Annie Forest

Photo Credit: Lauren Johnson If you are a math teacher, perhaps you have heard of Desmos . They make an amazingly powerful, free, online graphing calculator as well as awesome math activities . Over the past few years, in pursuit of learning more about what teachers need as well as to build a network, they have developed a “Desmos Fellowship” program where about 40 teachers are brought to their headquarters in San Francisco for a weekend of collaboration and learning.  There have been 3 cohorts of teachers to be involved in the Desmos Fellows program. The popularity of the program growing so much that there were over 400 teachers to apply for Cohort 3 that just met this past weekend. I was very humbled and honored to be part of the group. If you ever have heard the saying, “if you are the smartest person in the room, you are in the wrong room,” just know if that is true, I was most definitely in the right room, as I was overwhelmed by the amount of people so much smarte...

As a coach, one aspect of my job is thinking about developing professional development for teachers. I actually really love this. It's a unique opportunity to really dig into what adult learners need and want. Last year school year, I was thinking about how I could have an impact on professional development in my district. There were a few things I was thinking about: 1.) I really wanted to have a chance to go deeper with some teachers and was thinking about a cohort model. In my own teaching journey, I have been impacted greatly by a few experiences, many of them when I felt connected to a community of learners . 2.) As an instructional coach in a 1:1 district, helping teachers be innovative with technology and integrate purposeful ed tech is part of my job. 3.) My district has high turn-over. I began researching some of the aspects that go into people being satisfied with their jobs . While I couldn't impact their pay, I could work on some of the other ideas such...

There are times in education when we need to "zoom in," look at the details and the fine points. There are other times that a more global view is appropriate. We need to "zoom out" and look at the big picture. In my coaching conversations, I have noticed that many times when teachers or teams are frustrated, we need to adjust our zoom . ZOOM OUT Scenario 1 A team is working on common plans for math. I walk in and teachers are talking about the number talk for the second lesson, then jump to the stations planning for next week, another teacher mentions that they need to make a formative assessment to use, too. Then they all look at me, "this is hard and overwhelming!" they say, "how can we make this planning easier?" This is a situation where we need to zoom out . Focusing on the details of lesson plans before the big picture is mapped out results in frustration and lack of focus. There are so many tiny details of a unit plan. Whi...

I think data is important. I even recently presented about " Data Driven Coachin g" at ISTE! I've been thinking a lot about how we use data to tell a story and the implications it has for teachers and our students. One thing that really gets me upset is when I see data being reported (usually visually) in misleading ways. Sometimes I think people just don't realize that they are creating something misleading, while other times things are done to intentionally exaggerate what is actually going on. This TED-Ed video explains this really well: So when I came across this tweet, I immediately looked at the y-axis. I noticed that the % was "zoomed in" making it look like engagement in high school was practically 0%, even though it was 44%. Now, 44% isn't great. And the overall trend of declining engagement is worrisome. But, the math teacher in me was just a little annoyed at the misleading graph. This is OUR problem. We must do something to combat...

The Hows: How do we fix math education? How do we address issues of equity and access? How do we improve test scores? How do we choose curriculum materials that encourage inquiry, exploration, problem solving, and application? How do we improve number sense? How do we make math fun, relevant, engaging, and meaningful to students? How do I set up positive norms in math class? How do I address math anxiety of my students? parents? other teachers? The Whats: What is the best curriculum? What interventions are best? What approach is better? What is the purpose of math education? What are we doing wrong (or right!)? What will get us the biggest improvement the fastest? What do teachers need to improve their teaching? What do students need to improve their learning? These are just some of the questions I think about, am asked, or read about daily. Daily! The longer I'm in education, the longer my answers to these questions become. I see peoples' eyes glaze o...

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. ...

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 woke up Tuesday morning and held my newest baby, Dean. I checked my phone, as I often do in the morning and looked at Twitter. A few people were sharing how upset they were and including the hashtag #AltonSterling. Another black man shot and killed by a white police officer . The fact that I just started that previous sentence with the word "another" speaks for itself. How are these occurrences becoming so common place? Yesterday I woke up, similar to Tuesday, and somehow there is ANOTHER story of a black man being shot and killed by police  (#PhilandoCastile). I sat staring at my phone for a while. I wanted to tweet and express my outrage. I wanted to convey how upset this made me. Here I am with a white husband that can go to work this morning with little no worry that he will be shot by police. I have a white son that, because of his skin color, is afforded a privilege that he did nothing to earn .  Today I woke up reading articles and comments in response t...

Ask a teacher what skills they want their students to have before they leave them for the summer, and more often than not, the list will include more social/emotional skills than content. I've done this exercise in PD sessions before and things like responsibility, respect, citizenship, collaboration, and kindness top the list. Most teachers really just want what is best for kids . I love that about this profession! Becoming a parent has given me even more of a desire to reach every kid and help them along in their journey to becoming great people. My friend, Jackie, recently blogged about this when she wrote:  What Becoming a Mom Taught Me About Teaching . As she says, " everybody is somebody's baby ." She says sometimes it makes us softer and sometimes it helps us stand firm ground when we know we are doing something that is best. I agree! I know that my kids still have a few years before they enter school, my daughter is two and my son is a newborn! However,...

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...

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...

I am going to be asking my staff this question using the Teacher2Teacher #WhyITeach Storytelling Toolkit . I thought I should gather my own thoughts about this, too! The project asks teachers to put their reason on a bubble. That means about 1 sentence. Ahhh! How can I fit my complex thoughts about this in one sentence?! If I'm forced to boil it down to a sentence, it would be this: "I teach because I want students and teachers to feel empowered, capable, and important." Why do you teach?

MYTH 1: Teachers are just trying to show off on social media, like Twitter and blogs. There is an aspect to social media that promotes sharing our "best selves." I do it with my own personal Facebook page. An example would be the 35 pictures I take of my daughter so that I can post one cute, smiling picture . I don't post the ones that are blurry as she scoots away or with a frowning face. I post the best. The same can be said for what I share about my classroom. However, the motivation behind sharing isn't just to show off or get attention. The reason that most teachers share is to reflect on their own practice, share resources with others, or get feedback. Reflection is an important part of being a good teacher. Asking myself how a lesson went, what went well, what would I change , are ways that I improve. I either do this informally (like think about a lesson on my drive home) or formally (by writing a blog post). Reflecting doesn't always mean tha...