New School Year, New Opportunities

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My professional life has been full of changes. I thought I would take a post to talk about what I've been up to!


Illinois Council of Teachers of Mathematics

I remember years ago, as a second year teacher, I turned to the ICTM webpage for some ideas for Pi Day. While looking around, I noticed they had awards and thought it would be so amazing to be honored with a teaching award some day. In 2014, I was lucky enough to fulfill that dream. Getting more involved with ICTM by presenting at the annual conference, managing the Facebook page, and then accepting the award made me think about becoming a board member. Again, I thought it would be so amazing to be able to contribute more widely to the math education community and this would be a great way. I am honored that I was elected to serve as Director of grades 5-8 on the Board of Directors.


Recap Pioneer

Another opportunity that I'm excited about is being a Recap Pioneer. I started using this tech tool in my classroom this year and quickly discovered it was a great way to get at student thinking. It is so easy to set up and makes it simple for students to record short videos of themselves answering a question. You can use this as formative assessment to inform your teaching.

I also was invited to contribute to Recap's blog and wrote a post about asking better questions. Check it out! 


District Instructional Coach

Maybe the biggest change for me has been my shift from classroom teacher to K-8 instructional coach. Last year I had several sections of 6th grade math and two release periods to work with teachers as a math coach. I loved the coaching experience, so when a position as an instructional coach opened in my district, I knew I had to apply! To be honest, leaving the classroom, after 12 years, is bittersweet and I still feel like a math teacher at heart. But, I'm embracing this new challenge. It is pushing me out of my comfort zone, which I think is what you need for growth. It's good and it's hard at the same time. I'm looking forward to seeing how my education journey continues!




Comments

  1. AnonymousNovember 23, 2016 at 5:45 PM

    You're a great addition to our iCoach team! We are lucky to have you!

    ReplyDelete

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