Dear “baby” bloggers,

CONGRATULATIONS!!  You have completed your four week initiation and are now on your own!  This has been an amazing experience for me and I hope for all of you as well.  I encourage you to keep blogging!  I know that it can be hard when you always have too much to do.  But blogging helps you stay connected and you will grow from it!  If you are having a hard time after the prompts end, my suggestion it to blog on one of the “theme” blogs.  My favorites are the Middle School Sunday Funday, High School Sunday Funday, Made for Math Monday, and My Favorite Friday.  One great benefit of doing theme blogs is that your blog is posted on the host website, which will increase your readership!

Without further ado, this week’s bloggers are:

Reflections from an Asymptote

Gooberspeaks has a blog named **Reflections from an Asymptote**. The fourth post for the Blogging Initiation is titled **Feeding Body and Mind“** and the author sums it up as follows: **I started off talking about my dinner plans for the week and somehow ended up recapping the past week! I had a cool opener for my first Algebra 2/Trig lesson reviewing equations of lines.** A memorable quotation from the post is: ** I especially enjoy watching the Chickadees take a bath in the dish of water on the table.**

I loved the menu planning (including page numbers for recipes) at the top.   As a teacher I think it is so important to find ways to stay sane during the school year.  She makes time to do something that she enjoys and gets to eat well in the process!  Also, I liked her first day activity in groups!

That Math Lady’s Blog

That Math Lady @thatmathlady has a blog named **That Math Lady’s Blog**. The fourth post for the Blogging Initiation is titled **What is a Meme?“** and the author sums it up as follows: **This short post defines “Internet meme” and shows an example (created by moi!) of a math-related meme.** A memorable quotation from the post is: **I was just recently (very recently) introduced to the definition of an Internet meme. (I know, I know. Where have I been, right?)**

That Math Lady talked about meme’s and even made her own starring Willy Wonka!  I love to know there are other “mean” math teachers out there making kids show all of their work.  Even though it wasn’t this week, I also enjoyed her poem on her last post. 

Algebra, Essentially

Emily Allman @allmanfiles has a blog named **Algebra, Essentially**. The fourth post for the Blogging Initiation is titled **What’s the Big Idea with Algebra 2?“** and the author sums it up as follows: **Lately, I’ve been following several conversations about the big ideas in Algebra 2. So many ideas! My two cents attempts to find some unification from the themes of others.** A memorable quotation from the post is: **The reasoning was thoughtful and grounded, but this theme did not satisfy me.**

Emily talks about the question of course content and goals that we all ask ourselves as teachers.  I’m so glad that Emily is enjoying the Global Math Department talks!  She refers to the Algebra 2 one when discussing content.  I like the questions that she poses and it’s a great reminder to keep thinking of the larger picture when planning your lessons.

It’s All Math

Steve Grossberg @5teve6rossberg has a blog named **It’s all math.**. The fourth post for the Blogging Initiation is titled **The Teacher-Student Relationship (A How-Not-To)“** and the author sums it up as follows: **This is the first in what could be a long series of posts about mistakes I made as a young teacher. In this episode, I talk about trying to be more of a friend to my students than an adult.** A memorable quotation from the post is: **The relationship I was fostering was that of equals, and that’s not what students and teachers are.**

Steve tackles the topic of the student-teacher relationship which is especially important for new teachers that are young.  It takes all teachers time to figure this out and I love his conclusion at the end about being a supportive authority figure for students.  It also took being a parent for me to be much better at this as well.

Sarah Educating

Sarah Educating @saraheducating has a blog named **Sarah Educating**. The fourth post for the Blogging Initiation is titled **First days…“** and the author sums it up as follows: **A summary/reflection on my first ever math class – a double-period of 7th grade pre-algebra :)** A memorable quotation from the post is: **The moral of the story: My first ever math class went well! **

I love that Sarah is doing problem solving with Pre-Algebra students on day 1!  What a fantastic start to the year.  I am also intrigued by her game, “Always a winner” and can’t wait to hear more about it!

I cannot believe that it is already Week Three of the Math Blogger Initiation!  Congratulations to all of the new bloggers that made it this far – especially this time of year!  The start of school is always the most stressful time for all teachers so I’m especially proud of the new bloggers that are still hanging in there!

Ms. Philosoraptor – Normalcurvasaurus

Ms. Philosoraptor has a blog named **Normalcurvasaurus**. The third post for the Blogging Initiation is titled **The Question“** and the author sums it up as follows: **This post is about students asking ‘The Question’ of ‘Why do we have to learn this?’ and what my response may be depending upon the situation.** A memorable quotation from the post is: **I have been lucky enough, or probably just do not have enough experience yet, never to have had a student ask me The Question (which ‘Why do we have to learn this?’ will be referred to from now on in this post).**

I liked the links supplied to articles in this post for “Why do we have to learn this”.  I also enjoyed the deeper explanations at the bottom for PreCalculus classes.  Sometimes students doing this higher level of math in High School lose site of why it is important.  Thanks for an informative post!

Matt Owen  – Just Tell Me the Answer

Matt Owen @_MattOwen_ has a blog named **Just Tell Me the Answer**. The third post for the Blogging Initiation is titled **Answering “The Question”“** and the author sums it up as follows: **This post is about what I plan to say to students this year when they ask “When am I ever going to use this?” Side topic: writing a post after you’ve just read someone else’s version of the same post.** A memorable quotation from the post is: **They answered The Question themselves that day.**

I enjoyed Matt’s though on focusing on predictions to answer the “Why do I have to learn this” question.  I especially LOVED his “preemptive strike” when he asks the students “Why did we do this?”  This is brilliance and I’m going to start trying to do this for as many lessons as I can!  Students always learn more and value it more when they come up with the ideas instead of you just telling them!

Nathan Kraft – Out Rockin’ Constantly

Nathan Kraft @nathankraft1 has a blog named **Out Rockin’ Constantly**. The third post for the Blogging Initiation is titled **PEMDAS must die!“** and the author sums it up as follows: **Every year I get a few eighth graders who insist that you always multiply before you divide. And you always add before you subtract. There is no doubt in my mind that the acronym, PEMDAS, is the culprit.** A memorable quotation from the post is: **They only remember PEMDAS.**

I “met” Nathan earlier in the week when he tweeted me and made me laugh.  I immediately followed him on Twitter, which led me to reading his blog post before I even knew he would be one of my new bloggers to host!  Thus, I was thrilled to get to host Nathan this week!  First, I share his PEMDAS angst.  Nathan, I went all GEMS two years ago and never looked back.  Second, I am a sucker for any singing, rapping math teacher.  You simply must head over to his blog post to listen to his “Distributive Property” song to “Teach Me How to Dougie”.  Nathan – I need a good decimal song and Sean Sweeney is having a baby this month.  Help!  🙂

Making Paper Airplanes

@makingairplanes has a blog named **Making Paper Airplanes**. The third post for the Blogging Initiation is titled **Memorizing Formulas“** and the author sums it up as follows: **Hundreds of years ago, St. Augustine hit the nail on the head when he despaired of the purpose of formulas. Something I need to work on this year is finding new ways to teach that don’t rely on me writing down formulas and students copying them. Knowing how to derive a formula and understand why it works is a skill that I have found invaluable, and hope to be able to pass it on to students.** A memorable quotation from the post is: **I want students to figure the formulas out – to be able to get to the answer the long way if they forget a formula on an assessment, to understand why the formula works the way it does and how to use it correctly.**

Written by 6th grade math teacher, this blog speaks to my heart!  I teach accelerated students who ALWAYS want the formula too!  This is the hardest thing for me to “cure” with accelerated students.  They believe in the strength of their calculation power and love to race to the next mind bender before every stopping to think, “Do my answer make sense.”.  I would love to brainstorm more ways to get student to slow down and think about the math, not just the formulas and the “right” answer.

Everything’s Rational

Vanvleettv @vanvleettv has a blog named **Everything’s Rational**. The third post for the Blogging Initiation is titled **New Blogger Initiative: Common Misconception“** and the author sums it up as follows: **This post covers a misconception that I learned is a tough one for some kids to get over in Algebra 1…and Algebra 2. It involves a special case in multiplying binomials.** A memorable quotation from the post is: **Last year I realized how much I didn’t know about how my students’ minds worked.**

First of all, you need to go and read this blog JUST for the kitten poster, “Every time you ‘distribute’ an exponent into a binomial…a little kitten dies.”  I love having students do error analysis so I’m glad that she blogged about it.  One of my favorite ways for students to do error analysis is through the “My Favorite No”, which I also first discovered on Kate’s blog.  It’s quick, easy, and your current student provide the errors so you don’t have to do “prep” work to find them.  It do this a couple of times a week with index cards.

Posts featuring all the others bloggers participating in the third week of the Math Blogging Initiation:
Julie, Fawn, Anne, Megan, Bowman, Sam, Lisa, John, Shelli, Tina, Kate, Sue

At Twitter Math Camp (#TMC12) this summer, Sam Shah gave a fabulous presentation about encouraging other math teachers to blog and join Twitter.  During his presentation, we talked and brainstormed for over an hour.  We all were so encouraged by each other, and realized the importance of bringing more math teachers to Twitter and the Blogosphere.  When teachers share their amazing ideas and lessons with others, we all learn, and we all become better educators.  Shortly after coming home, the Mathtwitterblogosphere website was born, showing teachers how wonderful, and wonderfully easy, it was to Tweet and blog.  Then, Sam issued the Math Blogger Initiation, encouraging new bloggers to blog once a week for four weeks.  The response was overwhelming.  Sam was expecting 30 – 40 bloggers, but got almost 200 new and returning bloggers.  With such a response, Sam reached out for help in posting these amazing new blogs.  I feel honored to help with this endeavor, and cannot wait to read all 200 new blogs!

Below are my seven new (or returning) bloggers that I am featuring on my blog this week.  Many of these bloggers have never blogged before and started a new blog just to participate in this initiative.  Please read their blogs and then follow the links at the bottom to read the other great blogs!

Megan Morrison @mathwmorrison has a blog named **Math With Morrison**. The first post for the Blogging Initiation is titled **Before the Craziness Starts…“** and the author sums it up as follows: **I’m so excited for a new year to start, but I need to remember to take care of myself and ask for help when I need it! I have so many different things going on in my classroom from last year and can’t wait to find more resources to make math in my classroom fun and exciting.** A memorable quotation from the post is: **I also want to be able to get help from a huge virtual PLC when I’m struggling with management, or how to teach a concept!**

Mrs. S has a blog named **From Cubicle to Classroom**. The first post for the Blogging Initiation is titled **First week goal“** and the author sums it up as follows: **Although the first week of school was fun last year, I paid the penalty the rest of the year trying to reign in overly talkative, off task kids. My former students were blatantly honest about why they goofed off in my class–so this year, I’m going to attempt to fix it up front!** A memorable quotation from the post is: **Thus, this year my goal for the first week is simple: Be the mean teacher.**

Kyle Eck @kylejeck has a blog named **k-gram**. The first post for the Blogging Initiation is titled **What’s a k-gram?“** and the author sums it up as follows: **Why I named my blog after a shape. A little bit of math, and some of my aspirations for both teaching and blogging. ** A memorable quotation from the post is: **Have you ever had a lesson just rolling around in your head? **

Andrew Knauft @aknauft has a blog named **Limsoup**. The first post for the Blogging Initiation is titled **NBI Week 1 — Calculators“** and the author sums it up as follows: **I love calculators. But they shouldn’t be designed to a test or used for simply calculating.** A memorable quotation from the post is: **”Did you know the TI83 is not appropriate for Calculus?”**

Lee KT has a blog named **random expected value**. The first post for the Blogging Initiation is titled **Starting Out“** and the author sums it up as follows: **Reflections and a commitment to one new thing this year: getting students to help other students. And as part of that, arranging desks in a classroom so that they can easily interact, even if I am not comfortable with it (yet!).** A memorable quotation from the post is: **This year I’ve cut my dreams all back to one major concept: create a classroom conducive to kids helping kids.**

That Math Lady @thatmathlady has a blog named **That Math Lady’s Blog**. The first post for the Blogging Initiation is titled **Who is That Math Lady?“** and the author sums it up as follows: **My post explains why I decided to leave the classroom and dedicate my profession towards helping other teachers. I have spent the past 2 months drafting blogs and developing a math website that will hopefully become a reliable resource for thousands of other teachers out there!** A memorable quotation from the post is: **What would your significant other’s reaction be if you came home from work one day and said you were quitting your job to focus all of your energy on creating a math website (which, by the way, you have very little experience in doing) just to help out other teachers and students in math?**

Heather Simmons @hsimmons32 has a blog named **Mrs. Simmons Blog**. The first post for the Blogging Initiation is titled **The Fundamental Five – my take on this book“** and the author sums it up as follows: **Taking a look at the book “The Fundamental Five” and how I will use this information in my classroom this year. I am looking forward to improved student successes from this “Formula for Quality Instruction”.** A memorable quotation from the post is: **It’s a little scary, change always is, so all I can do is be intentional in my lessons every day and see what happens.**

Allison Krasnow has a blog named **Pi Crust**. The first post for the Blogging Initiation is titled **New Year, New Mindset“** and the author sums it up as follows: **Using Carol Dweck’s work on mindset coaching, I plan to explore ways to influence my students to have a more growth-oriented mindset. Once a week we’ll discuss quotes to allow students to explore if they believe their math intelligence is fixed or can be shaped by hard work.** A memorable quotation from the post is: **I’m especially interested if anyone has done mindset coaching with adults.**

Woodlawn MIddle School Cheerleaders Party Rock Routine

It’s been a blast and I love coaching these amazing girls!  Our season is over in two weeks though and I’m very anxious to have time to get back to blogging!