Oh the joys of the start of school. The smell of the newly sharpened pencils, clean unmarked whiteboards, and teacher’s CAASPP scores being reviewed. As part of my district’s annual tradition, we always start off with a district wide kickoff. The Board of Ed waves and smiles. Our district’s Teacher of the Year says a few inspiring words. Teacher with …
12 Ways to Get 11
As I have said countless times in previous posts, my 6th graders have been math buddies with a kindergarten class. The other kinder teacher and I spend numerous hours trying to create and plan different activities for both classes to do. One of the books I came across on Twitter was 12 Ways to Get 11 by Eve Merriam. …
Tallest Teacher
In the fall, my kindergarten collaborator and I did a heights unit with her students and with my 6th graders. She covered the standard that directly compares 2 objects with a measureable attribute (K.MD.2) while I covered my standard on inequalities. Both Mrs. Z and I thought it went extremely well. It really contextualized the math standards. …
Create your own clothesline
For the past few months, I’ve been completely sidelined with another project that required my full attention and writing skills. Luckily, the project is finished and now it’s the waiting game. SO my apologies for my disappearance. However, I have a few blog posts that I’m going to catch up on in the next few weeks. As most of you …
Empowerment
A few months ago, I was invited to come back to my alma mater, Frostburg State University. You might be saying…Frost who? Yes it sounds cold—and yes it holds true to its name. Frostburg State University is a university situated in a small, former coal mining town in the Alleghany Mountains of western Maryland. Over 100 years ago, FSU used …
Sassy Cents – a 3 act lesson
Since being back in the classroom, I’ve made it a point to include either a performance task, a 3 act lesson, or sometimes both with every unit of math. I have to admit that it’s been fun to put what I’ve learned as a coach to work. Not only am I a better teacher for it, but my team trusts …
Mills, Bills, and Trill
The first week of school lesson plans usually consist of getting-to-know-you type activities. In planning, I figured it would be a great time for exploring in math. I hemmed and hawed about it. At first I thought I’d do a 3 act lesson. They are always exciting and engaging, but I couldn’t think or find one that these kids hadn’t …
Welcome to Acosta Academy
Welcome back to a whole new school year! I’ve spent the whole summer steadily preparing for my new assignment and it’s one that I’m embracing. Here is it…the night before my first day at a new school, new routines, new students, new colleagues—actually, they aren’t that new to me. I’m supposed to be trying to rest up and review …
Where did the numbers go?
Back in January (yes, I’m back logged a few months) I did a professional development for 4 – 6th grade teachers. I was asked about presenting something that could help with the ever-looming testing in the spring. My purpose was to introduce them to the strategy of Notice & Wonder while showing them what a numberless word problem was. …
April Fools Day
Ahhh. April Fools Day. It’s one of my favorite days of the year. Yes, it’s a day that I have grown older by 365 days. Yes, it’s a day that I notice more grey strands in my curly brunette hair. And yes, it’s a day that I see a few more wrinkles on my ever aging face. However, it’s also …