Annie Forest

IT'S HERE!!! If you are like me, you feel a little sad about the end of summer but also super excited for a new school year. I love the new school supplies, fresh start, classroom decorating , meeting new kids, and a chance to try new things! I wanted to put together a post that compiled all of my favorite past posts related to stuff teachers think about at the start of a new school year. First, I like to sit down and write out my goals . I think about what I want to keep and what I might want to change . There are several things that you might have done in the past that you might want to rethink. For example, grading , getting rid of your teacher desk , or even how you speak about gender in your classroom . How are you going to arrange your classroom? How will you make seating charts that encourage collaboration ? Think about small changes you could make that will have a big impact. Here are a few . Think about how you might want to treat mistakes in your clas...

One way to introduce yourself to a new group of students is to do "Me In Numbers."* Here's how it works:  1. Make up a few questions about yourself. List the numbers (out of order) at the bottom. Have some easy to figure out and others that could be several of the options. For example, my daughter is probably not 38 or 1884 years old... but she could be 2, 3, or 14.  2. Display to the class and have them right down their guesses for each statement. Each number at the bottom is used once. (sometimes I like to set it up that they are going to have a "quiz" on this first day. I have a smile on my face so they don't get too nervous, and then obviously when I show them they questions they know it's not a graded quiz but just for fun). 3. Go over the answers as they "grade" their work. As you go over the answers, share a bit about yourself. I usually have a slide or two to go with each answer with some pictures of my family, cats...

This is a strange time of year to be writing about seating charts... I mean, it's almost the end of the school year! No one is making seating charts right now. ...or, is it that strange ? This is the time of year that is perfect for reflection . Thinking about what went well and what you want to change for next year. This actually might be the perfect time as you are thinking about how you might want to set up your room for next year! So, what are you thinking about trying for seating next year? Are you a desks in rows kind of person? Pods? Partners? Do you have a rug where kids come for math talks? Do you want to try flexible seating ? No assigned seats? Randomly selected partners? Carefully chosen groups? There are SO MANY choices and decisions to make when it comes to classroom environment and seating arrangements. I wanted to share something I tried with my middle school students. If I had a class of my own again next year, it is what I would be doing. Now, it's ...

I love the NCTM article, Never Say Anything A Kid Can Say,  by Steven Reinhart. I reread it often and it always reminds me of something to work on or try so that I can have a more student-centered math class. I have recently been sharing 3 of my favorite tips from the article at PD in my district. These three tips are small changes that you can make that have a BIG impact on your classroom. I vlogged about those three ideas. Enjoy! ;)

This is my first attempt at "vlogging." It's blogging but with video! This is pushing me out of my comfort zone a bit because, as most people, I hate seeing myself on video or hearing myself talk!! And look how my face is frozen in a weird way on the video below. Ugh! But I think this is a powerful way to reflect on my practice and share ideas I've done in the classroom, so I'm giving it a try. I hope you find this idea helpful. I call it "strategic eavesdropping." It is a teacher move that you do in the classroom as students are working or discussing. You do this to find students work/thinking to share to the group and facilitate class discussions. It is probably something that you are doing already! What makes this a little different than just walking around and listening to kids talk is the  strategic part. You are going to use what you overhear to plan, in the moment, for how to reveal student thinking to the group. Give this video a watch and ...

Instead of making full-blown new year's resolutions, I have joined the movement of choosing just one word. Two years ago, I chose "calm" and last year my word was "authentic."  This year, I have chosen the word purposeful . I decided to choose "purposeful" because I think it is going to help me be more focused and intentional this year. I tend to be one of those people that say yes to everything before I really know what is being asked of me. While I love having my hands in several projects at a time, it can sometimes make me feel a bit scattered and I'm wondering if I'm having as much of an impact as I would like. My work feels like a calling to me. It's something I think about in my free time. I like blogging about it and connecting with other educators-- it's almost like a job and hobby! It feels like there is a bigger purpose and that is important to me. Helping others find their "purpose" in education is something...

There are days leading up to break when you want to do something: 1. "mathy" 2. low-tech 3. fun 4. engaging that will keep everyone's attention! It's that time of year when teachers need a math game idea. My post about  activities to do the last weeks of school  is one of my most viewed because of this exact thing. I wrote about this game, "Draw 10", in the post I mentioned above, but I don't think it got much attention, probably because I didn't explain it well or give examples of how it will look as you play it, so I wanted to fix that. This game is fun for grade levels 3-12. With younger kids you will want to play the whole numbers version, while older students will be more challenged by the decimal version. ((Speaking of older kids, it would be really interesting if someone adapted this into another base besides base-10!)) To play Draw 10 you will need: 1. The game boards printed for your students. I usually try to fit quite a f...

There are a ton of tweets with the hashtag #iwishmyteacherknew. The idea is, as a teacher, you ask your class what they wish you knew and you collect their responses. This idea is not new. I remember hearing about it two year ago. But, with the beginning of a new school year, it's come back around. Oh, and there is a teacher making money off of it, too. What?! Making money, you might ask? Yes, a teacher asked her class this question and turned the responses into a book (not linking to it, on purpose). Now, I'm all for writing about the profession. I have a stack of edu books waiting to be read. What I'm not into is asking kids to share their deepest thoughts, fears, and struggles and then turning around and sharing them with the world. Rafranz Davis says it great, read her post here . You are their teacher. If they feel safe enough with you to share personal details, DO: 1. read it 2. let it inform you as a teacher 3. and keep it private! DON'T: -share on ...

I am really lucky that I get to be home with my kids right now while I'm on maternity leave. While on leave, I still want to feel connected to my work. I'm keeping up on Twitter and taking on a few PD leadership opportunities in my district. When I came across a great activity by Sara , I just knew it would be one I would want to try if I was in the classroom this year. So, I passed it along to all my middle school math teacher friends. A few teachers tried it out and were nice enough to send me pictures! How amazing that I got to see the smiling faces of kiddos excited and happy to be in math class?! It makes me happy to be connected with teachers and classrooms!

I think to be a good teacher, you have to love teaching, love learning, love kids, and love your content area. You don't have to love them all equally and there can be parts of your job that you like better than others... but you certainly can't dislike the subject that you teach! So, I love math. My love of math has grown as I grow in my own understanding. But I do love it. I love how numbers work. Prime numbers? Fascinating! Dodecahedrons? Beautiful! Fractions? Useful!  ... and Pi? Yep, I love pi! Today happens to be Pi Day. This is my 11th year of celebrating Pi Day. I've done everything from bringing in pie, having memorizing contests, investigating the ratio itself, and circle drawing contests. I have been in my own little world, proudly wearing pi t-shirts and pi earrings! My family and friends know I like pi. My brother bought be a pi pizza cutter . My daughter wore a onesie last year that says "Cutie Pi." I myself have 30 digits memorized! ...

((Must wear hat, gloves, and dinosaur shirt while eating a cracker and holding Momma's book!  Future Runner for sure!)) Welcome to the last post in a series that studied the book, Move Your Bus , by Ron Clark . There have been wonderful posts by other bloggers in my district. Check out this post on Literacy Loving Gals that has links to each one! By the time you get to my post, you have learned all about the metaphor of a bus that Ron Clark uses to describe an organization. There is the driver, runners, joggers, walkers, and riders. We have learned what might motivate each person on the bus and Clark's philosophy on keeping the bus moving along. If you have a chance to read the book, I do recommend it. I think it has some great insights. It's also a pretty quick read, so it's manageable to read it in a day. This book study is coming to a close as I am writing about the last two chapters: "29 Enjoy the ride" and "30 Conclusion: Where do we go f...

Originally, I was going to teach 8th graders this year. I had plans to have them using Twitter to reflect about what we were doing in math class. I had the same students as 7th graders and we were blogging, but was excited for them to all cross the threshold of age 13, so they could use Twitter. Towards the end of the summer, it was determined that I would be teaching 6th grade. There are many things that I absolutely LOVE about 6th graders, but I was a little disappointed that their age would prevent me from asking students to create Twitter accounts. I read a post by Alice Keeler that suggested using a google form to collect responses from students, and explained you could limit the number of characters, similar to how Twitter limits characters. This inspired me to try it! If I could have students submit "tweets" to me, I could curate them and add to a class twitter page. I've been trying it and it works great! Here is how I do it: 1. Create a twitter accou...

I plan to blog again soon showing my "after" pictures. I still have a few finishing touches to add (even though students start tomorrow!). For now, I wanted to focus on two new ideas that I'm trying in my "new" (to me) classroom. I'm moving from the 7th/8th grade hallway on the 3rd floor down to the 6th grade hallway in Room 211. If you are a number nerd, like me (but I'm no Terry Tao ), you will appreciate these facts about my new classroom number: -211 is can be made by adding three consecutive primes: 67 + 71 + 73 -If you multiply the digits, you get a number that is still prime (2 x 1 x 1 = 2 ) -If you add the digits, you get a square: 2 + 1 + 1 = 4 -211 is the 47th prime number (and 47 is also prime) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Okay, back to my classroom. One new idea I'm trying is ditching the teacher desk! Again, I'll share a pic soon of the completed room. I'm so excited about how much room I've gained by getting rid of tha...

When I create a presentation about the topics of math discourse or collaborative learning, I usually include a slide about, what I call, "kind reminders." In my classroom, I expect groups to handle minor issues as a group. If someone isn't contributing or if they are being annoying (I teach middle school, so this comes up often!), I want them to address the group member in a respectful way. I believe this helps students have ownership over their group, find ways to resolve conflict, and it also frees me up, as a teacher, to help groups with the  math  instead of having to address misbehaviors. The slide that I made to share with students is a t-chart showing what group members should address and what I will address. I recently edited the slide with a line to cross out the word bossy. The slide now looks like this: So, why did I cross out the word "bossy"??? I've been doing some thinking about this lately after reading a few things t...

Have you tried this fun and addicting online game called Kahoot ?! Well, it all the rage right now, especially in education technology. You play the game on a device (tablet, computer, or phone). You project the questions on the board and students answer the (multiple choice) questions by clicking on 1 of 4 shapes on their device. Speed and accuracy are rewarded and after each question, a leaderboard is displayed showing where the top players stand. In honor of the ISTE Conference taking place right now, I wanted to take a moment to share my thoughts about Kahoot! as an educational tool. While there are definite positives, I do have a few words of caution that I think are important to consider when deciding how this activity might fit into your lessons. Positives: -It is so fun! Adults and kids alike really enjoy it (including me!!) -Everyone stays engaged, the whole time, even if they aren't "winning" -You can use pre-made questions or make your own -It'...

Sometimes you just need to be a little silly in the classroom. Having fun helps to build relationships with the students. April Fools Day is a favorite in middle school. Students are just at the right age that they like little pranks and silliness. This year, I did two jokes that went over pretty well. The students had fun with it and so did I. Before you do any jokes with students, it is important to make sure that your jokes are appropriate and kind (not sarcastic, mean, or inappropriate). I came across this article that offered this advice: Do Use humor to enhance classroom joy Use humor to develop a sense of community Use content-related humor Use age-appropriate humor "Sandwich" humor between instruction and repetition. Avoid Sarcasm Cruel or inappropriate humor Forced humor Off-topic humor Too much humor. With that being said, here are my April Fools pranks today... In Excel (homeroom), I wrote my students "detentions" that were ...

Sometimes it is so emotionally rewarding to be a teacher! Sometimes you smile at a student and they smile back. Sometimes you say "hi," and they say "hi!" back. Sometimes you tell a joke and the students laugh. Sometimes you offer advice and the students listen. Sometimes you show compassion and a student appreciates it. Sometimes you give extra help and the student says "thanks!" Sometimes you plan a special lesson and the students say, "that was fun!" Sometimes a former student visits and says "wow, you were a great teacher!" Sometimes you see a student doesn't have an eraser left on his pencil during the quiz and you give him one, and he smiles and looks relieved that you noticed him.* ________ but...  ________ Sometimes it is so emotionally taxing to be a teacher! Sometimes you smile at a students and they roll their eyes. Sometimes you say "hi" and they say nothing. Sometimes you tell a jok...

Pi Day is about 3 weeks away! What are you doing in your classroom to celebrate? Now is the time to start looking for ideas. Check out the page called " I Love Pi " for some inspiration to get you started!