2016 Reflection

This has been one of the best years of my life so I couldn't wait to share some highlights!

January- I started using my new curriculum and felt like I could breathe for the first time in eight years! I also started using a bullet journal which is so pretty and fun!

February- Went to a Google Appa conference that was productive

March- A blog post of mine was published in our first ever MTBos book

May- I completed my first ever 30 posts in 30 days for #MTBoS30 and to top it off celebrated my 30th birthday in St. Louis

June- I canoed for the first time and zip lined for the second time. I got new teeth!

July- I went to Minneapolis Minnesota for the first time to attend my fourth Twitter Math Camp

August- I lost 50 pounds in one year thanks to my Fitbit and walking. I also started writing posts for the Day in the Life series.

September- My grandma came to visit; my uncle fixed the power in my basement and built me a beautiful hall tree

October- I surpassed my all time best of 109 blog posts in one year! This makes post 114.

November- I got a new phone

December- I had one of the best end of the semesters, Christmas break, and Christmas's ever!

And now some ideas for 2017...

A bad habit I'm going to break: crossing my arms when I walk around the class

A new skill I'd like to learn: an instructional routine to use

A person I hope to be more like: Rebecka Peterson

A good deed I'm going to do: send home happy notes or postcards to parents

A book I'd like to read: Making Number Talks Matter

A letter I'm going to write: individual letters to my seniors

I'm going to do better at: getting to school earlier

My students wrote to me that my classroom is colorful and welcoming, they look forward to my class, they like math now, I've helped them be more organized, I explain things in a way they can understand easily, they know that I care about them and their lives, and they enjoy being around me.

Good-bye 2016! 👋🏻

Am I Basic?

aka Am I a Fraud?

I always laugh at basic white girl memes and how I really am none of them....I don't like coffee, I've never bought anything from Starbucks, I don't really care for tacos or Mexican, I don't feel comfortable wearing leggings in public, I think Uggs are ugly, and I can't do a messy bun to save my life.

But when it comes to teaching...I just realized I might be basic.

I've been proud of myself for using a new curriculum, getting my resources aligned, reinforcing my routines, being organized and keeping my students organized, working less throughout the week, being more open with students....

But has my teaching improved?

I'm not asking higher order thinking questions {maybe I'm not really sure what they are}, I don't use any instructional routines {maybe I'm not really sure what they are}, I don't do any fancy three-act tasks or really any tasks at all {maybe I'm not really sure how to find/make/use them}, I'm not writing comments, I don't do low floor high ceiling, open middle, I'm not using Desmos on a daily basis, my students are creating anything, I'm doing pathetic job with number talks, and I haven't mentioned growth mindset since the first two weeks of school.

I just finished reading and grading all my students' first semester reflection papers and the comments were overwhelmingly positive.

I'm the teacher I always dreamed of being.

Until I met you MTBoS.

My students are happy with me and my abilities because they don't know any better. I'm an improvement over past teachers so they are satisfied.

They don't know what they're missing out on.

But I do.

And I'm not saying that in a feeling sorry for myself  way, just an honest way. This has been one of the best years of my life and I'm happier than I've ever been.

But what now? Where do I go from here?

I'm not sure which area I need the most growth in. I feel incapable of even trying some of the things I listed above, let alone using them in a way that is beneficial for my students.

Which thing would benefit my students the most....that I can actually accomplish?

Can someone just create a to-do list for the rest of my teaching career?

I've been wanting to try national board certification but I'm too scared I will fail miserably because I'm not sure I'm as a good of a teacher as the professional learning standards requires. I would love to present at TMC but I have nothing to present. Every year I find less and less things to even share as a my favorite, let alone present for an entire 30 minutes. You can tell in my blogging that I have less and less to share....I'm using a curriculum so I'm creating less which means less to share.

I feel like I was on the front edge of the MTBoS when it started and now I've been left behind. I don't even get on Twitter anymore because it feels like everyone sharing these amazing projects and lessons and achievements that drown out my basicness. Also it is so filled with politics that I don't even feel safe posting much anymore.

Again, this is not for pity. At all. It's my brutally honest way of evaluating myself, my year, and my career.

How do I go deeper? What's the best route? What is sustainable?

How do I become the teacher I've learned I'm so far away from being?

Lessons from this year - supporting struggling students

One of the big issues that's been emerging for me this year is how to support struggling students. As a school, we've made a commitment not to track and to differentiate instruction so that students from a variety of backgrounds can be supported and pursue their interests fully. The desire to provide challenging content to all students is one I very much support and know the research backs it up. The problem, of course, is that if students are grouped heterogeneously, but the content is the same as what would be taught in an honors section, students who have not been successful in Math in the past do not magically overcome those challenges. What does end up happening is that half the class is frustrated and feels like the pace of instruction is too slow and the other half of the class has their preexisting images of themselves as unsuccessful Math students confirmed.

I have also been quite surprised to see that it's often students who are struggling who give pushback to teaching methods that emphasize choice, group work, student-constructed knowledge, and open problems. They feel unsuccessful with these teaching styles and crave direct instruction, structure, and concrete, repetitive problems. These students (and their families) have been asking for textbooks, lecture, and an explicit curricular progression in which students are walked through algorithms and given lots of practice. In teaching these students, when I see how much more scaffolding they need to successfully mediate their relationship with mathematics, I understand their perspective and needs much better than I did before. Their gaps are often not in prior knowledge (although that's there too), but in how to learn Math. As a department, I think that we've done a great job of building a rigorous and interesting curriculum that works well for successful Math students who jump into open problems, ask questions, tinker and test, iterate, confer with peers, look for connections and patterns, reflect on their understanding, and figure out what they do and don't know independently. When they lack some of these skills, they are receptive to feedback and observation of peers who model them. We have not yet, however, figured out how to teach all of these skills while simultaneously asking students who don't yet have them to grapple with difficult mathematics in an environment that requires these skills to be successful in that work.

One solution to this issue is to give the students what they want: a choice between a track of open/challenging/problem-based math and a track of traditional/lecture-based math. For many reasons, this is not a solution that I can get behind. Perhaps I'm wrong, but I have not seen incontrovertible evidence that there are some students who just can't learn Math without lecture and repeated drill. If we really think this, we are basically saying that these students can't learn Math and let's just teach them how to regurgitate some procedures so they can get by on their standardized tests. I would have a very hard time supporting a bifurcated system like this.

Other ideas I have had that might help this issue are:

• Provide an extra Math class for struggling students that would focus on just content or just mathematical practices/habits; either make this optional or required
• Provide a summer bridge program for students who we worry might struggle in our program, focusing on building up their ability to learn and mathematical practices
• Start the year with work on mathematical habits and ways of learning Math with little to no focus on content for all classes. 
• Work on improving our curriculum so that it incorporates more of the principles of Complex Instruction and can highlight students' strengths.

I would love to hear from others who have grappled with this issue and ways that they and their schools have approached it, either successful or not. 

#DITL Saturday, December 10th, 2016

I promise I didn't go through and pick out the 10th as a day that mostly falls on weekends...but it sure seems like it!

Today I had my alarm set for 9:30 but my dad woke me up at 9:00 to work on a pipe. I got up and got ready for lunch with my friend at 11:30. Leaving my house around 10:45, I had to stop by the school and set up a laptop for the music at tonight's Junior High Prom.

Lunch with my friend lasted until 1:30. I ran a few errands around town until 2:30 and headed back home to baby-sit my niece and nephew from 3-6.

My sister got off work and my parents joined us all to go to a live Nativity scene acted out at a nearby church. We finished there and went to McDonald's. Then my sister and I ran to Wal-Mart to get a few groceries. We got home at 11:00 and all I could think about was how grateful I was that I didn't have school work to do. This is the first weekend since school started that that has happened. We finished last week up with semester review and this week we are doing semester exams and papers which meant nothing for me to create/prepare.

I have been counting down the days since Thanksgiving for this break to come. Over Thanksgiving, we had a basketball tournament over an hour away and we played a game every single day except Thanksgiving. I also had to fit in baking desserts, cleaning house, decorating for Christmas, and my regular school work into each of those  5 days. Since each game took anywhere between 4-6 hours of my day, I didn't really get a break at all.

COME ON CHRISTMAS.

#DITL Monday, November 10th, 2016

6:00 Wake up and get ready for school.

7:42 Leave my house for school- I live 5 minutes away and I'm still late. :/

7:54 I have enough time to turn on my air fresheners, clock, and SMART board, put away my stuff and it's time for class to begin!

1st hour- We start math talks with this problem: "Which is greater, 65 x 47 or 67 x 45?" and the struggle is real! Students don't have any strategies to share other than write them on top of each other and multiply them. Students are finishing a handout on angle proofs and then taking a quiz. While they are working, I am trying to cut up task cards for third hour and grade fourth hour quizzes- I always promise to return things I grade the next day and I didn't feel like doing it last night. Of course I'm also answering questions before first hour takes their quiz.

2nd hour- We are finishing cutting our 'slices of pi' for our lesson about radians (Thanks Mimi!). It's taking forever and I start to wonder if it's worth it. We arrange them on a unit circle to visualize the angles in standard position- I question them on what quadrant it's in, if it's close to half a circle or whole, and what that would be in radians. Next we will move to drawing the angles and not need the pi pieces anymore- did I just waste a class period for nothing? :/

3rd hour- We are struggling through number talks again, even though I change the question to just 65 x 7. One student volunteers how he thinks I would do it- they know I base things off of 10's. He suggested 65 x 10 minus 65 x 3. So that was nice. We finish our notes in our INB and then I hand out a graph to each group to work. We debrief and then do one dry erase problem before starting task cards, At the end of class students comment on how fast the class went by and always does- I'll take little success where I can. =)

4th hour- Between classes I am making 93 copies of next week's bell ringer since I am leaving school at 11:30 for a SAT workshop. This is a repeat of first hour. Once again I am trying to grade fifth hours quizzes and get sub plans printed out while also answering questions,

5th hour- I forgot to tell students that I would be gone today and we didn't get as far as I wanted to yesterday. That means I taught them how to solve quadratics by square roots in two minutes with two problems. Luckily, my sub is a retired math teacher. I gave him the answer keys last night and he reworked every problem 'just for fun'. #blessed

11:39 I leave school and head to a SAT workshop that is 45 minutes away. It is also the same SAT workshop that I attended a month ago, ironically, in my last blog post.

2:17 The conference is over and it's the start to my 3 day weekend. Time to shop!

1) Teachers make a lot of decisions throughout the day. Sometimes we make so many it feels overwhelming. When you think about today, what is a decision/teacher move you made that you are proud of? What is one you are worried wasn’t ideal?

A good teacher move was adjusting the number talks questions and some good questions I asked today. Definitely worry about the balance of a hands-on lesson and it's payoff  in trig.

2) Every person’s life is full of highs and lows. Share with us some of what that is like for a teacher. What are you looking forward to? What has been a challenge for you lately?

I'm looking forward to Thanksgiving and Christmas break! My challenge is now that cheerleading practice has started, I'm staying even later to get things done and getting even less sleep. 

3) We are reminded constantly of how relational teaching is. As teachers we work to build relationships with our coworkers and students. Describe a relational moment you had with someone recently.

Our Student Council had a chili supper and a student that's not even in StuCo stayed to help clean up. She stayed longer than anyone else and we ended up talking for almost an hour. I've been trying to connect with her anyway- she's had some intense life stuff going on and needs a good adult role model.

4) Teachers are always working on improving, and often have specific goals for things to work on throughout a year. What is a goal you have for the year?

Keep working on a better work/life balance. I will survive!

5) What else happened this month that you would like to share?

I'm getting a new phone finally!

Starting Lesson Study and Update on Classes

This isn't going to be a very coherent post, but I need to get our current work into writing to better organize my thoughts. Here are the projects that are in progress right now:

• Lesson Study

• We've broken up our Upper School Math teachers into several groups of 3-4 teachers who teach across different grade levels. We considered doing a more traditional lesson study in which teachers plan a lesson centered around specific content, but decided to focus our efforts on developing our practice around a particular instructional routine that would be relevant across many grades and that would help us fine tune a specific pedagogical approach and learn from colleagues with whom we rarely get to work.
• Everyone read this article from KQED to orient themselves to the lesson study process in advance of our first meeting.
• Each group selected an instructional routine to plan out, teach, and refine this cycle. The routines selected were:
• Differentiation for students who learn at different paces
• Guided investigation
• Students giving feedback to each other

• In the next meeting, groups will plan a specific lesson around their instructional routine based on the first teacher who will be modeling it and decide on an observation time and what to look for when observing
• I'm super excited for this initiative to be gaining traction! We got some time to work on this while students were taking the PSAT or doing other activities, but I'm worried that if we don't get specific time off to work on this, people will become significantly less enthusiastic. 

• Parent Math Night
• Our team is working on developing an informational night to help parents better understand our program, available resources, and philosophy. It's just in the planning stages, but I think will be really helpful in getting on the same page with families. Right now, whatever information they receive when applying is the extent of it. 
• This needs to be thoughtful and informative for parents while also clearly conveying our position and getting buy-in and understanding of the program. If you have any resources or ideas to share, would love to have them.

• Math 1 is finishing our unit on Counting, Probability, and Sets, designing a game that has students analyzing probability and expected value to determine best strategy and fair outcomes. Next week, students will be playing each other's game and reflecting on what they've learned. This is a good opportunity to differentiate and identify gaps in understanding linear functions and algebraic manipulation skills as we prepare to move into a functions unit next.
• We're starting each unit with a "preview" assignment to look at prior knowledge and pre-requisite skills and concepts so that those students who have gaps can be identified and given extra support. Here is the preview assignment for linear functions.
• We're also starting the unit with another open investigation, this one more directly related to functions ("Cutting the Pie" task from IMP Year 1). I'm curious to see if students pursue a recursive or closed rule for this function. When we worked with Pascal's triangle patterns, students had a hard time moving from "each row is twice the previous row" to the rule f(x) = 2^(x-1).

• Math 2 is still in the depths of statistics, working through the Central Limit Theorem and connecting probability and the normal and binomial distributions. I'm realizing how much better I understand the material in my third year of teaching it and how much less formulaic and prescriptive my teaching is now that I have deeper content knowledge in this mathematical space. I have known that strong content knowledge is necessary, but it's amazing how much more depth is needed if you want students to explore and create and test their own theories, both in terms of creating those scenarios and in guiding the discussions that ensue. Maybe it's true then that teachers have to first progress through traditional pedagogy as they build up their depth of content knowledge before they can start to incorporate more problem-based or project-based learning. Would love some pushback on this though :)

#DITL Monday, October 10th, 2016

Today is Columbus Day which means we are out of school. We actually have a 3.5 day weekend. On Friday we had our Regional Teachers Institute until noon. I'm always excited for long weekends so I can catch up on the extra stuff I have to do or put off.

Nothing this weekend went as planned. I did not even touch my school stuff until today. Which was not the plan.

8:48 Wake up. Make myself go back to sleep.

11:00 Wake up again. No shame since I average 5 hours of sleep or less during the school week. Eat breakfast, scripture journal, straighten up the house.

11:45 Get to work on my laptop. Update my trig lesson on finding an angle with trig ratios to include text problems where students have to draw their own diagram, Updated notebook file that goes with it. Create solving trigonometric equations interactive notebook pages, a pong review game powerpoint, and a quiz for my senior math class. Next it's on to Geometry- I update the interactive notebook pages I already made for conditional statements with a foldable I made a few years ago since I feel like it is a better fit. Update notebook file to match. Next create new interactive notebook pages for deductive reasoning, a pong review game, and a quiz.

3:00 Eat lunch while watching Jimmy Fallon. When I'm done eating I walk around the house watching tv on my ipad so I can get steps in. My goal is 12,000 a day and when you don't go to work and spend hours on your laptop, it's hard. When my show is over I start walking around with my Bible...gotta get those steps.

5:15 Back to work. I need to make a practice activity for Algebra I inequality word problems. So I google problems and create...you guessed it- a pong review game powerpoint. It's my go to activity. Then I, you guessed it again- made a quiz. It's almost the end of the quarter so I make up a binder check 'quiz'.

6:00 I have more work to do but I'm running low on motivation so I start wasting time on e-mail and social media. Then I realize I haven't read any blogs lately so I catch up on those.

7:30 I remember I need to create and print posters for our Student Council Socktober drive. Cue google images and pinterest.

8:00 Realize I should eat dinner. Eat while watching TV and again finish my show with walking around the house. I'm only up to 7700 steps.

9:00 Spend 30 minutes doing my workout and walking around for a cool down. Pack my lunch and get my breakfast ready for tomorrow. Pick out my outfit.

10:00 Shower.

10:15 Get out the ol ipad and go for another walk. I walk until I reach my 12,000 goal which brings us to

11:15. I sit down to start this blog post and realize that I forgot about the 92 bell ringers I need to respond to plus the 9 trig quizzes, 10 Algebra 2 tests, and 8 geometry quizzes I have to grade. And I wanted to paint my fingernails.

This was an embarrassing post to write- I don't know if it's because I'm bad at managing my time or because I feel like I have to justify how I spend it. Or maybe it's because my job is like a second job on the nights and weekends. I never feel like I've done enough. Not to mention I have a painting project in my downstairs bathroom that I didn't even get to touch this weekend.

1) Teachers make a lot of decisions throughout the day. Sometimes we make so many it feels overwhelming. When you think about today, what is a decision/teacher move you made that you are proud of? What is one you are worried wasn’t ideal?

Zero teacher moves today.

2) Every person’s life is full of highs and lows. Share with us some of what that is like for a teacher. What are you looking forward to? What has been a challenge for you lately?

I spend so much time putting together notes, practice, and quizzes from my curriculum. It's mostly formatting and copying and pasting. As soon as I feel accomplished for having everything prepared, I start questioning if it's the best way to teach it. I can't feel content.

3) We are reminded constantly of how relational teaching is. As teachers we work to build relationships with our coworkers and students. Describe a relational moment you had with someone recently.

I've been getting along better with a colleague at school. Although it's been unintentional, I know that it's healthier. I'm still getting better at laughing and sharing things with the students. Although I've always felt like I shared a lot with students but somehow this year seems different.

4) Teachers are always working on improving, and often have specific goals for things to work on throughout a year. What is a goal you have for the year?

Keep working on a better work/life balance. My weekends are consumed with school work in an attempt to free up my week nights but I still can't seem to leave school before 5:00. I do know that next year will be a million times better. With my curriculum, I am finally aligning things in a way I am mostly satisfied with. I'm making notes of things to change or fix for next year and even doing some now if they are quick fixes. NO MORE STARTING OVER.

5) What else happened this month that you would like to share?

I've been teaching trig identities for the first time. I have struggled, actually sat with the kids and worked the problems along with them, and got to the point where I could make up problems for the students to practice.

11:41 Off to do at least another hour of work!

We Don't Know Everything

Reading Dan's post, What Should Math Teachers Do When They Don't Know the Math?, really resounded with me and the timing was ironic.

We were working on constructions in Geometry and we were working through notes from the curriculum. Admittedly, I had not looked made an answer key as I had performed the constructions in past years, albeit not according to these directions.

There was one step I just could not figure out. I read, reread it, positioned my compass, re-positioned my compass. I stopped and stared at it for an awkward amount of silence.

And then I turned around to tell the kids, "We're going to skip this one and come back to it tomorrow."

S: "So you don't know how to do it?"

Me: "No, I'll have to figure it out and then tell you tomorrow."

S#2: "But you're the one who is supposed to be teaching us."

Me: "Teachers are humans too. We don't know everything. Would you rather me lie to you and tell you the wrong way to do it?"

S#3: "Yes. Then we would feel better about knowing how to do it."

Me: *mind blown"

The next day at the beginning of class another student was quick to ask, "Did you figure out that problem from yesterday?"

Me: "Yes I did! Let's start on that one now since some of you were hating on me for not knowing how to do something.

S: We weren't hating....

Me: "How would you feel if I treated you that way when you don't know something?"

Silence...

And we went on with class and it wasn't brought up again.

So...what do we do when it becomes clear, in front of a class, that we don't understand math like we thought.

Admit it. Show room for growth, Use growth mindset on your own set of teaching skills. Explain your old thinking and how that changed or hit an obstacle. Explain your new thinking.

And the ability to do this comes from the confidence and purpose that you feel inside. It comes from a place of being prepared and experienced. It's embarrassing for like 10 seconds and then my brain switches to "Well, I guess I'm going to learn something new today. Glad I won't have to make this mistake again."

That's worth sharing.

Students aren't used to that at first but the older they get and especially as they advance through higher math with me, I am very open about my math abilities and struggles. This year more than ever I've had students ask me why I decided to teach math and what my favorite subject was in school. I'm open about all of that. I did very well in high school and hit a wall in college. I passed most of my college courses with a C. I don't understand calculus at all. I don't even know how I passed any of those classes. I struggle with trig and some of the more advanced topics in Algebra 2. I used to call my mom every day in college, crying, telling her I didn't think I could do this.

How can I teach math when I don't understand it myself?

And then somehow I wound up in the classroom, magically able to do most of the things I have to teach with ease, and not really knowing how it happened.

But in case I ever forget, there is always a moment like I mentioned to humble me and remind what it is like to struggle, feel unsure, and be embarrassed.

I'm really trying to communicate to my students how important it is to continually better yourself. Not try to just get through things and get things over worth. Not just distract yourself and waste time with social media and video games and YouTube. But to really think about, on purpose, areas of weakness or how to make things better.

I hope it's working.

I hope they see mistakes going hand in hand with success.

I hope they see a real person can be good at their job and make mistakes.

I hope they see that making mistakes doesn't have to ruin your confidence or your day and that you grow because of and in spite of, making mistakes.

I hope it becomes normal and comfortable for them to mess up and see me mess up and learn and go on with our lives.

I just read this quote yesterday but already forgot from where, "Successful people feel comfortable being wrong."

I hope when they see me, they see both.

That's what I'm here for.

Overwhelmed

You know that point where you really don't know what to do anymore?

I'm there.

So much about this year has just straight up been overwhelming.  I'm grateful for friends and family that support me, because without them, I don't know where I'd be right now.

But, then something happens to make you realize why we do what we do.

After school, yesterday, a friend convinced me to leave school for a bit and go relax, chat, and share a plate of fried pickles (YUM).  While there, I received a phone call asking when I'd be back at school because a former student was looking for me.

Long story short, a student that graduated 7 years ago came to track me down at the restaurant to personally deliver a wedding invitation.  I felt so honored that this young lady, whom I've only kept up with via social media, wanted me to share in her special day so many years after the fact.

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is why it is all worth it.

#OneGoodThing

#DITL Saturday, September 10th, 2016

My normal routine is to do all my shopping and errands on Friday nights so that I have nowhere to go on Saturdays and I can do all my work and clean all day Saturday.

I have a lunch date with my bestie on the second Saturday of every month so my plans were already thrown off. I thought that I would stay at school and work a lot on Friday, get groceries after my lunch with my friend, then come home and do the rest of my work.

Friday my sisters messages me at the end of school and needs me to baby-sit my niece and nephew. Well there goes my working Friday plans.

My mom sets up a birthday lunch for my Grandma, who is visiting from Florida, for Saturday at 6:00 at a place an hour away.

Well there goes my working Saturday plans.

I am a routine person so I really really really hate when my routine is interrupted by someone other than me.

Routinely throughout the day, I just stopped myself from worrying about school.

Mental speech: "You still have Sunday to get things done that must be done. No, you can't do everything you wanted to do. Yes, you will have to work more weeknights this week than you want to. But enjoy the moment! You are having lunch with your best friend and dinner with your grandma! Those are fun things that you like doing. So do them!"

Even when I am not at school, or doing school work, I'm planning/worrying about school work. But I can't let that overtake my actual life.

One of my New Year's Resolutions was to create a better work/life balance.

I'm doing it.

I'm not perfect.

But I am present.

1) Teachers make a lot of decisions throughout the day. Sometimes we make so many it feels overwhelming. When you think about today, what is a decision/teacher move you made that you are proud of?  What is one you are worried wasn’t ideal? 

I am proud that I chose to put my personal life above my professional life and enjoy my weekend. It was all ideal. =)

2) Every person’s life is full of highs and lows. Share with us some of what that is like for a teacher. What are you looking forward to? What has been a challenge for you lately? 

I am looking forward to a school year when I don't have to slave over everything. A challenge for me lately is getting things done on my plan period. It is the last hour of the day and I am so tired and spent that I zone out on my e-mail and the Internet rather than accomplishing anything. Then I have to stay after school and do it anyway. I feel like I have no time at home and I work late at school and still have things to take home.

3) We are reminded constantly of how relational teaching is. As teachers we work to build relationships with our coworkers and students. Describe a relational moment you had with someone recently.

Overall I feel like I am way more open and relational with my students this year. I can think of several moments in the past weeks where I told them stories from my life and we laughed together or when students have asked my advice on clothes or boys or asked me to look things up or give my opinions on the election and so on. One student has been confiding in me about relationships and I've been trying really hard to change her focus and build her confidence.

4) Teachers are always working on improving, and often have specific goals for things to work on throughout a year. What is a goal you have for the year?

Keep working on a better work/life balance. Continue asking good questions, asking students to notice similarities and differences, asking students to try a problem before they know what to do, asking for strategies, and doing number talks.

5) What else happened this month that you would like to share?

I've been posting some #teach180 photos and I've never done that before.

Habits of Mind Unit - Math 1

We've had four whirlwind days of school so far - I'm really enjoying starting with a Habits of Mind unit in each of my classes as it means students are working on tasks and learning the routines of the class every time we meet and I am getting to know them and the flow of the new year.

In Math 1, we have been working on several different tasks, each of which is related to combinatorics, the first unit that we'll be officially starting next week. In each task, students start with an introductory question and then each group creates an extension to pursue next. The three tasks we've done so far are below. I'm still tweaking the fourth one and will post it when I'm done (hint: this is one of the things I need help deciding).

Task 1: How many paths from A to B if you can only travel down and to the right?
Extensions created by students: generalize for a grid of any size, allow travel up and to the left (without crossing over), allow traveling diagonally

Task 2: Consider a game in which you flip a coin four times. At the beginning of the game, your score is 0. Each time you get heads, you get a point. Each time you get tails, you lose a point. What are the different scores that are possible and how likely is each of these scores?
Extensions created by students: generalize for n flips, what about dice that have 4, 5, 6, etc sides?


Task 3: How many different monetary values can you make from these bills?
No extensions created yet, will have more time on this next week

Scroll down for the presentations from class for each of the investigations, which include slides about group/class norms.

Two big questions with which I'm wrestling in doing these tasks are:

1. How much, if any, content teaching should there be? Students are practically begging for more efficient methods than just listing out all of the options, but should this unit really be about helping students get better at exploring their own thinking or is it better to teach some content while they're hooked and eager rather than coming back to it when it actually comes up in the unit? For those who incorporate student-driven investigations along with teacher-led instruction, when do you do the latter? 
2. Relatedly, how much should I be pushing students to make the connections between these problems more explicit? I feel like I've been dropping some (subtle) hints and revisiting student work from previous problems in the hopes that some students will point out the underlying connections, but no such luck. Again, is it better to show these connections now, even if it means they will mostly be teacher-driven, or better to wait until later and let these problems simmer for a while longer?

My current thinking on these two questions is that I will require each student to work on generalizing one of the tasks and then have students present their generalizations and ask more explicitly about connections between them at that time. I have to now choose a fourth task that I hope will make the connection more obvious... suggestions? What are some tasks/problems you've liked for hooking students on combinations?

P.S. I am super happy with how group norms and vertical whiteboarding is going so far this year. Using the same routine with a new math task each day so far has created a really nice flow and students are interacting well and starting to independently leave their groups to find out what other groups are doing to bring those ideas back. It was definitely worth taking a few days out of the content rush to set things up.

Presentations from class

Math 1 Problem Solving Unit Day 1

Math 1 Problem Solving Unit Day 2

Math 1 Problem Solving Unit Day 3

Guys, I'm Killing It

I don't know exactly what gave me my teacher mojo back but I definitely know that last year was my seven year slump.

I've had good things that I've wanted to blog every day but my internet has been lame at home and I'm still so tired every day that I've gotten behind.

Day 1 and I already knew everyone's names.

My biggest class is 18 and my smallest is 5.

I've tried so many new things already: number talks, Google classroom, Google forms, a clothesline activity, asking students to notice things before we start working, introducing growth mindset, using my Plickers multiple times, and my questioning skills have greatly improved.

Here are some highlights from the past two weeks:

Using a beach ball every Monday at the beginning of class- we hit it while we talk about our weekends and we stop when no one else has anything to share. This has been a GREAT way to get energy flowing on a Monday and to get more students talking and for longer amounts of time. And almost every class will ask me about my weekend too- maybe to just keep hitting the ball longer.

I asked our tech person about the possibility of sharing some Chrome books with the two teachers who have classroom sets and she showed up at my door the next day with six that are mine to keep, one per table group. I literally teared up at her kindness.

During my growth mindset discussion with my seniors I kindddddddd of went off on a tangent about being a confident woman and how important it is to make being with yourself a safe place and being successful in the future and etc.....when I finally finished a student said, "Wow, you should be like a coach or something." {I've always wanted to write a book and I think I might have just stumbled on the topic}.

I tweeted about my favorite problem of all time and in my freshman class, the first person to get the correct answer was the student who spent the first week of school telling me how math was not her subject and to please not call on her when she doesn't know the answer. I said "I thought math wasn't your thing and yet you were the first one done." She said, "Well I thought it wasn't!" She worked really hard the rest of the class period.

I was talking to a group of students when one almost let a cuss word slip; she cut herself off and said "This is why you shouldn't make me like you so much- then I talk normal around you." Lol

Number talks have been going well but they really prefer dot talks to anything else so far. Some students are purposely counting them in an unusual order just so they can share their thinking. I've had multiple hands go up to share their thinking and it feels like everyone is comfortable with that.

I feel like it was so easy to just jump right into how I want my classes to run- I already feel like I've known my freshman students for a long time and it's such a testament to how being consistent and building routines and procedures can enhance your classroom culture.

I taught the same piecewise functions lesson that I always teach but I started by asking them to notice things about the function and then notice things about the graph. It seemed like the lesson went so much smoother because they made connections all the way through.

It's only week three I know but I haven't really had to beg people to work; I feel like I have a good mixture of students that helped make this happen.

A few students have made real efforts since last year to change their attitude and effort and it's so cool to see them grow.

I feel so blessed to get to be in their lives year after year and to know them so well that I can see change and growth over time. Also after reading tweets and blog posts, I also feel blessed to be in a school that provides me with all the colored paper {and most school supplies} that I want and that my biggest class size is smaller than most people's small class size.

I still love when students come in and love the way my room smells- I didn't it was so odd for a teacher to buy air fresheners. ;)

A student asked me how much I spend on all of this stuff and I just appreciated that she noticed the extra that I put in.

This was the first year I didn't dread back to school time, the first year I had no school nightmares, and the first year {that I can remember} that I don't have that one class that I'm just dreading.

I can't really explain how my questioning skills have improved but it's like I am self-editing in real time- I'll have my next question on the tip of my tongue and it's like my brain says 'Here's a better idea!" and a more interesting question comes out.

Three lessons that I already had resources for meant I could think deeper about how to present them in a more conceptual way- this is another area I see improvement in myself over time.

I still maintain that Jesus gives me supernatural patience and I can feel the moment I enter into it- helping students one on one I always reach a point where I want to walk away and it's like this supernatural patience washes over me and I just continue like nothing happened.

I don't know why but I think it is so cute when students tell me bye as they leave. It's not every student but it's just endearing.

I've started almost every paragraph with 'I' so far but as hard as we are on ourselves, I think we can all stand to brag on ourselves. One of my gifts is making connections with people and I love seeing that come to fruition- this year feels just like a continuation of last year rather than a new start. Maybe it's not the best thing but I felt like starting school as a tee again- I loved hearing the updates of what all my friends did over the summer and what was going on in their lives.

I feel like finally all of my experience and ups and downs and talents and strengths and weaknesses are coming together and I'm approaching the ever elusive peak of 'actually knowing what I'm doing'.

My career is on an uphill swing and that is definitely ONE GOOD THING.

Plan With Me...Infinite and No Solutions

So I'm planning this lesson for the upcoming week and I have 3 slides that I feel like are a good start. I'm just about to tweet them out and ask what I can add to them when I decide to check the MTBoS search engine first. I land on this great blog post about using Desmos to check answers after combining like terms by graphing.

And instantly my lesson just got better. I get to use Desmos for the first time with my freshman and we are just beginning!

Here's a general outline and my thought process.

I will ask students to share out some answers and I will write them on the board. I will have one chrome book per group of three students and ask them to each take turns typing in an expression from the board (I'm thinking 6 so each student types in 2 and purposely include wrong ones).  But what if I don't get very many answers?

I will ask them what they notice as they type in each equation.

We will discuss the connection between the expression and the line.

Next:

I will ask students to prove me right or wrong. I'm thinking I'll have to explain that they either need to solve for x or plug in random values and see what happens. Some kind of work will happen which will lead us to graphing it in Desmos and seeing if it is the same line or not.

Third:

Some kind of work happening, either with Algebra or Desmos leading up to the fact that they graph two parallel lines which have no intersecting solution and how they simplify to the same slope with different y-intercepts.

Is that it? Now we just practice?

What are some good questions I can ask? What needs to go in their notes?

Ups and Downs

This August, I'm participating in a monthly blog challenge called Blaugust. To see the list of participating blogs, click on the logo below. Please cheer on our participants with either a tweet or a comment on their blog. It can be hard to blog on a daily (or even regular) schedule! :)

Ups and Downs

This was the first full week of school with kids and it was definitely full of ups and downs.  I knew throughout the week that I needed to blog but I'm already falling into a habit of typing and erasing because I don't want to be a downer.  Then as I was scrolling on Facebook, I ran across Rebecka Peterson's "One Good Thing" posts and it just made me smile.

It was a challenging week.  I have almost 200 students this year, the most I've ever had in my career.  I'm no where close to knowing names.  I have 3 preps, with 1.5 being new this year.  We have a new gradebook program that is creating a lot of chaos.  Our campus is undergoing some massive construction and other technology changes.  And to top it off, the a/c in my building is dead.  As in 83 degree air temperature plus 35 sweaty bodies equals 90 degree heat index type of dead.

But through it all, we are persevering.  Through it all, there were positive moments to be had.  Lots of laughter with my colleagues as we enjoyed being together again.  Ice cream from our admin team to end a hot and sweaty Friday.  Light bulb moments with my students as we built the unit circle in Pre-Calc, talked about eyewitness reports in Forensics, or talked about sampling methods in Stat.  Kids that made my day with positive comments, thoughtful questions, and overall great attitudes.  Opportunities to connect with students as we visited between classes.  Correspondence from previous students that said "My brother/sister has you this year and loves you already!".  The first "High Five Friday" of the year.  Kids from last year coming by and saying they miss my class.  Those moments are the ones that make it all worth it.

Thank you to Sam, and Rachel, and Elissa, and Rebecka, and all of the others that post on the One Good Thing blog.  Thank you for reminding us that "Not every day is a good day, but there is one good thing in every day!"  Thank you for being willing to share those tidbits of positivity with all of us.  Thank you for putting yourselves out there, being honest and raw and emotional, and truly showing how awesome this job can be.  

In the words of our morning announcements... Make it a great day or not, the choice is yours!

Individual/Group/Class Norms Revised

In my previous post, I wrote about my updated group norms. But then, I got some great feedback in the form of comments, a few Twitter conversations, and a post by Sarah on her updated groupwork norms... damn you, MTBoS with your feedback, always making me want to change stuff to make it better.

I decided to break up my groupwork norms into three components:

1. Individual accountability
2. Group accountability
3. Class accountability

Here is the poster for each set of norms.

Individual Norms

Group Norms

Class Norms

Finally, I made a poster for the green/yellow/red cup strategy Avery uses in his middle school classes. I went back and forth a bunch of times to see if this was perhaps not going to work in high school, especially if students are usually working on whiteboards around the room rather than sitting at a desk, and if there was maybe a way to do this electronically, but eventually, decided to just do it the same way that Avery does it and then make changes, if needed.

The idea is that each group starts with a stack of three cups, with green on top, yellow in the middle, and red on the bottom.

If the group feels stuck or confused, they should move the green cup to the bottom of the stack. The yellow cup is a sign to the group to discuss their confusion together and try to get themselves unstuck using the various strategies we've discussed or by checking in with other groups. 

If they have discussed and tried to get themselves unstuck, but were not successful, then they come up with a single group question that every member of the group needs to be able to articulate, and can switch their cups so that the red one is on top, at which point a teacher will come over and ask a random member of the group what their question is.

Avery's selling points for me were:

• The yellow cup is an important step to prompt students to reflect on their confusion as a team and get better at the "unsticking" process that is such an important part of productive struggle.
• There is a clear visual for the teacher in scanning the room where groups are at and which might need attention soon (currently at yellow).
• You can hear cups switching so without even looking, have a sense of group need.
• The proportion of the time that various cups are on top gives you valuable information regarding the challenge level of the task you've given students that day. Ideally, cups are changing back and forth between green and yellow as groups become puzzled and then figure things out on their own.

Here's a poster summarizing this for students:

Cups

As always, feedback and suggestions for improvement are welcome!

A Week in Review

This August, I'm participating in a monthly blog challenge called Blaugust. To see the list of participating blogs, click on the logo below. Please cheer on our participants with either a tweet or a comment on their blog. It can be hard to blog on a daily (or even regular) schedule! :)

A Week In Review - Sunday Summary

Oh my, what a whirlwind week!!!  We had "Teacher Days" on Monday-Thursday and kids came on Friday.  We had a lot of time in our rooms, which was great, especially since about 40 teachers were coming back to brand new renovated rooms with brand new technology! :)

My goal this year is to blog at least my Sunday Summary with a look back over the week.  :)

Where I Was:

This past week was a bit crazy.  We have a new principal, lots of new technology, and construction on campus.  Change is one of those things that most people struggle with and I'm no exception!  However, we made it through.  We were all grateful for 2 days (Wed / Thurs) with no meetings and time to just work in our rooms.  Friday was the first day with kids and to be honest, when I originally saw that on the calendar, I had my doubts about starting on a Friday, but it turns out that I loved it!  We all wore our spirit wear, including our new THRIVE theme t-shirts and it was a great day to meet the kids, tell them what school supplies to purchase, and start out our year with some learning!

In Pre-Calc, we start with trig, so we decided to see what they remembered about SOHCAHTOA.  I had found this activity earlier in the summer and adapted it for the INB.  It really was awesome to hear the conversations about "Now which one is the opposite side?" 

In Stat, we started with my favorite Kristen Gilbert story, but this time when we got to the graph of deaths, I had them complete a poster about their Noticings and Wonderings.  I meant to snap a photo of them, but forgot! :(  Again, great conversations were had all around!  My favorite comment was "This is like a Serial podcast!"

Where I Am:

I left on Friday night around 7pm totally exhausted.  Three preps plus new shoes that rubbed a blister made for a rough day.  I had a to-do list with 22 items on it, so I decided to go up this weekend to work on it.  I was there from 10am - 6pm and knocked out most of the items!  Go me!  I have the next week mostly mapped out with copies already made.  Today's goal is to run to the store to pick up a few items, but spend most of the day on the patio enjoying the beautiful weather and hopefully get in some fun reading time.  All in all, I'm feeling pretty good about where I am!

Where I'm Going:

This next week will be a challenge.  Five whole days of kids will zap the energy! :)  On block day, we'll see our Advisory classes and I will get to meet about 12 new Advisory kiddos.  One of those days will be our Welcome Back Assembly, but I'm not sure which one yet.  In Pre-Calc, we'll be building the Unit Circle.  That class is the toughest for me because I have to practice my lessons the night before since it's the first time I've taught it.  I've not had a trig class since 1992-93, so I'm a bit rusty! :)  In Stat, we'll jump on into sample surveys and sampling methods.  Thankfully, this is year 17 for teaching that, so little prep is required!  In Forensics, we'll be working on observation skills and I do need to spend some time working on my lesson plans in there.  I want to remember to take a photo each day to re-start my 180 blog, so we'll see how that goes! :)

Have a great week, y'all!

First Days 2016-2017

I was not ready. I spent my last few days getting my classroom ready and not preparing actual activities. This should have been an 'easy' week for me since it's the only time I can get away with doing the same thing every hour. Instead I didn't go to bed earlier than midnight all week. =( Definitely making a check list so this doesn't happen next year.

Monday
Today we did Mental Math Monday and got our binders ready: dividers, tabs, names on the spine, pencil bags, new pencils, and dry erase markers. We folded our name tents; I loved having students write to me every day. The name tent part was not really necessary since we are so small and everybody knows everybody. Next year I might not use an actual name tent. It also took me up to an hour and a half each night too respond. I would say it is worth it but I definitely couldn'tdo it all year.We did our first number talk!

Tuesday

I used Google Classroom for the first time today and I think I was successful. Students used an ipad to sign in to their account add my class by code. I posted a question asking them they're favorite animated movie. Then I posted a google form for estimation180. They commented and opened the form. I showed a picture on the board and they gave me a too low, too high, and estimate. We looked at the answers on the spreadsheet and then I showed the correct answer. I had 4-5 students guess correctly throughout the day and that has never happened. Google Forms FTW? Next, we did Amy Zimmer's icebreaker to set up groups and group roles. I noticed that the designated time keeper kept time for the rest of the period, even after the activity ended. From there we went straight to Sara's
1-100 task making groups work. The kids LOVED it!! In between rounds we discussed strategies for working together and improving their times.

Wednesday
We started with our Work It Wednesday problem, how can you arrange 8 8's to add up to 1000? From there I showed them pictures from the previous day's 1-100 task.

They could not believe that I took pictures! Not a single student in any class noticed I was taking pictures. Not even in a class of 5! They have already asked to do it again. My best group made it all the way to 91 and two groups made it to the 80's. We reviewed the group work strategies and from there we went to Sarah's Broken Circle task. This only took 2-3 minutes since my students were in groups of 3. We finished the day by setting up our INBs.

Thursday
Thursday are my designated day for number talks and it started out rough. Read more here. We again used Google Classroom to open a pdf of my syllabus. I tried Brigid's idea of doodle notes using this doodle syllabus. I still have mixed feelings about this. My artistic students really appreciated it. The students did agree that taking notes from the pdf was better than listening to me talk the whole time. But most of these students have had me for years and know my policies and procedures. More than one person asked why we were doing this and most people didn't even get it finished in a class period because they spent so much time doing what I asked...doodling! I can see it working much better in a lecture heavy class but thankfully, I am heading in the opposite direction of that.

Friday
We ended the week by taking our end of course exam which will be given again in December and May. I spent my time making answer keys and updating my spreadsheet data.

Comparing the first administration last year to this year

Algebra I 15% to 24%
Geometry 18% to 20%
Algebra II 16.5% to 24%
Trig 30% to 19%

I'm using new exams except for Trig so those numbers basically mean nothing but I like that they are moving up. Except what the heck happened in trig?

I'm so glad that thanks to my blog, I have a record of everything I've tried during the first days of school. If you teach in a small school, you know you can't repeat activities until four years have passed. Check out my first days tag if you need more ideas!

My First Number Talk

I was inspired by Sara Van Der Werf's post to finally start doing number talks. I haven't read any of the books yet so forgive me if I'm screwing this up.

It took me three days of number talks before I realized I should start saving these pictures.

They are pretty terrible but I'd like to have a starting point to look back at.

The first two days were counting items in a picture so when I threw this one at them, I realized maybe a fraction problem was not the best one to use first.

We had a rough start but there was about one interesting answer per period so all was not lost.

A lot of them chose 5/8 because they said they learned that the smaller fractions are bigger pieces.

I'm really trying to put the emphasis on how we are thinking about things over right answers.

I also used Sara's name tent idea and more than one student wrote that they liked how we were learning about different ways to think and that they appreciate me letting them be creative.

Be still my heart.

It was much easier to get them to talk about counting dots and footballs but I'm not giving up!

Suggestions appreciated.

Pharaohs

Things I want to instill in my students or that I hope they 'inherit' from me and my classroom!

P-persistence. Let's get it right and get it done!

H- happiness. I'm really working on two things: to operate out of love and to let life be on my lips. How can I speak life, love, and happiness each day to my 90 students?

A- assertive. Learn the difference between aggressive and assertive. Know how and when to stand up for yourself and others. Learn how to not back down graciously.

R- resilient. You wouldn't believe the things that four of my students in particular are facing this early in the school year. I hope they see in me the 'fighting spirit' to show up every day and do hard work well.

A- attitude. As we learn together about growth mindset, I want to teach them the importance of their attitude and how it sets the tone of each day and the future.

O- original. I think I am pretty good at standing out and being unique. Hopefully my students take away that it is okay to have strong passions and interests and to put them on display.

H- honor. I'm trying my best to start off honoring the different ways of thinking my students have, honoring their identity by asking them to share it, and honoring the important of our relationship by building it.

S- spirit. Take pride in who you are and where you are from. If it's not the best place, then try making it better. Give back. Be successful and share how you got there.

Pharaoh Pride!

Ready for a New Year!!

This August, I'm participating in a monthly blog challenge called Blaugust. To see the list of participating blogs, click on the logo below. Please cheer on our participants with either a tweet or a comment on their blog. It can be hard to blog on a daily (or even regular) schedule! :)

If you want to join in the blogging fun, it's not too late!  Go HERE to sign up! :)

Ready for a New Year!!

The room is done, the lessons are planned, and kids are coming tomorrow whether I'm ready or not!

A few things to remind myself when I'm trying to remember later :)

• I love the "What should my answer look like" from @mathequalslove
• Table Folders rock!!!  (This is how I pass out papers)
• The posters for the student feedback ask the following questions:
• What are qualities of a good student?
• What are qualities of a good teacher?
• How do you learn best?  (Specifics please!)
• What are you excited about this year?
• What are you worried about this year?
• Be Joyful Always!

Sorry for a short post, but I got home around 8:30 and kids come tomorrow!!!  EEKKKKKK!

What does it take to Thrive?

This August, I'm participating in a monthly blog challenge called Blaugust. To see the list of participating blogs, click on the logo below. Please cheer on our participants with either a tweet or a comment on their blog. It can be hard to blog on a daily (or even regular) schedule! :)

If you want to join in the blogging fun, it's not too late!  Go HERE to sign up! :)

What does it take to Thrive?

I have been blessed to teach at an amazing school for the past 16 years.  Yesterday, as I started another year at this school, we were introduced to our theme for the year.  Starting back in the early 2000s, our administrative team would come up with a school wide theme.  For example, one year the theme was Mission:Possible and during our back to school assembly, the principals all rappelled down from the PAC ceiling while the Mission Impossible theme song played.  Often our theme played off of a current movie or some other pop culture idea, such as the Incredibles or the Olympics.  During the Olympics year, the theme was "Go for the Gold" and we all were given gold medals as we came in for our all-staff meeting. :)

This year, the theme is Thrive.

Today, we met with our evaluating principal and to start off our meeting, he asked us what it takes for us to Thrive personally, professionally, and for others in our lives.

Oh man... that's a tough question!

Personally
For me to thrive as a person, I need to do the following:

• Find balance between work and home.  This is hard.
• Take care of me.  This is hard too.  I need to set aside quiet devotional time, time with family and friends, time to laugh and be joyful, time to relax.  I need to take the time to exercise and eat right.  

Professionally

For me to thrive as a professional, I need to do the following:

• Commit to being involved in the #MTBoS.  This involves blogging on a regular basis, spending time on twitter, and participating in the #EduRead book studies.  I grow professionally because of the amazing people of the #MTBoS and I need that in my life.
• Learn to say "no".  I'm getting better than I've been in the past, but I need to say "no" and focus on the #BigRocks.

Students/Colleagues/Family

For me to help those around me thrive, I need to do the following:

• Be Joyful Always.  It's hard to always have a positive attitude, especially when you aren't feeling very positive.  But, I know that attitudes are contagious, so I need to work on having an attitude worth catching!  I need to look for the bright side and find ways to build up the people around me.
• Be present.  In a world of technology, it is easy for the screens to take away from our in-person time.  When I'm with others, I need to put away the screen and focus on being present in the moment.  

What does it take for you to Thrive?

Special Right Triangles

This August, I'm participating in a monthly blog challenge called Blaugust. To see the list of participating blogs, click on the logo below. Please cheer on our participants with either a tweet or a comment on their blog. It can be hard to blog on a daily (or even regular) schedule! :)

If you want to join in the blogging fun, it's not too late!  Go HERE to sign up! :)

Special Right Triangles

Today was the first day back for the teachers and I'm exhausted!  It's not like I wasted away my summer, but being on my feet just about wore me plum out! :)

Anyway, last week, I was working on lesson plans for Pre-Calc and I created a foldable for Special Right Triangles  Of course, after I made it, I found all sorts of better stuff from the MTBoS, so it's not great, but it's what I have to share today given how tired I am! :)

This is one of my favorite foldable templates because you print them two to a page.  Here's what the Word document looks like:

My thought was to connect the dots from the square / equilateral triangle and try to make connections that we will use with the unit circle as well.  However, after working through it and then looking at some of the awesome stuff out there (like Sarah Carter's poof booklet), I realize how lackluster this one is.   However, it's what I've already sent to the copy shop, so I learn to deal with it and make it better next year!  :) :)

Here's the file if you want it.  You will need the font KG What does the Fox Say?

Is it bed time yet? :)

Analysis Paralysis

This August, I'm participating in a monthly blog challenge called Blaugust. To see the list of participating blogs, click on the logo below. Please cheer on our participants with either a tweet or a comment on their blog. It can be hard to blog on a daily (or even regular) schedule! :)

If you want to join in the blogging fun, it's not too late!  Go HERE to sign up! :)

Analysis Paralysis

Does anyone else suffer from this?  When you have so much to do or so many options to choose from, that absolutely nothing gets done or accomplished?

I suffer from Analysis Paralysis on a regular basis, but back to school time seems to be the worst.  The to-do list is always growing and my time is always shrinking.  Instead of actually getting things done, I sit and stare at the wall for hours on end.  Yesterday is a prime example of this.  I had plans of all the things I would accomplish and then zero ended up getting done.  Of course, part of that is hubby and I ran errands and had some bad Chinese for lunch, so that pretty much ruined the rest of the day, but I should have - could have - gotten a lot done in the morning hours and I didn't.

So now it's the Sunday before school starts and there's that last minute rush of what all can I accomplish???  Thankfully the kids don't come until Friday and we'll have some time to work in our rooms, which is good because I still don't know where I'm going to fit in 2 more desks! :)

Honestly, my to-do list is shorter than in previous years but a lot of the items are details such as "decide which activity to use for Day 1".  There are so many great ideas out there from the #MTBoS that my Analysis Paralysis goes into overdrive.  What if I pick the wrong one?  What if I don't give enough time?  What supplies do I need?  Which one fits my style best?  UGH!

The time has come for decisions to be made.  Even more than that, once the decisions are made, stick with them.

In the words of Dr. Seuss:
"Today is YOUR day!  Your mountain is waiting, so get on your way!"

It's time for me to face the reality of the 2016-17 school year.  Let's go move that mountain!!!