Annie Forest

My new app obsession is  1 Second Everyday . The idea is to take 1 second of video each day and compile it into a video. I first purchased the app for my iPhone with the idea of capturing video of my kids. I've been doing it and it's great!! When you put all the clips together it tells such a great story. The app is very easy to use. You can use video saved from your camera roll or you can record video within the app. It is also a cinch to watch, select, and crop your 1-second of footage to use. Finally, you just hit play and the app puts all the 1-second pieces together. Easy-peesy! A few weeks ago, I started thinking about how I might use the app in school. With a $4.99 price tag, it probably isn't feasible to purchase for students and have them creating their own 1 Second Everyday compilations. However, as a classroom teacher, how amazing would it be if you captured just one second from each day of the school year and at the end of the year you had an ...

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...

Many people are glad to see 2016 go, and while I agree there were some difficult things about the past year, there were also some really great things . My son was born , I started a new role as instructional coach, and I became an ICTM board member! That being said, I do like the new year because it is a time to reflect and set some goals for the upcoming year. So, welcome 2017, the 306th prime number! When you have little kids, the party peaks at about 6pm. In fact, this year the kids all had pretty bad colds. So, I wiped everyone's noses, got out our "party" decorations and gathered the fam for a group selfie. My 2-year old was into it for about 5 minutes and then declared, "party over." :) Here's to a great 2017! I hope you find happiness and success both professionally and personally in the new year!

Being a new Illinois Council of Teachers of Mathematics board member has me thinking about ways to connect more teachers across the state. I want to put my obsession knowledge of social media/blogs/Twitter to some good use! I've been the main editor of the Facebook page for ICTM for some time now (like the page, if you haven't yet!). I also recently volunteered to help with the Twitter account ( @MathICTM ). I really want to expand the use of these tools to help more Illinois math teachers feel connected outside of our annual conference. While there are some teachers that participate in #MTBoS, I want to bring more of that to our state. A Twitter chat might be one way we could do this. I'm still thinking on this because timing is important to help build momentum and make sure it is sustainable. Evenings are pretty busy for me right now with the kiddos, so I've not been participating in as many chats as I had in the past. I'm sure this busy bedtime phase will p...

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...

I'm excited to be back participating in a  #D100bloggerPD  book study! We are a group of bloggers in Berwyn South District 100 that read and blog. It's a great community of learners and a fun way to jigsaw our way through some great education books! This time, we are reading the book,  LAUNCH , by John Spencer and A.J. Juliani. Thanks to  Jenny Lehotsky  for organizing this study! Jenny is an amazing instructional coach with a passion for design thinking and personalized learning. She is also a  TED-Ed Innovative Educator  (impressive!). You can check out the  post about Chapter 1  on Jenny's blog,  Teaching and Learning Redefined . click on the " ThingLink " above to go to participating blogs & posts! Now it's on to my assignment, which was Chapter 2. This chapter was titled, " Finding Your Creative Approach ," and was all about recognizing and celebrating the fact that everyone is creative in their own way. ...

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 ...