Annie Forest

I just got my copy of the book, The Best of Math Teacher Blogs 2015. The book is a collection of blog posts by teachers involved in the online community, #MTBoS. You can read more about how the book came to be on Tina's blog . One cool thing about this project is being published alongside some teachers that I really admire! Another awesome thing is that proceeds of the sale of the book go to giving scholarships to teachers so that they can attend " Twitter Math Camp ." I've never been myself, and if it wasn't for having a newborn this summer, I would have tried to get there this year! The idea of meeting up with some of my Twitter friends and talk math sounds so fun! I do hope a TMC is in my future in the next few years!  I'm looking forward to reading all the great posts in this fab book. If you want a copy for yourself, click here ! If you want a preview of the post of mine that is in the book, check it out here . It really is one of my favorites! ...

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! ...

I haven't written about a lesson idea in a while! While talking with an 8th grade teacher today, I was reminded of a lesson I've done in the past about combining like terms. I wanted to write a quick post to share and also so that I can have it saved to refer back to. The lesson begins by showing this clip: The kids always laugh and enjoy the silliness of it. When it keeps going, I hear a lot of "You gotta be kidding me!" and "ugh, how long is this going to go on?" Perfect. I feel like I'm creating the controversy (create the controversy, Dan Meyer suggests is a first step) After the video, I talk about a simpler version of this same idea. Me: What if I ordered 5 hamburgers, 3 orders of fries, 6 hamburgers, and 2 more orders of fries. Is there a better way to order that is less confusing? Students: Yes! (they are almost frustrated with me!) Put the hamburgers together and the fries together. Me: Oh, so if I wrote ((write on the board:...

((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...

697- Followers on Twitter ! 279- Likes on the Illinois Council of Teachers of Mathematics Facebook page that I manage. Have you liked it yet? 26- Weeks pregnant 15- Days until Pi Day. Find some ideas here ! 8- Ed Tech Myths... read about them here . 6- Presentations I've done since the new year! ( check them out here ) 4- Times I've made this banana bread recipe . Obsessed. Pregnancy craving?! 2- Times my daughter has watched Frozen (she calls it "Olaf") in the past day. Let It Go... 1- Times I've been to the Illinois Computing Educators (ICE) conference. I went on Friday and it was a great day connecting, presenting , and learning!

Many school districts use instructional coaches to coach teachers, provide PD, and work to improve student achievement. Coaches might be content specific (math or literacy) or they might be general pedagogy or technology. However, when budgets are tight and it's time to make some tough decisions about where to trim spending, it might be tempting to think about cutting coaching. Or maybe a district hasn't implemented coaching, yet, and is trying to make the case for using precious and scarce resources for this purpose. I can understand the perspective: "we haven't always had coaches, we survived before, we can again." I've even heard the argument, "well, they don't actually work with kids... and  what do they do all day ?" So, why can instructional coaching have this public relations problem? Why does something, that can have such an impact, feel like a luxury to be first on the chopping block? I've taught for 12 years. During that time...

If you teach middle school, brace yourself for the craziness that is Valentine's Day celebrated at school tomorrow! Heart shaped suckers, teddy bears, chocolate, and a few (hopefully minimal) tears. Instead of fighting it, embrace the mathiness that can be squeezed out of this heart-filled holiday! Here are a few resources to use: 1. Send a Math-o-Gram . Love math? Love Desmos? You can send your students (or friends) a heart themed graph! 2. Make a Mathy Valentine Use transformations to rotate your way to your students' hearts. 3. Check out these other heart-shaped graphing activities I found these NCTM Illuuminations graphing actives a few years ago. 4. Graph this equation in Desmos : (this was a fun one for my 6th graders... just to figure out how to type in the correct symbols!) 5. Mobius Strip Hearts ?! Yes! Happy Valentine's Day! <3 Update: More Valentine's Day Activities Added: Early Childhood Ideas: Spark a Lov...