tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7736227193153242982024-02-18T22:33:44.940-08:00T-cubed: Tumbling Through TeachingMy thoughts, questions, adventures and musings on teaching math and coaching High School Math teachersUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger79125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-773622719315324298.post-76826693677416440052018-02-19T12:54:00.000-08:002018-02-19T12:54:46.080-08:00Reflections since Weds <div dir="ltr">
Since Weds, Feb 14th I have observed a plethora of responses to the massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. My emotions have run a literal marathon. While many of our youth and educators are finally speaking up and having their voices heard I cannot sit back and not listen to some of the ridiculous things I've heard and seen. <br />
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I know I'm preaching to the choir here, but the answer to this situation is NOT to arm all the teachers! </div>
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Putting metal detectors in all schools is not the answer. </div>
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Planning walkouts for months away is not the answer; especially on state testing days. They message will be lost there. </div>
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Blaming the lack of mental health care is not the answer. </div>
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Pointing fingers and blaming is not the answer.</div>
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Sending thoughts and prayers is not the answer. </div>
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But more than anything sitting around and not doing anything is also not the answer. </div>
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Standing up, speaking out and voting is the answer. Empowering teachers to get to the polls and to have their voice heard by lawmakers IS part of the answer. </div>
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Teaching students how to manage their emotions and how to cope with stress IS part of the answer. </div>
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Right now too many people are focused on finding the ONE right answer, but there's a problem with that approach. </div>
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There is no ONE right answer. </div>
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Our country is in need of a new approach to many of the issues we face. We need a new approach to gun regulations and purchases. We need to all incorporate a new approach to teach the WHOLE child and that requires additional training of everyone on a school campus. We need to connect with lawmakers and ensure they really hear from us.</div>
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I hope that everyone is doing well and staying strong after the difficult past few days. I also hope everyone is ready to go out and be heard while educating the whole student. </div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-773622719315324298.post-13211269718414523772018-01-22T12:44:00.002-08:002018-01-22T12:44:26.833-08:00Working on an Alg I STAAR EOC review booklet and I'm running out of ideas.<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Since starting at my current school I've created an Algebra I STAAR EOC review booklet for our intervention teachers to use during the intervention periods we have. I've worked tirelessly on this booklet, adjusting it after the tests are released and adjusting things from what I see the students are able to do.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I'm now starting to run out of ideas of how to change it up for the kids that have been in the intervention multiple times. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I try to mix in activities with sample released questions or similar questions</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWe86CU_cWrbVvW0Y3-HEr572UqmZKyUGMv7we8swZnkJMiEz78SSWx5aBd_B1d2cE2pMS96PvB3DelCRu8P96XOP_b41Vj9tvRjbXIfbayZTMO7cqq8qxFj0cx0K9mxtmfgbykPth3nc/s1600/PAWS+book+sample.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="468" data-original-width="698" height="214" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWe86CU_cWrbVvW0Y3-HEr572UqmZKyUGMv7we8swZnkJMiEz78SSWx5aBd_B1d2cE2pMS96PvB3DelCRu8P96XOP_b41Vj9tvRjbXIfbayZTMO7cqq8qxFj0cx0K9mxtmfgbykPth3nc/s320/PAWS+book+sample.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">As well as some more fun activities that involve coloring or working with a partner.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjG83IzcqJMA9DOg1CEEgbsiaq_POlpdX-5Dq-IYKTs2CDk8b6S3TgZXhRkht70Nx0MCh1e67dvkyzd1vxTeR_672kvFqc-hBeVsCu0FbQvRe4v_PYZBT3zd_zI3vApZhoGBxS8QXaTiHA/s1600/PAWS+book+sample+3.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="606" data-original-width="1043" height="185" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjG83IzcqJMA9DOg1CEEgbsiaq_POlpdX-5Dq-IYKTs2CDk8b6S3TgZXhRkht70Nx0MCh1e67dvkyzd1vxTeR_672kvFqc-hBeVsCu0FbQvRe4v_PYZBT3zd_zI3vApZhoGBxS8QXaTiHA/s320/PAWS+book+sample+3.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">And this time I've added some pages that have the students practice "chunking" the test. </span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_qulAyj05XXom46zy3xigbnSCFJtoDCD84Ue1GwaMNIY3uzK5JpesMsHZq6xd4WPPPuskbnNF5gsjA0_feMAwrKrAdcxWtt3ZbUYeyrErmr37apm9uBZrAVswT-kuKRZxYYoy90jtsqQ/s1600/PAWS+book+sample+2.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="703" data-original-width="1139" height="197" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_qulAyj05XXom46zy3xigbnSCFJtoDCD84Ue1GwaMNIY3uzK5JpesMsHZq6xd4WPPPuskbnNF5gsjA0_feMAwrKrAdcxWtt3ZbUYeyrErmr37apm9uBZrAVswT-kuKRZxYYoy90jtsqQ/s320/PAWS+book+sample+2.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">But now I'm in search of some more interesting skills activities to have the students work on this spring. <b>If you have anything on</b> any of the following topics I would be forever grateful!</span></div>
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<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Polynomial Operations</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Solving for y</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Exponent rules</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Factoring</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Connecting parts of linear equations</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Linear inequalities</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Writing Linear Equations</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Domain and Range of Functions</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Writing equations from word problems</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Graphing and solving quadratics</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Exponential Functions</span></li>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Thanks and I hope everyone has a great week!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-773622719315324298.post-17221108503968609222018-01-11T10:52:00.000-08:002018-01-11T10:52:17.058-08:00Those goals from the beginning of the year, yeah....<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">As I've been checking on the #MTBoS tag today (which I try to remember to do throughout the day on the 11th of each month), I realized that I've been bombing on some of my goals for the year. :(</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The things I've been great at keeping up with were sticking to my walkthrough schedules, getting more involved in educational policy, and I've done some impromptu co-teaching. So that's 3 of my 6 goals that I'm keeping up with.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">While I did organize my twitter deck on my surface I haven't used it as much but I've been a lot better about not going down rabbit holes when I'm checking out my feed.</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">One of my goals was to a</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">ctually plan for, participate in and learn something from a Twitter Chat. So I have all these alerts on my calendar that go off each week or so reminding me of twitter chats going on but I keep ending up having different things going on or crazy cats and I haven't been able to participate in as many as I was hoping. I think I've done 2 since my first one. Maybe... That's an improvement though, right?</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">The goal that I've totally bombed on is the keeping up with blogging. :( While I've been more active on twitter this year I'm still working on making it more consistent and not flooding my feed with too many pics of my foster cats. Speaking of... I have two precious brothers that still need their forever homes! </span></span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPZmEFatxqMJ3l4ivlufxWT9DsapIngA2s6gEgJP055avMaJnLXFa5JzdD4ctCSMkQhibUm4B7mXBtto2bOed97dxaPhQmJ4VTUesaKcCivfJO8pylNVkY8iHDgZCIgDGaeA19prlRSfM/s1600/IMG_20180108_193955.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPZmEFatxqMJ3l4ivlufxWT9DsapIngA2s6gEgJP055avMaJnLXFa5JzdD4ctCSMkQhibUm4B7mXBtto2bOed97dxaPhQmJ4VTUesaKcCivfJO8pylNVkY8iHDgZCIgDGaeA19prlRSfM/s320/IMG_20180108_193955.jpg" width="240" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Fingers crossed I can find these guys a home and get back on track with my goals for the year!</span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-773622719315324298.post-35090759047963373532017-08-31T09:20:00.003-07:002017-08-31T09:39:38.038-07:00Craziest 1st week ever!<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">So let me start with that I live in Austin and we definitely did not get the worst of the weather this last week like many of Houston and Coastal friends and family. My heart goes out to them in this crazy time and I will be contributing to their recovery efforts anyway possible.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIJwLTSKspSZ0Mtq-yaeaiahM6M9EdCKbMCX258kv_p8bqyCpkjuBrarb7LjAhhkX3GaNvn1WZ1gyWQAVjZud128zmNwrcY6EOZ1eQ6lAKhuKMpPX4e0zQRQTlSZ52hyphenhyphene9sWTQ1t1xm8A/s1600/Hurricane-Harvey.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="800" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIJwLTSKspSZ0Mtq-yaeaiahM6M9EdCKbMCX258kv_p8bqyCpkjuBrarb7LjAhhkX3GaNvn1WZ1gyWQAVjZud128zmNwrcY6EOZ1eQ6lAKhuKMpPX4e0zQRQTlSZ52hyphenhyphene9sWTQ1t1xm8A/s200/Hurricane-Harvey.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Our first day of school was Monday and due to the copious amount of rain that came down in our area this weekend we ended up having a delayed start for the first day. Talk about a different way to start the school year! My first year teaching was when Katrina hit and I remember the school I worked at closing for a day while we opened our campus to evacuees. </span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLVsvgqsv1MNGsnpmTggfWGoUPDZyrrSNbv41-8v-h474G2chFoVjA2qJF66VjW1i3irLKJzSrItODfTX4Gkio2gy-gDhw_V77PbH-u8RyqtC7OXrPn1StVLzWTlAr6snJ9LCf4VhlrD0/s1600/20170809_105741+%25281%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLVsvgqsv1MNGsnpmTggfWGoUPDZyrrSNbv41-8v-h474G2chFoVjA2qJF66VjW1i3irLKJzSrItODfTX4Gkio2gy-gDhw_V77PbH-u8RyqtC7OXrPn1StVLzWTlAr6snJ9LCf4VhlrD0/s320/20170809_105741+%25281%2529.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From NCA Cheer Camp Aug 2017 at Hendrickson HS</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Thankfully before all the crazy weather started I was able to get an assistant cheer coach so I don't think I'll be pulled in as many directions as I was thinking I would. She came to our first practice on Tuesday and was able to help cover the first Volleyball game so I was able to see my husband and kittens before the sun went down! I'm looking forward to splitting the duties with her so I'll be able to get more planning done for when I work with my math teachers and I won't be totally sucked into all thing cheer.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxT9VHxzK5wcH1WIhWb_4-qDQ6gfsaAISsDh_9YkoybftJulpZQ3y44TPHQ_aruwRcTyryfH5vAjzr03uLHAnvCKvruF9bFAFdtPG5brj5oJi89DmpXkzJNWeDdL7CShzdPNm_o8Lc5ds/s1600/download.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="116" data-original-width="134" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxT9VHxzK5wcH1WIhWb_4-qDQ6gfsaAISsDh_9YkoybftJulpZQ3y44TPHQ_aruwRcTyryfH5vAjzr03uLHAnvCKvruF9bFAFdtPG5brj5oJi89DmpXkzJNWeDdL7CShzdPNm_o8Lc5ds/s1600/download.jpg" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I'm looking forward to using Google Classroom this year to help my teachers with some Professional Development and learning. I just hope that I can figure out a way to really streamline the process and routines for my teachers so it's not another burden on their plates. If you have any ideas or suggestions I would love to hear them!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I hope everyone else is having a great beginning of the school year and staying safe and dry!</span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-773622719315324298.post-12890486475255312842017-08-01T18:43:00.002-07:002017-08-01T19:17:55.215-07:00Gotta Stay Active and Involved this year!<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I saw Julie's post about two days ago and I realized that I really need to get into blogging and get a smoother system working for my Twitter so I can follow all my interests better and not be so ADD. I figured I would jump on into #SundayFunday and #PushSend even if my blog seems short and not like something others would be interested in. </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">But of course today something interesting happened that was one of my goals to start doing more of.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I'm going to list my goals in order of most attainable to year long goals. But the theme is... Stay Involved and Organized!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Goal 1</b> - <b>Organize my twitter deck </b>so I don't get so distracted by other things -- like this cute cat -- when I'm scrolling through who I follow. I'm a little ADD when it comes to animals!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Goal 2 </b>- <b>Actually plan for, participate in and learn something from a Twitter Chat. </b>Which happened TONIGHT! But it wasn't a planned one, so I need to continue doing this and actually plan on doing it advance.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Goal 3</b> <b>- Be more involved in Educational Policy, stay up to date with what is happening and possibly testify in front of the state</b> to let them know what teachers really do want and need. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Part of this goal actually got to happen TODAY! Only downside of having a friend that works on policy education means you might get a text or call with a less than 24 hour notice that says "Wanna come testify on a teach pay bill tomorrow??😄😄" Well, just under 24 hours later I was standing in front of the Texas House of Representatives Public Education Committee with my hands shaking, 3 pieces of paper with lots of things crossed out, a shaky voice and saying "So I had all this planned stuff to talk to you about but I'm just going to give you the important information..." </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">It went surprisingly well! They actually listened and didn't stare at their phones the whole time, and even really asked me some questions that I was able to answer and I think I helped Rep Bernal see the complexity of why teachers move from district to district. And now I think they'll call me more to testify!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Goal 4 - Actually stick to my schedule on walkthroughs! </b> I get pulled way too often for various meetings, preparing for EOC testing, and to create different things. I have a tendency to make a plan one week and then go off script when the time comes. I did get some tips while at CAMT to help plan my time and with my goals for the year, so hopefully that will help me stick to my plans.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Goal 5 - Coteach with teachers</b> on a regular basis.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Goal 6 - Keep up with blogging</b> and stay active in the math teacher and IC/TOSA twitterverse.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I think that's all of them. Fingers crossed I'll do better this year than I've done before!</span></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-773622719315324298.post-74931823862958707182017-04-07T18:15:00.001-07:002017-08-01T19:18:49.902-07:00Helping students while I'm a "sub"<div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">So today was interesting and exhausting! One of my teachers was home sick with laryngitis for the 2nd day and one was surprisingly out today. I had told the one with laryngitis that I would be stopping by their room throughout the day to check in on their kids and I ended up having to step into the other teacher's classroom for a few periods to cover since we didn't have enough subs.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Actually 6 of the 21 math teachers on my campus were out today and only 2 had subs that picked up and showed up for the jobs. But that's a whole different story.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">What was so interesting to me today was as I bounced back and forth between two classrooms for the last half of the day I was able to help students understand the big idea behind what they were doing in their respective math classes in 1 or 2 examples and then they were able to go off and run with the crazy algebra skills tied to it. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">In one Algebra 2 class I was able to help some students understand how to find the least common denominator by giving them some examples from years ago when they were adding fractions by hand. The sweeties asked if I could come into the classroom more and I had to remind them that today was their second day working on the material so it was going to make more sense now but it reminded me how on the fly some of my examples from previous classes were when I finally had break throughs with my own students.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">It kinda makes me wish I had a class for a grading period or just a tutorial group of kids to work with so I can make sure and spend more time with many of them on areas that they are struggling with. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I wish I could be an IC and a teacher at the same time sometimes!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Or I could just wait for summer school and remember that I'm going to get a handful from many students when we start working with the students that need to retake the EOC test.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I hope everyone else had a great day and was able to have some insights with their students as well!</span></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-773622719315324298.post-66264982788589195852017-03-01T15:31:00.001-08:002017-03-01T15:31:05.211-08:00That wonderful feeling... <p dir="ltr">You know that wonderful feeling when you complete a large review book that you're putting together for your students. </p>
<p dir="ltr">Yeah, I had that feeling today. </p>
<p dir="ltr">Took me two weeks to get the book put together based on Texas' EOC reporting categories and today I finally finished making the answer key. <br></p>
<p dir="ltr">Oh, and that other wonderful feeling when a student you no longer have realizes it's time to grow up and focus in passing his classes are tests? </p>
<p dir="ltr">Yeah, I had that feeling today too. Put together a bunch of resources, videos and his STAAR test history so he can knock out that sucker out of the park this year. (fingers crossed) <br></p>
<p dir="ltr">Just wanted to share about my good feels today. What good feels did you have?</p>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-773622719315324298.post-52760889193003086422017-01-18T18:30:00.000-08:002017-01-20T13:48:22.855-08:00It's been a long day and a longer week <div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Why is it that the shorter weeks always are so
exhausting?! <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The holidays were great! While it was a challenge to
celebrate the holidays with all my family and not have my mom around we all
eventually made it through. It might have helped that we took in two feral
kittens that showed up on a neighbor's back porch. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<o:p><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></o:p></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The two weeks back at school flew by as I prepared and was
planning out my plan for individual coaching with the teachers while also
nursing my injured Achilles. (It amazes me how much that one ligament is
actually used in daily walking! <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And then this week started. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It's only day 2 of a 4 day week and I feel like I've either
been in meetings, in PLCs, or getting yelled at. (PS I really don't like it
when I start my day with rain starting to pour on my way into work and shortly
afterwards I'm yelled at by one of my teachers.) <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It's one of those weeks where I feel like I'm trying to do
everything for everyone; teachers, students, assistant principals, head
principals, district people; and all I want to do is get back into the
classroom with the kids. Even during the really tough classes and the really
tough years at least one student a day would thank me and be excited about math
or recognize that I needed a "we really appreciate it when you try to
teach us, even though some of us are a-holes about it." And yes, that's a
literal quote from a student my last year in the classroom. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I know I'm doing everything I can and what I'm doing for my
teachers and the resources and strategies I'm creating for the kids is super
helpful and great, but man, this job just sucks it out of you sometimes.
Especially when a teacher claims that the less you interact with students the
less you focus on the struggling, challenging ones. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I would love for this teacher to switch places with me for
just one day to experience the reality of how I'm constantly digging through
the data, analyzing students trends and trying to do to best for everyone all
the time. Plus, I would love to teach some of the units they're in right
now. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">OK, vent over and now it's back to the grind! <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-773622719315324298.post-58332984782427083792016-11-12T07:29:00.001-08:002016-11-12T09:25:53.468-08:00My final political post<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">After hearing from coworkers, friends and family I decided to make this my last post on Facebook this morning and I wanted to share it here as well.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;">This is going to be my last post on politics but I URGE you to read this.</span><br />
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I know many people that voted for Trump and many that voted for Clinton and what I have to say rings true for all.<br />
I woke up Weds morning and said to Brian that I'm glad neither of my parents lived to see this day but now I'm glad neither of my parents lived to see how my friends, dear friends, family and the nation are tearing each other apart. </div>
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I've heard both sides and I listened very carefully to everyone and the time has come to stop blaming, to stop pointing fingers and to move forward!<br />
Everyone's reactions, while each person feels justified, is tearing the country up more than anything else and no one is feeling safe; women, Hispanics, Muslims, or Trump supporters. It just all needs to stop and people need to focus on moving forward and NOT calling each other names. First and foremost we are all human beings that deserve the love and respect of each other. We can't read each other's minds, we don't know why people voted for who they did but that is done and in the past. Going back and dwelling on what has happened is only going to hurt you and your relationships with others.<br />
I haven't been to church in forever but we all know it's more important to be the bigger person and look ahead instead of looking back and focusing on the negative. It's just going to tear you up on the inside and if you do that and that is not what we want to show our children and the youth of this nation. We want to show our future leaders how to deal with something you don't like but move on in and focus on making things BETTER not on name calling and making others feel worse about themselves. Continuing such behavior is only going to get all of us in a whole bunch of trouble.<br />
I wore my safety pin yesterday but this morning it makes me sad that someone would have to look for a small sign to know that they will be safe and watched out for in their environment. Our country was founded on the idea that ALL people are created equal and that ALL people have the fundamental rights of liberty, freedom of speech, freedom of religion and freedom to assemble. Let people speak, let people assemble peacefully, but remember to do as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr said and always march ahead. <br />
As you move forward in the coming minutes, hours and days think of the love that Dr. King preached, of the courage that Nelson Mandela spoke of and the strength Mahatma Gandhi taught. <br />
My thoughts, prayers and hopes are with all of my friends, loved ones, current and former students in this time of unrest in our country. I pray that soon we can all join together and be thankful for our rights and our ability to move forward in this time.</div>
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<span style="text-align: left;">Oh, and from now on whenever I see a political post in my feed I'm going to post a funny animal or yoga pic. That's what y'all get!</span></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-773622719315324298.post-77159916296877147132016-11-09T08:50:00.001-08:002016-11-09T08:51:24.439-08:00My thoughts from last night's election<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">So I went to the AVID Math pathway in Dallas last week and either caught a cold there or my allergies went on high alert with the change in weather that blew in this weekend. As a result I had some very interesting thoughts while watching the first few hours of the election results come in before passing out.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">So this is how my Tuesday started:</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWdNQDqRDkLoqt5NRhHfPmK609X9rXuwJjVQtLKj7bsvtKMUglvUK28ttBAna7zR49YlgGaC46hJD2lRbm4OIx_k_FveYZUcyuD00lQ2-6HWv9uBzBGJNf34AkKHIaMtdLao0t5-PY-bQ/s1600/FB+1.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="303" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWdNQDqRDkLoqt5NRhHfPmK609X9rXuwJjVQtLKj7bsvtKMUglvUK28ttBAna7zR49YlgGaC46hJD2lRbm4OIx_k_FveYZUcyuD00lQ2-6HWv9uBzBGJNf34AkKHIaMtdLao0t5-PY-bQ/s400/FB+1.JPG" width="400" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Election day should NOT keep a rediclinic from opening on time! Thank goodness it didn't and the doc gave me an awesome nasal spray!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">After an some interesting Instructional Coaching training and collaboration with other ICs around my district that afternoon I went home, plopped on the couch and started watching what was rolling in on the news.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I may have started with this image and wanted to start making additional graphics from this:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Once my husband got home I let him take over the TV and we watched some stuff together before I had to turn in. Then around 9:30 I posted this on facebook.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Woke up again coughing around 4 am, looked at the news and this was all I could say: </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">*NOTE: My biggest concern is having a president that has no experience in a government office and has used very harsh rhetoric and scare tactics to get people on his side. This is not meant to be a political post so please don't take offense if you are a Trump supporter.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">And my last post this morning in an effort to bring a smile to my friends faces for those that are down in the dumps after last night:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifvVetr_6_TKc1ZUDX8Z-sJTYsoxl6uyg7ntiuGvk9emC9jRaxCYSKgvHnLuHNP9vGhAarFZw6dB-TukGLtQ7lxhNU_-BL1KIaOfj-DRBkbOwSApuUcgxVdPAko6eS4UikUD_NZo_3X2c/s1600/FB+6.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="120" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifvVetr_6_TKc1ZUDX8Z-sJTYsoxl6uyg7ntiuGvk9emC9jRaxCYSKgvHnLuHNP9vGhAarFZw6dB-TukGLtQ7lxhNU_-BL1KIaOfj-DRBkbOwSApuUcgxVdPAko6eS4UikUD_NZo_3X2c/s400/FB+6.JPG" width="400" /></a></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Thank goodness my husband's a good sport and didn't mind me laughing at him too much at 4 am. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">On a more math related note:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Did anyone use any of the math or stats in their class today? I'm missing having a class today since I would have totally rearranged a few lessons to make them more applicable for the students with the recent results!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-773622719315324298.post-15885726669145812912016-11-01T10:36:00.000-07:002016-11-01T10:36:10.372-07:00Math Mania - AKA Fun way to use a worksheet when you're low on copies<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Running low on copies???</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Kids getting bored in your class??</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Tired of trying to force your students to collaborate?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Taking stuff home to grade and falling asleep before it gets out of your bag?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Then try a Math Mania!!!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I've got to give credit to the teachers I worked with my first year that told me about this (Ami Harman and Lindsey Heinzman at Henry Middle School in Leander). If it wasn't for this I would have been in big trouble multiple</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> times over!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The basic idea is that you can take any worksheet -- basic computation, word problems, applications, etc -- and easily turn it into a game and engaging activity.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Here are the basic rules I posted while the students were working:</span><br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="219" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBz-xHGI0HKiAdtD_-C4PsETRoBVh6Cv9JA66FPjjtc8dSRGFMKIKCjSIyHpt2ITq5zdExkzQmTkJLjvLFnzQvrD2KdLgFfUH4TEx18jy0c2VXmUgpLR_w2ynNn6cIvs9nDHrvV1MTxiM/s320/MM+Rules.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="320" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B4XvTFGpsiW7YTQxTFZzaUJBYjA" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Word Doc can be found here</span></a></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Students will be working in groups of 2-4 (3 was my personal max, but you can download and edit the doc as you want). The worksheet only needs to be copied for the maximum number of groups you would have in a class (hence the saving on the copies).</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Once you copy the worksheet I usually cut it up so that only 1 problem was on each sheet but for this example I'm going to have 3 problems on each sheet. </span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-75VCTrv8JlCUQqTGeMIcn6M0SSOCo6XHUakMRi5OIM-ilD3CPQLI0My0qGX-EUDJ4o-eCHX3xygIRpASAouhKj52vnTEz0sG3LA5yX3bqWYrWfIcQ_MWSm-HMTfqBeG8nCozuqDV90k/s1600/MM+Envelopes.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="179" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-75VCTrv8JlCUQqTGeMIcn6M0SSOCo6XHUakMRi5OIM-ilD3CPQLI0My0qGX-EUDJ4o-eCHX3xygIRpASAouhKj52vnTEz0sG3LA5yX3bqWYrWfIcQ_MWSm-HMTfqBeG8nCozuqDV90k/s320/MM+Envelopes.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br />Pass out the scoresheets so that each group gets 1 and make sure everyone has their own piece of paper.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimURon5oQUlfg3GyzXLyPlSBIlQYGD7mTaYCkytyL4J5YQSlsZhyphenhyphenYHoOD03hTJcjKREoe1TLaeJVWEgTynoPsYfe4DpqvtpaYZ7GV7Q_44orL77m9hv0zCY73qXxow0nL7r6nTerhEPso/s1600/MM+Score+Sheet.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="148" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimURon5oQUlfg3GyzXLyPlSBIlQYGD7mTaYCkytyL4J5YQSlsZhyphenhyphenYHoOD03hTJcjKREoe1TLaeJVWEgTynoPsYfe4DpqvtpaYZ7GV7Q_44orL77m9hv0zCY73qXxow0nL7r6nTerhEPso/s320/MM+Score+Sheet.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Then each group gets one problem or set of problems at a time. As the group works together and finishes they send 1 person up to have their problem(s) checked. I always told the students to make sure and have everyone's work showing for the problems when they got to me, to have their score sheet and to have their question.</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I learned the hard way that my students would get a little too competitive and would start crowding around me so I taped a line on my floor like the picture below and would have the students line up behind the tape so I still had breathing room.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXVp0caqwP0Hd2-JVoIC7G44qsJzvGetsJxC5shXCyUjb8jXuuE4U7_V7FrHpCfmaRgd1ywXiJBXPv9mIhUutlrtqZuFdnqyQ_KAv-a3AkZBP3wT7wn2agtuzIS-_1cKjGjD1EMedvwN4/s1600/MM+Lining+Up.JPG" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXVp0caqwP0Hd2-JVoIC7G44qsJzvGetsJxC5shXCyUjb8jXuuE4U7_V7FrHpCfmaRgd1ywXiJBXPv9mIhUutlrtqZuFdnqyQ_KAv-a3AkZBP3wT7wn2agtuzIS-_1cKjGjD1EMedvwN4/s400/MM+Lining+Up.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">If someone came up without the question or without the score sheet I would make them go back and get all their materials before I would start checking their answers.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I also made sure to have my answers on the back of the envelopes lightly in pencil so that I didn't have to constantly check my answer doc while the kids came up.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">When checking the work if ALL the students in the group got the answer correct then I would circle the 10 for the number, like Kendra and Rachel did. If they got it wrong, like Patrick and Nicole did here, I would mark out the 10 and tell them to double check their work. </span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgckhjxkVIi_Wsn6WPkeSol-OmIAxUElNHT9pk3435yoFBHX02ee8wJrkLYl5hodPorbxAyfltFKsdAwQBQAxE8BRUeb2UQStQdI_BZYVTdQRgXdWZ2_A86Mm7yQucIZ32qaNGFvEUH8Ik/s1600/MM+Right+Ans.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="388" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgckhjxkVIi_Wsn6WPkeSol-OmIAxUElNHT9pk3435yoFBHX02ee8wJrkLYl5hodPorbxAyfltFKsdAwQBQAxE8BRUeb2UQStQdI_BZYVTdQRgXdWZ2_A86Mm7yQucIZ32qaNGFvEUH8Ik/s640/MM+Right+Ans.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiW1YxX6j3fq6O5N5cNkzdnjIL8LS9Iq1wPNAMShSLGfqTxjbcYw8I46LbnvanaQt4tz6ttuta8LYg3Q78ZOEFq9ueODaGGVm5Qp_smF3MdV06nxIZM7Ooqhf8gytwX2Ey1_WkMb2OuiMw/s1600/MM+Wrong+Ans.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="386" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiW1YxX6j3fq6O5N5cNkzdnjIL8LS9Iq1wPNAMShSLGfqTxjbcYw8I46LbnvanaQt4tz6ttuta8LYg3Q78ZOEFq9ueODaGGVm5Qp_smF3MdV06nxIZM7Ooqhf8gytwX2Ey1_WkMb2OuiMw/s640/MM+Wrong+Ans.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">NOTE: I would not give many hints or review material with the students at that time because I wanted them to work through why they got it wrong AND because if I started doing that then the line would get really backed up and the kids would have too much down time. If a group continued to get a wrong answer on 1 question multiple times then I would help the students or I would have another student or another group help them out with what they goofed on.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">After they get all the questions on the sheet of paper right I would take the slip from the question they had just answered and then give students the next question and have them keep working through this process. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">As an added bonus when kids would get a question right I would let them ring the bell on my desk. For some reason that really helped motivate them to keep working and stay accurate while trying to work quickly.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">When the group was done I would have them staple all their work together with their score card on the top and put it in the basket they turned in all their materials to. The work was easily graded and put into the gradebook saving me tons of time and copies!</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMJQ55NKUKsT3_fVwEkm4waJlzep2u77X8B9KO98Qz3GpyszqO_IzzCcHiFpxJeDB7a9xkWxtc82_q8cytJGIfGS-qITNMD72dhwdQOSK4CETDy9jHLyWAPs5JfT3ExdMFRNzR5fFaSeE/s1600/MM+Graded.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="285" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMJQ55NKUKsT3_fVwEkm4waJlzep2u77X8B9KO98Qz3GpyszqO_IzzCcHiFpxJeDB7a9xkWxtc82_q8cytJGIfGS-qITNMD72dhwdQOSK4CETDy9jHLyWAPs5JfT3ExdMFRNzR5fFaSeE/s400/MM+Graded.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Please let me know if you have any questions on any of this or need any clarification or have any tips for any other teachers that may try this for the first time!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Keep up the awesome work everyone!!!</span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-773622719315324298.post-72104879091280216962016-11-01T08:47:00.000-07:002016-11-01T08:47:15.650-07:00My First HyperDoc!<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So I just learned about HyperDocs for the first time last week and I wish I had heard of them and used them when I was still in the classroom! I just created my first one and it's rough, I mean </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">rough</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">. I did it quickly while creating a tech summary sheet for my teachers (they've been bombarded with PL on new technology - see previous post) so it's not the fanciest or best. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">When I first heard of hyperdocs my first thought was it would be a great way to start units and remind students of what they know from previous years. I started with <a href="https://docs.google.com/drawings/d/1UN9xb121n9pysUd0YZEY3ywm8pfLn0x5RSccV-5H9xY/edit?usp=sharing" target="_blank">this one on quadratics</a> but I'm looking forward to making more as both me and my teachers become more comfortable with them and I can't wait to see the students interacting with them more.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Have you created a hyperdoc? What's gone well or what have you needed to tweak during the process? Any feedback would be awesome!</span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-773622719315324298.post-9356255410319817062016-11-01T08:18:00.001-07:002016-11-01T08:37:37.062-07:00Diving into Technology - The Adventures of Fall 2016<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">So this year our district gave each high school 4 laptop carts for each core content area and LOTE. While the addition of the technology is wonderful and I'm not going to be the first to turn it down, the PL that the teachers have received has been fast and furious. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Some of my teachers forget what the different resources are that they've received training on so far so I made this little cheat sheet full of links and screenshots to help my teachers out. I figured others might like it too. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1h8LjJ4E8xVoq-YBhsXjVeZRW6GJ4hc0j6T4mr84OrO4/edit?usp=sharing" target="_blank">CHS Fall Tech PD Resource Snapshot</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><iframe src="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1h8LjJ4E8xVoq-YBhsXjVeZRW6GJ4hc0j6T4mr84OrO4/pub?embedded=true"></iframe></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Let me know if you see something that should be added to any of the quick summaries or have any additional tips or tricks for any of the resources.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I hope everyone has a great day!!!</span><br />
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-773622719315324298.post-23026296013328225262016-08-25T10:09:00.001-07:002016-08-25T10:49:56.986-07:00#MTBoSBlaugust Day 25: I totally math geeked out last night<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">So my neighborhood has a Google Group where everyone is able to post if they are having a garage sale, dates and times of bird walks and nature hikes, about the issues with mailboxes (don't get me started on that subject) and the crazy traffic that has come up at an intersection near where 3 schools are located. This gave me some inspiration for either a WCYDWT or 3 Act problem for the kids. I still need to hash out all the details once I learn all the space requirements.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Here's the background:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Last year there was just 2 schools near this intersection and now there are 3 all starting at the same time. </span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJvgZ93Rr7VpdJuiXahWYXXwiZsdieh4d-AM35ojGyRhishabGF4UN88zFHI2enhIo8vGIIbf2zr2qMz3tozDJdblEc-v3JK5g9RZTH8KmvBLu6mDmcig4jMyIIGTNdg_QbglQwaY8a9g/s1600/Capture1.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="160" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJvgZ93Rr7VpdJuiXahWYXXwiZsdieh4d-AM35ojGyRhishabGF4UN88zFHI2enhIo8vGIIbf2zr2qMz3tozDJdblEc-v3JK5g9RZTH8KmvBLu6mDmcig4jMyIIGTNdg_QbglQwaY8a9g/s320/Capture1.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The stars are where the schools are located</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">There's lots of congestion and people have also noticed people blowing through the stop sign near the intersection</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">. Then I saw this in the email thread:</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTmBRLzN9FGrGJbQUhoMTzFqqqe1NxPryUxNFJ0uP0XfLvO43RKmsmep1FATDVHteYqFVdxYfG3EiRjebO443qi7zlIPM9_Ba_nanyY5322sXzmEotjYMUkJuRDdVtUFxJGzWG4NynLhA/s1600/Capture.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="347" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTmBRLzN9FGrGJbQUhoMTzFqqqe1NxPryUxNFJ0uP0XfLvO43RKmsmep1FATDVHteYqFVdxYfG3EiRjebO443qi7zlIPM9_Ba_nanyY5322sXzmEotjYMUkJuRDdVtUFxJGzWG4NynLhA/s640/Capture.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">And I started wondering, why isn't there enough room? How much room is required for a roundabout or traffic circle? Could that be applied to properties of circles and area in geometry or would that be better attacked in Algebra 2 and try to maximize the restrictions?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I found this when I started researching the construction requirements for a roundabout:</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj74J-PRqvEVTe6swEkzHuvCgc6QNOWrkDWP-QIZyHpsVjNnkbaLY8ydkRrO7mnPGaLPtRMfK8MNValAJP5vEiYINhqfNTRa9vaAw70p9U6yOm0xkXzPYq-PVidxHEXTbbtAaRVtkGYDvc/s1600/f2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="310" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj74J-PRqvEVTe6swEkzHuvCgc6QNOWrkDWP-QIZyHpsVjNnkbaLY8ydkRrO7mnPGaLPtRMfK8MNValAJP5vEiYINhqfNTRa9vaAw70p9U6yOm0xkXzPYq-PVidxHEXTbbtAaRVtkGYDvc/s320/f2.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">http://safety.fhwa.dot.gov/intersection/innovative/roundabouts/fhwasa10006/</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I'm still researching a lot about it and how much more space is required compared to traditional intersections but when I get a problem or project or something worked out I'll update this post with it for anyone else that is interested in using it.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Gotta love the random inspiration I get!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-773622719315324298.post-46489514871457169062016-08-23T19:13:00.001-07:002016-08-23T19:19:29.025-07:00#MTBoSBlaugust Day 23: We all survived! <p dir="ltr">We all survived our first day of the new school year! </p>
<p dir="ltr">I even managed to get a run in this morning. It proved to be detrimental since I had to help the administrators pick up paper attendance all around the school (which covers a quarter of a mile) 3 times today! </p>
<p dir="ltr">I'm just glad that all my teachers finished the day with everything that's happened at the school to start off the year. All of the technology may not have been functioning completely and many of the rooms weren't totally decorated but what's happening in the classroom with the kids is what's more important than anything else! </p>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-773622719315324298.post-23544767467530683882016-08-22T14:33:00.000-07:002016-08-22T14:34:00.726-07:00#MTBOSBlaugust Day 22 Part 2: Need ideas for notebooks for PreCalculus classes<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Woohoo!!! 2 posts in 1 day!!! I'm on a roll!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I'm in need of some tips or tricks for one of my teachers.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">This year we were able to buy composition books for all of our students. Literally, all of our students. This is the wall to my office after 24 boxes were taken. We still need to get a lot more out to teachers this week.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgl71diPKtSJl3pkUBvth10y0Q3Op4dQmELOLb-_Hhl75uDJRTzuvtiZHFUrLz6QPn1cS8xUOE3rAjRpqTog7J9eFv3kFHq_UiNlr0o9xtukVNpsMHjkyf947hLFne0gHHeYsh8830phlM/s1600/20160822_160403.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgl71diPKtSJl3pkUBvth10y0Q3Op4dQmELOLb-_Hhl75uDJRTzuvtiZHFUrLz6QPn1cS8xUOE3rAjRpqTog7J9eFv3kFHq_UiNlr0o9xtukVNpsMHjkyf947hLFne0gHHeYsh8830phlM/s200/20160822_160403.jpg" width="112" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">We bought the notebooks with the idea that they will follow the students from year to year so they can build on them with their additional knowledge from each course. The kicker is that we don't have inspiration for all of the upper level courses and how to use the notebooks there.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">One of my PreCalc teachers wants to use the notebook as a study tool the kids can go back and use at the end of a unit but she doesn't want to make it something she's going to have to stop at the end of the unit for kids to create or always double check that the students have created the correct notes or guide to use.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">My idea was to have the kids create a mind map; something like this:</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPOBFTROaP38cBga-7KVmG3_qSDKohOYjxyuATm_zmJvb_VBuxqOU_ucXvSgaCCf75LMpz7ptAVl2RWMIxV7W3ykmCiNNFhXW1MqzH-8TSQmu42HeneopTeRTCmmXojNZi_NHkN5j4b2Y/s1600/6729f2cd953437a4c37175b1cd3c7b33.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="199" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPOBFTROaP38cBga-7KVmG3_qSDKohOYjxyuATm_zmJvb_VBuxqOU_ucXvSgaCCf75LMpz7ptAVl2RWMIxV7W3ykmCiNNFhXW1MqzH-8TSQmu42HeneopTeRTCmmXojNZi_NHkN5j4b2Y/s320/6729f2cd953437a4c37175b1cd3c7b33.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From ZIMBARDO Patrick (https://www.pinterest.com/pin/505318020661031043/)</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">But she's worried the kids won't have enough space to make it as the unit is being taught and they won't have enough space to make it detailed enough.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I'm curious what other people have used before and if you have any quick pics that you could share that would be awesome! </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Thanks so much #MTBoS!!!!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-773622719315324298.post-76783206227438733162016-08-22T14:01:00.001-07:002016-08-22T15:16:51.367-07:00#MTBoSBlaugust Day 22: What I really do as an Instructional Coach<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I recently got a comment on one of my posts from an old coworker who said she was looking forward to hearing more about my position as an Instructional Coach and I decided that would be a great thing to blog about.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">My official title is the Math NIET Master Coach but it really just means Instructional Coach since the campus stopped using the TAP program right before I was hired. Officially my job description is as follows:</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiY0I0yXp9XrTV2r58wD5qOTgEO7YN7Vug51YQ77i_oWL7gI-24loL9tKwgCS_xnrpXWHiHe6vCjG5czu1Kk3GUeW-_xI2PA_cDoMSvxOl2pOvjpAvzoLNCNotmy59jvkklIVxhgqIHEo4/s1600/Job+Description+1.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="292" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiY0I0yXp9XrTV2r58wD5qOTgEO7YN7Vug51YQ77i_oWL7gI-24loL9tKwgCS_xnrpXWHiHe6vCjG5czu1Kk3GUeW-_xI2PA_cDoMSvxOl2pOvjpAvzoLNCNotmy59jvkklIVxhgqIHEo4/s640/Job+Description+1.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiD_hHhAYqPjXM5__t3uQMvr4h00ywo3AvTtFTvgM0KABFMeqnCVJErimyxEqgmiu1QK_Ma1-JXjEHQAz0SIt4kfKYsW8m0_rkF-UxuMEjvrEuDvuNg8VU3CkEyGVYIr1AUr5yzG-5cf28/s1600/Job+Description+2.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="347" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiD_hHhAYqPjXM5__t3uQMvr4h00ywo3AvTtFTvgM0KABFMeqnCVJErimyxEqgmiu1QK_Ma1-JXjEHQAz0SIt4kfKYsW8m0_rkF-UxuMEjvrEuDvuNg8VU3CkEyGVYIr1AUr5yzG-5cf28/s640/Job+Description+2.JPG" width="640" /></a><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">In case you looked at those images and said "yeah, I'm not reading all of that" here's my "I'm a math teacher and I like to be concise" explaination:</span><br />
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<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I lead regular Professional Development for the math teachers by PLC and department on strategies and district initiatives.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I am present for all PLCs in my department to help facilitate the conversations on instruction and data.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I also participate in the PLCs by creating lessons, assignments, etc that the team needs help with.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I analyze all the tests/assessments to ensure they are aligned to the TEKS/standards and at the appropriate level. I also keep an eye out for any typos, misaligned columns, etc.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I do walk-throughs in classrooms to observe the teaching and learning going on. This is often when I get inspiration for PD that I'm going to develop or when I determine what other teachers may need to present on some of the strategies they use in their classroom.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I co-teach in different classrooms and help facilitate small group learning.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I help create the Department Improvement Plan that is incorporated into the Campus Improvement Plan.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I observe teachers using the T-TESS rubric and evaluate them for the year.</span></li>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Now that last one is not exactly what I had anticipated doing when I first got this job. I always thought administrators did the observations and evaluations but with the new T-TESS rubric and the process you go through with the teachers it is much more of a coaching tool than a "gotcha during one observation" tool and I really enjoyed it last year. I did not enjoy doing 3 observations in one day last year (I learned the hard way that's not how to do it!) but overall the teachers I worked with and I all enjoyed the process and learned about ourselves, our strengths and areas that need improvement from the process.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">That's about it for this post! I hope everyone is having a great Monday!</span><br />
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-773622719315324298.post-90555350280787234202016-08-19T15:51:00.000-07:002016-08-19T17:30:13.062-07:00#MTBoSBlaugust Day 19: Just wanna brag on a team...<br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">So I did not get a chance to work with my Geometry team while they were creating their first test (which I really would have liked to have done). And I just got an email from the PLC lead with the test and when I scrolled down to the bottom I saw this:</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgibVcNN1frc2dOYiGyPzXyyrFxkkXM-paroIJhPJyyfijMynOBcLmwn2TdE_Oin32ERbUs8lC9xUMqxYmoLAxmCIvK1Pwnisp3E4bD3z8ctuxwy4HfRZ_rnZ2jO4H0Uwr9_tiM10t3yJg/s1600/Geom+Standards+Based+Brag.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgibVcNN1frc2dOYiGyPzXyyrFxkkXM-paroIJhPJyyfijMynOBcLmwn2TdE_Oin32ERbUs8lC9xUMqxYmoLAxmCIvK1Pwnisp3E4bD3z8ctuxwy4HfRZ_rnZ2jO4H0Uwr9_tiM10t3yJg/s320/Geom+Standards+Based+Brag.JPG" width="271" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">No prompting needed, no having to bribe or convince them to try something new. On their own they came up with the idea of giving a standards based test and breaking it up into parts for assessment!!! I'm so thrilled I'm literally bouncing in my seat as I type this! </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Students always struggle with Geometry and I'm loving that they're wanting to go this route and try this out. I can't wait for the students to really take ownership of their learning since their grade will really mean something to them and I can't wait to see the passing rate in Geometry skyrocket as a result!!!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Woohoo!!!</span><br />
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<img src="https://nomorethan150.files.wordpress.com/2015/12/20s6gra.gif?w=680" /><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Just had to brag since they totally went that route on their own and that was a route I really wanted to slowly open the department to.</span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-773622719315324298.post-3002386050147443962016-08-16T15:30:00.002-07:002016-08-16T15:33:52.187-07:00#MTBoSBlaugust day 16: My not ready school and office <div dir="ltr">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">So this summer our campus was getting work done on the roof, the HVAC was getting replaced and new technology (interactive whiteboards) were getting installed.</span></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhytjsycS7_2eVgFFB073nwUcCE12Co80cTDvh19mGgSkHEG4nWsqHCoJyI6tRB2NCA-XB03ccZIE7runn_GZvkR5nd9wvWA4gg_1F8NhUUeW5GwPp4XGXkqFMp7dF7ZxCgtq6AdHXDSB0/s1600/20160816_115113.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhytjsycS7_2eVgFFB073nwUcCE12Co80cTDvh19mGgSkHEG4nWsqHCoJyI6tRB2NCA-XB03ccZIE7runn_GZvkR5nd9wvWA4gg_1F8NhUUeW5GwPp4XGXkqFMp7dF7ZxCgtq6AdHXDSB0/s200/20160816_115113.jpg" width="112" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">Here's some of the technology that <br />is still waiting to be installed right now.</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBoF_dWA1gasR87KrJVQ6dfxHBb3bK3Ou4CsKVZbZqMXWzpaAJ_ewmANfMB9o9By0LZSrpBqojfybB5Evh3yRxfniQjdQhVn3KCC7aNtG38AtBRAwQzsiXM5b4SqMFnrC3bDdu6-ayB2M/s1600/20160816_115647.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBoF_dWA1gasR87KrJVQ6dfxHBb3bK3Ou4CsKVZbZqMXWzpaAJ_ewmANfMB9o9By0LZSrpBqojfybB5Evh3yRxfniQjdQhVn3KCC7aNtG38AtBRAwQzsiXM5b4SqMFnrC3bDdu6-ayB2M/s200/20160816_115647.jpg" width="112" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">At least some of the interactive whiteboards<br />were installed this summer.</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">So I haven't been able to blog lately because I've been troubleshooting some beginning of the school hiccups with some of my teachers. What hiccups you say? The kind of hiccups where you have no way to project something while water is running down your walls. :D </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Well, there were problems with the work on the roof, and after the rain this weekend some of the rooms and offices now have water damage.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCSQtBjyjPLIqv08IINkMZOBtRH3-89gJ448Vj8oW96qLZkwsb1_Y1lpgaUVQ6xY2RU7Qwj6nLgonc2OfEFXs4nOMqL3kQhgMssS1hwEwOMLo92LlzbZTToCzxwhUwnd1QnWvh8kUhEHo/s1600/20160816_114528.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><br /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtM10fXzLJ_RE7YS_Qaf6GMRTR8RtjjEPIOxVBiBAu9zO8b9korHnxI31MGUL08_OAwV7-DyPPrWURMVTdJMrzNBSTc3dO2vmAhieqICtCIz3bAPBor7EokLN2cbTdUOYsoacRhd1v5Cc/s1600/20160816_130539.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtM10fXzLJ_RE7YS_Qaf6GMRTR8RtjjEPIOxVBiBAu9zO8b9korHnxI31MGUL08_OAwV7-DyPPrWURMVTdJMrzNBSTc3dO2vmAhieqICtCIz3bAPBor7EokLN2cbTdUOYsoacRhd1v5Cc/s320/20160816_130539.jpg" width="179" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCSQtBjyjPLIqv08IINkMZOBtRH3-89gJ448Vj8oW96qLZkwsb1_Y1lpgaUVQ6xY2RU7Qwj6nLgonc2OfEFXs4nOMqL3kQhgMssS1hwEwOMLo92LlzbZTToCzxwhUwnd1QnWvh8kUhEHo/s1600/20160816_114528.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCSQtBjyjPLIqv08IINkMZOBtRH3-89gJ448Vj8oW96qLZkwsb1_Y1lpgaUVQ6xY2RU7Qwj6nLgonc2OfEFXs4nOMqL3kQhgMssS1hwEwOMLo92LlzbZTToCzxwhUwnd1QnWvh8kUhEHo/s320/20160816_114528.jpg" width="179" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">On the right is how some of the rooms are currently going under demolition and construction to repair the water damages. On the left is all the administrators stuff that has been moved to the teachers lounge while their offices are repaired.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The technology isn't installed. Hopefully it will get done before school starts in a week. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">And my office has been abandoned and I don't know if I will be finished before the kids come back. Actually I'm pretty sure that it won't be finished... </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">So that's how were starting the school year. I hope everyone else has a better start to the school year!!</span></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-773622719315324298.post-20667238115820134572016-08-12T11:04:00.002-07:002016-08-12T11:04:57.797-07:00#MTBoSBlaugust Day 11: The right way to start the school year!<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Yesterday was a super long day and I started this but literally fell asleep when working on it. </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It was the first day back to school for everyone and it's always so much fun putting all the teachers from a campus in a room where the AC isn't working right. At least it wasn't as warm as the rest of the building was!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It was great seeing all the teachers together and getting to know the new teachers even better. I have to admit that I was late to the start of the meeting because I thought it started 30 minutes earlier, but I wasn't late for the rest of it!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">After the campus meeting we got to have a nice LONG lunch, seriously it was an amazingly long and wonderful lunch. They gave us 2.5 hours! But it was followed by convocation with all the staff of the district at one location so everyone needed the extra time to get to the location and try to find an easy way out once we all were released.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I have to admit that this was the best start to a convocation that I've ever been to. Instead of starting with the superintendent on the stage a student that had made it into a video the last two years was on the stage in a fancy suit and tie. </span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjz1NIKRPogVdfn7UudS72yRACbaZx-0wiMH4ayilcgFciIVB15Q_lPnoHReH22eMclG4pmK0U9YV5XAC6m39KCSFCCq10vaU0ljxbuA-hFJyMNWUByLnza07tkg8DeTJ40RyPQ3I6OhKo/s1600/13920425_10108004068364710_1198665193528599085_o.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjz1NIKRPogVdfn7UudS72yRACbaZx-0wiMH4ayilcgFciIVB15Q_lPnoHReH22eMclG4pmK0U9YV5XAC6m39KCSFCCq10vaU0ljxbuA-hFJyMNWUByLnza07tkg8DeTJ40RyPQ3I6OhKo/s200/13920425_10108004068364710_1198665193528599085_o.jpg" width="200" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Kenneth gave us a perfect start to the school year!</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">His opening line was perfect! "What? Who were you expecting? The superintendent?!"</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This kid had so much personality and pizzazz and he's just now starting 6th grade!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It was a great start to the school and I'm hoping we hear more from the students when we meet as a campus and district in the future. I hope everyone else had a great start to the school year!!!</span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-773622719315324298.post-15987463551105775122016-08-10T17:08:00.001-07:002016-08-19T09:21:56.209-07:00#MTBoSBlaugust Day 10: Planning PD without me <p dir="ltr">So I finally realized knew of the reasons I've had such have a hard time planning out the PD I'm going to be delivering to my math teachers thus year. It's because I'm not sure when my mom is going to need me and I don't want to have my teachers miss some great professional learning because of my family issues. My mom has been sick for 8 months now and is under hospice care at home and we're not sure how much longer she's going to last. </p>
<p dir="ltr">So knowing that the unknown is ahead I've decided to embrace some various forms of PD. This year instead of all the PD being done in person or with their PLC I'm going to have my teachers do learning walks or walk throughs every few weeks. I want them to first do them with other math teachers and then after the first month or so start walking through classrooms from other content areas. I'm going to give them a form to fill out either on paper or electronically so everyone will still be held accountable but also so they can reflect on what they may have observed or picked up from the classrooms that they want to implement in their own classrooms. </p>
<p dir="ltr">I'm thinking the teachers will enjoy this so they can get a chance to see other teachers when they're in their zone and also because then they can give me even more feedback on what they would like further help with in the classroom. </p>
<p dir="ltr">Here are some of the questions and reflections that I'm planning on using from my APs previous form as well as some of what I've used as a teacher before. <br>
- What did the teacher do build background with students in order to motivate/engage the students? <br>
-What classroom management strategies were in place or observed?<br>
- Describe how the teacher differentiated and scaffolded the instruction for various learners.<br>
- What other SCALE/SIOP strategies did you observe that would be useful in your own classroom?<br>
- What is something you are taking away from your walkthrough and want to implement in your classroom? </p>
<p dir="ltr">Any ideas, thoughts or feedback would be greatly appreciated! If you've participated in something like this before please let me know what worked or didn't work for you. I'm looking forward to really planning these out and letting the teachers make the most of their own PD! </p>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-773622719315324298.post-60924089398418027172016-08-09T19:53:00.000-07:002016-08-09T19:53:10.865-07:00#MTBoSBlaugust day 9 - Reflecting on other Blogs<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Before I actually started doing work today I decided to see if I could get some inspiration from other blogs participating in #MTBoSBlaugust and I found these 3 blogs that were new to me and gave me some inspiration and ideas for PD for my math teachers.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="https://fractionfanatic.wordpress.com/2016/08/04/questions-that-promote-thinking/comment-page-1/#comment-86" target="_blank">Questions that promote thinking</a> by @fractionfanatic</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I love how she's taken the 100 questions, whittled them down and kept them so the students are really reflecting on how else they could answer the question, how they know they are right, and really analyzing their process themselves. I think I'm going to tweak the posters I made for my teachers last year with some sentence starters to include more of these types of questions. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.megcraig.org/2016/08/09/you-cant-pick-your-pollinators-mtbosblaugust/" target="_blank"><br /></a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.megcraig.org/2016/08/09/you-cant-pick-your-pollinators-mtbosblaugust/" target="_blank">You can't pick your pollinators</a></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> by @mathymeg07</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This is perfect and some of what I feel like I need to remember during the school. Yo isn't pick your pollinators and you can't pick all your coworkers. Sometimes people are great in collaborating and some need more help in learning how to collaborate. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="http://mathequalslove.blogspot.com/2016/08/volume-3-japanese-logic-puzzles-for.html?m=1" target="_blank">Japanese Logic Puzzles for the secondary math classroom</a> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">by @mathequalslove </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I'll be honest, this is one of the posts that made me wish I could run back into the classroom and start trying this with my classroom. I'll also be honest that I haven't really wanted to do any work since I've gone back to work early the last week and I might have found myself doing some of these puzzles on my own when I was searching for something other than work to do. I've found myself trying these puzzles multiple ways and I was wondering all the various ways that students would try some of the problems. I think everyone should try to incorporate this to classrooms if possible. </span></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-773622719315324298.post-89800503562198778742016-08-09T07:26:00.001-07:002016-08-09T07:26:27.359-07:00#MTBoSBlaugust Day 8 a little late: My biggest inspiration<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I didn't get a chance to blog yesterday but I'm going to make up for it today! </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It was a busy day yesterday with helping out with New Teacher Orientation at my school, going to my mom's rent house to make sure the new AC unit got put in and visiting my mom. My mom's health has been declining since December and she's now receiving hospice care at home. She was diagnosed with many issues last December when I took her to the hospital after seeing how weak she had gotten in just a few weeks. The biggest issue ended up being a diagnosis of bile duct cancer which she (surprisingly) opted to have surgery on when there were no other options available for treatment.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">My mom isn't the type to give up but with this she had her fourth cancer diagnosis and she initially was adamant about not having surgery (she's never recovered from it well). While I'm glad she's fought as long as she has for her health and to see my brother, me and her grand kids grow up I know she's ready to relax, be at peace and not be in pain anymore.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I'm focusing on her for this post because she really has been the most influential on my career and has been a fantastic mother and a great mentor for my teaching practices at the same time.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTR6WDt8y1GDJ8ZoCL2FJXRMIQtRRBIfA7Tiu3Wn4NzULJ97QQa8-VHUTCB0Mt4SqLmn2pk4SkrtLT1shnUIvog1wwoHioOewt-NfpZHJO-BZG63edxajzYIamxH1Jdz04HwvQvHJozc4/s1600/1923430_640903681800_2762_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTR6WDt8y1GDJ8ZoCL2FJXRMIQtRRBIfA7Tiu3Wn4NzULJ97QQa8-VHUTCB0Mt4SqLmn2pk4SkrtLT1shnUIvog1wwoHioOewt-NfpZHJO-BZG63edxajzYIamxH1Jdz04HwvQvHJozc4/s200/1923430_640903681800_2762_n.jpg" width="134" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">My mom got her degree in counseling and ended up getting her PhD in child and adolescent development. She always said she would have become a psychiatrist if her and my dad hadn't gotten into it so many times when he was trying to help her with her math classes. (She wasn't the best at math while my dad was a wiz!) </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Growing up I saw my mom impact so many lives as an LPC and as a high school counselor at alternative schools while also teaching college classes. She has always been someone I could go to and speak to about my personal struggles as well as my struggles in the classroom or with students and she knew exactly what to say. She also gave me so many tips and tricks for working with difficult students or coworkers and helping students with learning disabilities. She was also the big reason I finally went to grad school (she told me she was going to go travel with the money she had saved for me for grad school if I didn't start ASAP, LOL). She has always known how to push me just enough and encouraged my curiosity and desire to further my education and help others in their pursuit for knowledge. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We were talking last night when I was reading a message to her from an old family friend and we both started tearing up at it. The conversation went something like this:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Mom: "Haha!! I'm not the only one that gets teary eyed at this!"</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Me: "I'm getting teared up because Liz has lost her folks and she is trying to comfort me through this."</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Mom: "This is what I'm going to miss the most. The people that I've grown to know and love. I'm just sad that I won't be in their lives anymore."</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Me: "Mom, you're always going to be in their lives. You've touched so many people, helped so many people and been a rock for so many for so long that you're always going to be in their lives, even when you aren't physically there you're spirit will be with them. So don't be sad about that."</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Mom: "You're right. When did you finally grown up and become so mature?"</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">(Note: I'm about to turn 35 and I'm the baby of the family. So I didn't have to start maturing and taking care of family stuff until recently.)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So that's it for this post, I promise the rest won't be as sad and sappy!</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEib-LTqxtL4-FGi7pCpq3EiUnhzwVcPccZx0iAvuw2t2s5_PlUrNhLhMniNp_XM72zUcv0CjPOC9FhnMeQoVfI5AN_qktsOKf4IYPhOxdyQiZv6Ft4Z2sVd1rVYlRLR9USC1RM9EyGyFKQ/s1600/10427270_10107040378721480_3079591350884056517_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEib-LTqxtL4-FGi7pCpq3EiUnhzwVcPccZx0iAvuw2t2s5_PlUrNhLhMniNp_XM72zUcv0CjPOC9FhnMeQoVfI5AN_qktsOKf4IYPhOxdyQiZv6Ft4Z2sVd1rVYlRLR9USC1RM9EyGyFKQ/s200/10427270_10107040378721480_3079591350884056517_n.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">From before the wedding when she had just zipped up my dress. And that's my baby crib behind us.</span></td></tr>
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-773622719315324298.post-71445578987637967982016-08-07T19:15:00.001-07:002016-08-07T19:26:48.813-07:00#MTBoSBlaugust Day 7: Who wants to help me write this work equation? <p dir="ltr">I don't know about everyone else but when I find something that makes a job in my house a lot easier I want to turn it inti an equation. Like "Ms L spent 5 hours painting white coats on a bookshelf (including the dry time) with a traditional paint brush. Then she got annoyed with how long it was taking and decided to buy a paint sprayer. In 30 minutes she was able to set up, spray paint the bookshelf, break down and clean the paint sprayer. If she has to wait an hour between each coat, when is it the best for her to use the sprayer instead of the paint brush?"</p>
<p dir="ltr">And yes, that was the real timing of each event.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Also,  I mowed the lawn for the first time time since buying the house. It's been at least 5 weeks and I've learned that there's no equation for figuring out when we should mow the lawn. The answer is always yes, mow the lawn! </p>
<p dir="ltr">So these are some of the real world ways I'm gig to approach the students this year. And I also want to find a way to Pokémon Go in more than just the circles unit. </p>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-773622719315324298.post-43887442993977810102016-08-06T18:12:00.001-07:002016-08-06T18:33:35.168-07:00#MTBoSBlaugust: Day 6 10th Song on Playlist <p dir="ltr">So jumping to my Workout Playlist (which is the only Playlist on my phone) and I found that Blondies "One Way Or Another" is my 10th song. Talk about a song that has so many memories for me!!!</p>
<p dir="ltr">The first song that I laughed to, really belly  laughed to was this song. It was back in 1981 or 1982 and my mom, brother and I were sitting in the front seat of my mom's car. My brother kept reaching over and tickling my stomach during the "I'm gonna getcha, gonna getcha getcha getcha getcha" parts and I just let out a total barrel laugh. </p>
<p dir="ltr">For the rest of my life I haven't been able to listen to the song without getting a huge smile on my face and even laughing. </p>
<p dir="ltr">It also reminds me of all the times I've pushed to find exactly whag I need for my job, education, classroom and life. I've searched high and low, near and far to get exactly what I needed in my personal and professional life. </p>
<p dir="ltr">- I found the perfect job to start with in an amazingly supportive environment<br>
- I found the perfect next job after that to move me to the high school level with amazing coworkers<br>
- I found the perfect grad school program while working and planning my wedding<br>
- I found the perfect job post grad school with the exact position I dreamed of (I didn't even realize that it was really an opportunity!) </p>
<p dir="ltr">So "one way or another, I'm gonna" get what I want, I'm going to get what I need to be the best educator and teacher I can be! </p>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0