The Math Twitters Blogosphere is not an organization.  Rather it refers to ANYONE that is involved in MATH in ANY way!  You do NOT have to Tweet or have a blog!  But, you can find many teachers that do tweet and blog by searching the hashtag #MTBoS on Twitter.  All are welcome, no invitation necessary!  Please join in the conversation!  Just #PushSend!  

Thanks so very much to @DruinOK for getting this all started and Jessica,  @Algebrainiac1, for creating our awesome logo!

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Our Favorite Math TEACHER HACKS!

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The topic for next week is “Emergency Sub Plans”.  We all have to have a back up plan for emergencies!  Do you have a folder?  What is in it and how is it organized?  And most importantly, what activity did you plan for your students?   Submit your blog post here.

Blog posts appear in the order they were submitted. 

 

MTBoS SunFun Logo

Our topic for next week is, “Emergency Sub Plans”

Due: Sunday, September 10th, 6AM

We all have to have a back up plan for emergencies!  Do you have a folder?  What is in it?  And most importantly, what activity did you plan for your students?   Submit your blog post here.

Helpful tips:

  • Submit your blog post (below) by Sunday at 6AM to have your post included in the weekly summary.
  • Tweet out your post!  Use the hashtags #MTBoS (Math Twitter Blogosphere)*, and #SundayFunday to get more traffic to your post.  This is especially important if you are new to tweeting because only your followers will see your tweets unless you include a hashtag.
  • Additional Hashtags:  Of course you can always add more hashtags to your Tweet so more people will be exposed to your post!  You can search any keywords to find a hashtag, and here are some of the more popular ones:
    • #ElemMathChat (Elementary Teachers)
    • #MSmathChat (Middle School Teachers)
    • #GeomChat (Geometry)
    • #Alg1Chat (Alg1 Teachers)
    • #Alg2Chat (Alg2 Teachers)
    • #PreCalcChat (PreCalc and Calc)
    • #MathChat
  • JUST  #PushSend!  🙂

Submit your post using the form below by Saturday at midnight! Just #PressSend

You can also click here to submit.

New to Blogging?

If you are like, “Wow!  This sounds like so much fun!  I want to blog but don’t know where to start!” then you must read “Mission 1: The Power of the Blog” on the Explore the MTBoS site.

** The hardest thing to do week after week is come up with great prompts.  Please help us out by telling us what you would like to blog about (or even read about) here!

* The Math Twitters Blogosphere is not an organization.  Rather it refers to ANYONE that is involved in MATH in ANY way!  You do NOT have to Tweet or have a blog!  But, you can find many teachers that do tweet and blog by searching the hashtag #MTBoS on Twitter.  All are welcome, no invitation necessary!  Please join in the conversation!  Just #PushSend!  

Thanks so very much to @DruinOK for getting this all started and Jessica,  @Algebrainiac1, for creating our awesome logo!

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SOS Organization for Teachers

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The topic for next week is “Teacher HACKS”.  Please share the tips and tricks that you have picked up along the way!  If you don’t have teacher hacks, or included them in your organization post, you could post about “Icebreakers” instead.  And if you are feeling really inspired, you could even blog about BOTH!  🙂   Submit your blog post here.

Blog posts appear in the order they were submitted. 

 

MTBoS SunFun Logo

Our topic for next week is, “Teacher Hacks! “

Due: Sunday, August 27th, 6AM

Elissa suggested this fun topic for the week!

Helpful tips:

  • Submit your blog post (below) by Sunday at 6AM to have your post included in the weekly summary.
  • Tweet out your post!  Use the hashtags #MTBoS (Math Twitter Blogosphere)*, and #SundayFunday to get more traffic to your post.  This is especially important if you are new to tweeting because only your followers will see your tweets unless you include a hashtag.
  • Additional Hashtags:  Of course you can always add more hashtags to your Tweet so more people will be exposed to your post!  You can search any keywords to find a hashtag, and here are some of the more popular ones:
    • #ElemMathChat (Elementary Teachers)
    • #MSmathChat (Middle School Teachers)
    • #GeomChat (Geometry)
    • #Alg1Chat (Alg1 Teachers)
    • #Alg2Chat (Alg2 Teachers)
    • #PreCalcChat (PreCalc and Calc)
    • #MathChat
  • JUST  #PushSend!  🙂

Submit your post using the form below by Saturday at midnight! Just #PressSend

You can also click here to submit.

New to Blogging?

If you are like, “Wow!  This sounds like so much fun!  I want to blog but don’t know where to start!” then you must read “Mission 1: The Power of the Blog” on the Explore the MTBoS site.

** The hardest thing to do week after week is come up with great prompts.  Please help us out by telling us what you would like to blog about (or even read about) here!

* The Math Twitters Blogosphere is not an organization.  Rather it refers to ANYONE that is involved in MATH in ANY way!  You do NOT have to Tweet or have a blog!  But, you can find many teachers that do tweet and blog by searching the hashtag #MTBoS on Twitter.  All are welcome, no invitation necessary!  Please join in the conversation!  Just #PushSend!  

Thanks so very much to @DruinOK for getting this all started and Jessica,  @Algebrainiac1, for creating our awesome logo!

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Classroom Management Help

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The topic for next week is “Everything Organization”.  Please share you stealth organization, tips, and tricks that make managing everything else a breeze!   Submit your blog post here.

Blog posts appear in the order they were submitted. 

MTBoS SunFun Logo

Our topic for next week is, “Organization “

Due: Sunday, August 27th, 6AM

One of the MOST REQUESTED topics in the Topic Submission Form was organization!  Since it’s still August, there is no better time to tackle this!  Help the organizationally challenged (like me).  Tell us all how you do it!  Tell us all about your organization hacks, classroom layout (photos if you have them!), classroom routines, gradebooks, managing students, dates, emails, paper!  

Helpful tips:

  • Submit your blog post (below) by Sunday at 6AM to have your post included in the weekly summary.
  • Tweet out your post!  Use the hashtags #MTBoS (Math Twitter Blogosphere)*, and #SundayFunday to get more traffic to your post.  This is especially important if you are new to tweeting because only your followers will see your tweets unless you include a hashtag.
  • Additional Hashtags:  Of course you can always add more hashtags to your Tweet so more people will be exposed to your post!  You can search any keywords to find a hashtag, and here are some of the more popular ones:
    • #ElemMathChat (Elementary Teachers)
    • #MSmathChat (Middle School Teachers)
    • #GeomChat (Geometry)
    • #Alg1Chat (Alg1 Teachers)
    • #Alg2Chat (Alg2 Teachers)
    • #PreCalcChat (PreCalc and Calc)
    • #MathChat
  • JUST  #PushSend!  🙂

Submit your post using the form below by Saturday at midnight! Just #PressSend

You can also click here to submit.

New to Blogging?

If you are like, “Wow!  This sounds like so much fun!  I want to blog but don’t know where to start!” then you must read “Mission 1: The Power of the Blog” on the Explore the MTBoS site.

** The hardest thing to do week after week is come up with great prompts.  Please help us out by telling us what you would like to blog about (or even read about) here!

* The Math Twitters Blogosphere is not an organization.  Rather it refers to ANYONE that is involved in MATH in ANY way!  You do NOT have to Tweet or have a blog!  But, you can find many teachers that do tweet and blog by searching the hashtag #MTBoS on Twitter.  All are welcome, no invitation necessary!  Please join in the conversation!  Just #PushSend!  

Thanks so very much to @DruinOK for getting this all started and Jessica,  @Algebrainiac1, for creating our awesome logo!

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First Day Blogs, 2017-18 #MTBoS

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Blog posts appear in the order they were submitted. 

From the archives! Collections of blog posts about first days from past years.

MTBoS SunFun Logo

Our topic for next week is, “Classroom Management”

Due: Sunday, August 20th, 6AM

Recently, Fawn wrote a post on Classroom Management that I really enjoyed.  As Fawn pointed out, Michael is right, we don’t talk enough about this!  Because sometimes, we do pick the right task, and are doing the right things, when something goes wrong.  How do you handle that?  What are your policies that help your class run smoothly?  What are your go-tos?  How do we engage the student that doesn’t like our class, or is disrespectful?  When do we contact parents and what do we say to them?  What resources have helped you that others could turn to?  I’ve been teaching for many years and this is still hard for me.  So, let’s write this week for each other, and especially for the new teachers out there.  Because this is a topic that is not often covered enough, especially in a positive way!

Helpful tips:

  • Submit your blog post (below) by Sunday at 6AM to have your post included in the weekly summary.
  • Tweet out your post!  Use the hashtags #MTBoS (Math Twitter Blogosphere)*, and #SundayFunday to get more traffic to your post.  This is especially important if you are new to tweeting because only your followers will see your tweets unless you include a hashtag.
  • Additional Hashtags:  Of course you can always add more hashtags to your Tweet so more people will be exposed to your post!  You can search any keywords to find a hashtag, and here are some of the more popular ones:
    • #ElemMathChat (Elementary Teachers)
    • #MSmathChat (Middle School Teachers)
    • #GeomChat (Geometry)
    • #Alg1Chat (Alg1 Teachers)
    • #Alg2Chat (Alg2 Teachers)
    • #PreCalcChat (PreCalc and Calc)
    • #MathChat
  • JUST  #PushSend!  🙂

Submit your post using the form below by Saturday at midnight! Just #PressSend

You can also click here to submit.

New to Blogging?

If you are like, “Wow!  This sounds like so much fun!  I want to blog but don’t know where to start!” then you must read “Mission 1: The Power of the Blog” on the Explore the MTBoS site.

** The hardest thing to do week after week is come up with great prompts.  Please help us out by telling us what you would like to blog about (or even read about) here!

* The Math Twitters Blogosphere is not an organization.  Rather it refers to ANYONE that is involved in MATH in ANY way!  You do NOT have to Tweet or have a blog!  But, you can find many teachers that do tweet and blog by searching the hashtag #MTBoS on Twitter.  All are welcome, no invitation necessary!  Please join in the conversation!  Just #PushSend!  

Thanks so very much to @DruinOK for getting this all started and Jessica,  @Algebrainiac1, for creating our awesome logo!

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First Day 2017-18

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The FIRST DAY is SO EXCITING!  Even though I am not ready to go back to school yet (I still have so much I wanted to get done and …. SUMMER), I love thinking about the first day back.  I can’t wait to actually meet and interact with the amazing young learners that I will get to work with this year.  Their enthusiasm for learning is at a high the first days of school and I am excited to harness that and turn it into amazing math!

I do not go over my course guidelines the first day.  I would rather spend that day getting to know my kids, having them get to know each other, and playing with math!  I have found that it is better to go over one guideline every day or so in the first few weeks, as they naturally come up.  I usually say, “Refer to this place in your syllabus.” in response to a student question.  This reminds students that the syllabus taped in their notebooks is a great place to look for important information that they may need.

Sarah Vanderwerf is a thoughtful educator and you should definitely follow her blog if you don’t already.  Basically my entire first day is coming from her!  Last year I did Sarah’s name tents and I loved them!  I think my students liked them as well because later in the year I learned that some students had shared part of their name tent on Snapchat.  I also noticed some of them kept their name tents in their notebooks.  Even though replying to name tents took a lot of work the first week, getting to know each of my students better was worth it, especially if they appreciated it as well.  I also did Sarah’s 100’s Task later in the week last year.  But I loved it so much I am doing it on the first day this year!

Our first day has very short class periods, only 25 minutes long, so I don’t have time for much. We still have almost two weeks until school starts so my first day plans aren’t firmed up completely yet, but this is what I am thinking.

  • Greet students at the door with a Hi-Five and instruct them to look for their seat.
  • I always have a seating chart the first day to help ease student anxiety.  I will have their names on their tables and may even project it.
  • Name tents will be waiting at their tables to give them something to start on before class starts.  I am a die hard “bell to bell” teacher and there is no better time to start this than the first day! I will have an example name tent for them on each table.
  • Display what they need for my class this year and briefly talk about it while they finish their name tents.
  • Have student introduce themselves to the other students at their table.
  • Have each student write down their favorite movie, ice cream, and vacation spot.  Then each table group compares answers to determine the favorite move, ice cream and vacation spot of the group.  After they finish, they will share their group answers with the class.  We did this in our CPM training and it was a fun and low stress ice breaker activity.  (I may not have time for this, and may have to push it to day 2).  I will pass out textbooks during this time.
  • 100’s Task!  I will take pics of the action!
  • Discuss 100’s Task and share the pics I took to show them what great group work looks like! I’m not sure how I will record this yet.  I will either write it on the white board or type their responses into a google doc so I can print it out and share it with them.  (I may do this on day 2 so I have time for the ice breaker above).
  • Closing. I’m terrible at class closure.  I’m going to set a 5 minute timer on my watch so I can remind myself daily to close the lesson.  Not sure what this looks like yet. They will need to clean up their tables and turn in their name tents.  I don’t know if I will have time for an additional closing activity!  This may just be a time for me to say goodbye and have a great day!

Last Year Was ROUGH, But I’m Back #MTBoS

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Over the summer, once school is out and my week of catching up on sleep is over, I get inspired.  Last summer I decided it was finally time to remodel my house.  The planning begin in August, we moved out in November (right before Thanksgiving), orchestrated a whole house remodel throughout the spring, and moved back in June, just one weekend after school ended.  It was insane.  I was also granted the Desmos Fellowship last year and flew to San Fransisco for an amazing long weekend in November.  During my Desmos weekend, one week before we were set to move, the house we were going to rent fell through.  So I spent part of my Desmos weekend in panic mode trying to help my husband pick out a new rental home.

Last year I didn’t tweet much, I blogged even less.  I tried to start up #Alg2Chat in the fall, but could not maintain it.  I merely survived, and barely at that.  I love blogging, and I missed it dearly last year.  But, I simply didn’t have the extra time to give, I didn’t have time for me.

I gave everything I had to my family and supporting my students, but I did not have much left.  I felt terrible about losing so many of my connections last year, about failing.  Thankfully, I was able to attend #TMC17 and reconnect with many of my close, albeit long lost, friends.  I apologized to many of them for my lack of connection this year.  “I’m sorry.” I said to all, “This has been a rough year for me.  I don’t know why, but it just has.”  It was when I said this to Tina Cardone that everything changed.  She reminded me that the election happened this year, and that many of us have had a devastating year, and were having a tough time recovering.  What Tina said rang true for me.  Yes, I had been extra busy this year, but above that, this year was very rough for a singular reason.  The election profoundly affected many of my close friends and students.  I was busy being there for my upset friends and terrified students.  I had a Muslim student who returned to Kuwait in December.  I was obsessed with news stories and got into battles with family and “friends” on social media.  I felt lost, I was confused.  My heart was broken.  I needed time to be there for my students and friends more than ever before.  I needed time to recover.

So if YOU had a really rough time this year, consider all of the extenuating circumstances that we were barraged with this year that we have not ever had to deal with.  Do not let anyone tell you are not good enough, or need to do better because you were too overwhelmed to keep up with some of the things you used to do and still love.  Surround yourself with people who understand this.  People who will TELL you this when you didn’t even realize it.  This year many of us were in survival mode.  Time has given much of my heart back, and I am more determined than ever to help people, and make a difference.  But I needed that time to heal.  And I am glad that I took it.  And I’m glad you did too.  Welcome back.

Start a #Teach180 Blog

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A couple of years ago I had a 180 blog.  If you haven’t heard of this, you should check out #Teach180, because it is fascinating! I really enjoyed doing it and was considering doing it again for the upcoming year.  But I was unsure, because I get busy and sometimes would forget days.  Then I saw this tweet from Sarah, (who actually started this hashtag!):

Screen Shot 2017-08-04 at 6.08.09 PM

“I frequently miss a day.  NO BIGGIE.”  Sarah’s tweet took away the guilt.  If I miss a day, or two or three, it is OK!  No more teacher guilt.  So I have decided that I AM going to do it again this year!

#teach180If you are thinking about it, I would say definitely say, “Go for it!”.  I made it super low maintenance by creating a new blog (see below for how I did it).  Some teachers just tweet a picture or post a picture to Instagram.  Some people use IFFF to post to Twitter, but you are also able to just connect the two if you allow Instagram to connect to your Twitter account.

I loved capturing students doing awesome math every day.  The students loved being photographed and seeing pictures of themselves.  I shared the 180 blog website with my parents at parent night.  The pictures I took everyday were a great reminder of things that I wanted to blog about later.  I also loved having a visual record of my year.  The next year, the blog was a visual reminder of the interesting activities I did not want to forget about (like Kate’s Graphles to Graphles Game).

Screen Shot 2017-08-07 at 5.51.52 PM

This is how I ran my 180 blog.  But there is no perfect way!  Just do it!

  • I just took one pic a day, not per class.  If I took multiple pictures that day, I would picstitch them together so I could make “one” post.  However, this year I am going to be less strict.  If I take multiple pics, I will do multiple posts.
  • I started a NEW WordPress.com site and picked a free photo theme!  That was really fun as the photo themes are so different than my regular blog.
  • I downloaded the WordPress app to my phone so it was truly effortless to post each day.
  • I added the categories #Teach180, #Alg2Chat, and #MTBoS to the blog settings.  So each time I posted to the blog, I could easily click on those catagories.
  • I connected the blog to my Twitter account.  Last time, I included  #Teach180 and #Alg2Chat to the TITLE of each blog post.  Each time I published a post, WordPress would tweet out the title, and my desired hashtags were automatically included.Screen Shot 2017-08-09 at 7.57.27 PM
  • THIS year, I am using IFTTT (If Then Then That) to automatically tweet every blog post and attach the #Teach180 #Alg2Chat and #MTBoS hashtags.  I had to create my own applet.  Here is what it looked like when finished.Screen Shot 2017-08-13 at 12.42.21 PM
  • You may have to get permission from your school / parents.  We have our students sign an extra form each year. 

I would LOVE to see your 180 blogs, or any great ideas that you have.  So please, post the link to your 180 blog in the comments!

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A Collection of Goals from Across the #MTBoS, 2017-18

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Wow! I am blown away by all of the blog posts this week!  We had almost 50 posts!
Blog posts appear in the order they were submitted. 

MTBoS SunFun Logo

Our topic for next week is, “First Day Plans”

Due: Sunday, August 13th, 6AM

Helpful tips:

  • Submit your blog post (below) by Sunday at 6AM to have your post included in the weekly summary.
  • Tweet out your post!  Use the hashtags #MTBoS (Math Twitter Blogosphere)*, #PushSend and #SundayFunday to get more traffic to your post.  This is especially important if you are new to tweeting because only your followers will see your tweets unless you include a hashtag.
  • Additional Hashtags:  Of course you can always add more hashtags to your Tweet so more people will be exposed to your post!  You can search any keywords to find a hashtag, and here are some of the more popular ones:
    • #ElemMathChat (Elementary Teachers)
    • #MSmathChat (Middle School Teachers)
    • #GeomChat (Geometry)
    • #Alg1Chat
    • #Alg2Chat (Alg2 Teachers)
    • #PreCalcChat
    • #MathChat
  • JUST  #PushSend!  🙂

Submit your post using the form below by Saturday at midnight! Just #PressSend

You can also click here to submit.

New to Blogging?

If you are like, “Wow!  This sounds like so much fun!  I want to blog but don’t know where to start!” then you must read “Mission 1: The Power of the Blog” on the Explore the MTBoS site.

** The hardest thing to do week after week is come up with great prompts.  Please help us out by telling us what you would like to blog about (or even read about) here!

* The Math Twitters Blogosphere is not an organization.  Rather it refers to ANYONE that is involved in MATH in ANY way!  You do NOT have to Tweet or have a blog!  But, you can find many teachers that do tweet and blog by searching the hashtag #MTBoS on Twitter.  All are welcome, no invitation necessary!  Please join in the conversation!  Just #PushSend!  

Thanks so very much to @DruinOK for getting this all started and Jessica,  @Algebrainiac1, for creating our awesome logo!

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I Use Worksheets & WE ARE GOOD ENOUGH!

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I was going to title this “We ALL Use Worksheets!” because I think that we all probably do.  But then I didn’t want to speak for ALL of the math teachers everywhere.  But really, do we?

I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this amazing online community of math teachers that I follow.  #MTBoS!!  I read their material and am often just blown away.  I read about problem based learning and project based learning and standards based grading and rich tasks and problem solving and debate and ALL OF THE THINGS.  I even read about teachers creating an entire Calculus curriculum, from scratch.  And I’m like, “Wow, I suck.”  So I steal and steal and steal.  And through all of this reading and stealing, I am inspired to work hard to create a lesson that is not only fun, but possibly educational.  And then I blog it, so I can give back.

And that is it.  I don’t blog my sucky days, obviously!  Just like I post on the rest of social media, I blog my highlights.  And even though I try really hard to make each day an amazing and engaging experience for my students, I do not do SEXY activities like Barbie Bungee or Catapult Quadratics every day.  So thank you Kate for posting  “In Defense of Unsexy”.  Because so many of my days are unsexy.

Next year we are adopting CPM.  It is a curriculum.  I have never used a math “textbook” I loved or wanted to follow each day, and I have never had an actual “curriculum”.  But when I saw that many of the CPM lessons were actually lessons I had used in the past (most often from bloggers), I was excited!  But at the same time, I felt guilty.  I felt that I was not enough if I was using a curriculum that I basically followed every day.  I felt that I was not an awesome math teacher if I was not creating (or stealing from the #MTBoS) crazy interesting lessons as much as possible.

Then a few awesome things happened to show me that I was wrong.  In my Rich Tasks morning session at TMC (Twitter Math Camp), we spent a morning analyzing how we could change a worksheet into a rich task.  Or how we could even change an existing worksheet into a rich task simply with implementation (I plan to blog about this later).  Then Peg Cagle spoke about how incredibly difficult writing curriculum was. And that there are many, many great series out there that are research based, teacher created, and teacher/student tested that teachers could use (and some were even free).  So if we are able to use one of those we should!  (And if not, we could use the lessons as a resource.)

Our TMC Keynote speaker Carl inspired us to all just #pushsend.  Many people started tweeting some variation of, “You are enough”.

Finally Sean talked about using worksheets in his Marbleslides talk.  Once home, I read Kate’s “Unsexy” post and then the expert below, from the blog of a true newbie.  Taylor will be a first year teacher this year.  Even though she has never taught (other than student teaching) she was brave enough to come to TMC.  And she was brave enough to write this.

IMG_1398.PNG

And, the magic lives on since.

Screen Shot 2017-08-01 at 6.18.32 PMSince incorporating as many math teachers the #MTBoS as possible is such a giant part of my life, I am having a tough time understanding the feelings of exclusion.  I am trying.  But maybe this is a big part of it.  WE ARE ALL GOOD ENOUGH.  We are teachers for goodness sake.  We are MATH teachers, who chose to be here because we want to teach math to kids.  We are all trying our hardest.  We are working hard to get better everyday.  It is ok most days are unsexy.  In fact, it is great.

WE ARE ALL GOOD ENOUGH.

Love,

Unsexy Julie