Annie Forest

Thanks to the peeps that came to my session at the MMC Conference! As promised, here is a link to my presentation from today. I would love it if you want to: -check out other stuff on the blog -comment on something! -follow me on twitter (@mrsforest) -"Like" the ICTM Facebook page Again, thanks for being so open today and for the great discussions!

It's so great to be a part of the math education blogging community. I have learned so much from so many people. Maintaining my own blog has given me the chance to reflect and also to share things I've learned. It's no secret that many math peeps love reading Dan Meyer's blog . Many people, including me, have also had the chance to hear him speak in person. When I tweeted to him last week and got a response, I was pretty excited. Then yesterday he posted on his blog a list of " great classroom action " and I was on the list! yay! (okay, there might be 56 links on the list... but still, if I wasn't there it would only be a list of 55, right?!)

We are using a new curriculum this year. By "new," I mean new to us, because Connect Math, specifically CMP3, has been around for a while. I'm super excited to have some resources because last year I was just scrounging around trying to find stuff on my own. The downside is that this curriculum has a lot to it and it takes a while to unpack it... let alone figure out how to teach it. The unit we are in right now deals with ratios, proportions, and percent. The problem I am introducing today asks students to compare different ratios of orange concentrate to water to determine which mix is the most "orangey." A friend of mine told me that she decided to make a video so that students could see what "concentrate" is because she was worried they might not understand how that works. I agree so I made a few videos of myself making up the different concoctions. I did Mix A, Mix C, and Mix D (I skipped B because I didn't have enough concentrate!)...

2014 was a great year. I continued my teaching journey as a math teacher to 8th graders and now 7th graders. I presented at conferences, attended conferences, and accepted an award for middle school math teaching. The biggest event of the year (and my life) was the birth of my daughter, Natalie, at the end of May. In August, I celebrated one year of marriage with my wonderful, supportive husband, Mike. I said good-bye to my cat of 14 years, Lily, and welcomed two new fur-babies, Steve and Stu, into our home. I went to California for my brother's wedding. I spent time with friends and family. Overall, 2014 was full of blessings and I am grateful. As for my blog, I am honored that I am a featured blog on the ICTM website .  I also am an editor on the ICTM Facebook page and have enjoyed working on finding interesting and relevant content to share. With a new year comes new year's resolutions! I don't go crazy with them, but with it also being the start of a new...

One thing that was lacking in my early years of teaching middle school was, what some might call, the hook. You know, the thing that gets kids interested in the story of the problem before you have them do any math. By story I am not referring to the dreaded word problem (a.k.a. story problem). No, what I'm referring to is a set-up that gets kids thinking, questions, or at least listening. Dan Meyer is awesome at this... and I'm getting better. How did I do this? Acting I like this approach because it doesn't take an overhaul of your lesson plans or curriculum. It doesn't even take that much time. What it does take is a little creativity and acting. Now, I'm not an actress and I wasn't even in drama club in high school. However, if you teach, you already have a little acting experience! ~ACTION!~ Enthusiasm I think an effective teacher needs to get excited about the content they are teaching. You have to show that excitement to the students and ...

Last year I had my students participate in the Hour of Code in my math classes. This year, I decided to expand and ask the science teacher on my team if she wanted to do it too. I'll blog about our week later, but for now I wanted to share some pictures of my students doing an "unplugged" coding activity called " My Robotic Friends ."