Author's posts
Aug 22
First Three Days
Our pre-week activities ended this Tuesday and kids came back on Wednesday! Yes, finally kids on Wednesday! We run a mixed schedule of blocks and singles so this week we came back to two blocks with a singleton day on Friday. The blocks allow us to run an “advisory” of sorts that we call “Black …
Aug 17
Once a week blog…
So I recently blogged… mainly because my head was too full of things I couldn’t sort out but also because Annie Fetter (@MFAnnie) pushed me a little. Then, without thinking about it much, I said – OUT LOUD on twitter – that I was going to blog once a week. What was I thinking? So… …
Aug 05
Keep, Change, Start and Stop – Pondering the beginning of a new year
Seems I only post once a year these days! At any rate… here’s where my mind is going right now. Hoping that writing it down will help my mind focus a bit more! I am quite anxious for thoughts, comments and ideas – so please feel free!! You all are my PLC! I’m depending …
Oct 11
The beginning……goals and first results
The beginning of the school year is always a time of turmoil for me. I’m so excited to get started and so nervous at the same time. You’d think, after 30 years, that I’d be used to it. NOT! This year I was particularly excited to get started. I get to work with Kate Nowak (@k8nowak) …
Aug 23
What is EnCoMPASS?
What is EnCoMPASS? How does that help your teaching? What do you get out of it? Since I became an EnCoMPASS fellow two years ago I’ve probably been asked those questions about 100 times. I always struggle some with the answer. Its hard to put into words exactly what EnCoMPASS is – at least …
Aug 01
Why I Tweet…
So I love to teach… I don’t mean like “love” to teach, I mean I passionately LOVE to teach to the point where I’m annoying to others that aren’t maybe as crazy about it as I am. Folks wonder about me. “How could she really love to work with those obnoxious teenagers everyday?” “Why would she …
Jul 21
Things to try while teaching a week long summer boot camp…
So back in April, my mouth opened and this came out… “Wouldn’t it be great to have a week of summer school of sorts to help kids get ready for Algebra 2? Sorta of an Algebra 1 Review – Algebra 2 Preview type thing. I think it could really help all of our kids. Thoughts? …
Jul 04
SBG – reflections, thoughts and questions
Full disclosure – this is a long post (even though I rewrote it to try to make it shorter!) Much of it is me thinking out loud with some questions/thoughts at the end. Standards Based Grading as its looked for me so far…. Year 1 – Used in my Algebra 1 class. The learning targets …
Jun 07
What this 29-year veteran teacher learned this year….
Any of you that know me personally know that the 2012-2013 school year was a rough one for me so I was less than sure about how this one might go and what that might mean for my future in education and at my school. So a year after that challenging one, here’s where …
Nov 30
Completing the Square
Completing the Square always seems to be one of the toughest concepts for Algebra 2 kids to do and understand. I always seem to be looking for a new way to tackle it with my kids. A few years ago I started with the vertex form of the equation – teaching the transformations and showing …
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