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...

When you want people to read something, should you send an email? Maybe. I know some people are good at reading their emails. But, if you really want a captive audience, meet them where they are... how about the bathroom?! When people are sitting down to take a little *ahem* rest, they probably would enjoy a little reading material. That's where "MATH in the BATH(room)" comes in. I've heard of people posting newsletters and "Learning in the Loo" in staff restrooms and thought I would borrow that idea to bring fun/interesting math to teachers. This way I can highlight a few of my favorite go-to resources for finding interesting math problems and also just get math on teachers' minds. So, I made my first three editions of "MATH in the BATH(room)" and took them around to all 8 of the schools in my district. In case you are wondering, there are 28 staff bathrooms in my district, that is including the district building. And, yes, I've been i...

I LOVE COUNTING COLLECTIONS! I can't believe I didn't know about them before, but after watching an ICTM webinar by Denise Brown ( check out the recording here !), I was hooked! Immediately, I reached out to a few teachers in my district that also watched the webinar. I co-taught a counting collections lesson in each of their classrooms, one kindergarten and the other 1st grade. Wow. It was amazing. Then, I saw another ICTM webinar by Kassia Wedekind ( see that one here !) where she talked about nudges during counting collections. Ah ha! Another amazing idea. Now I wanted to try more counting collections lessons. Luckily, we had a teacher institute day coming up and one of the original counting collections teachers agreed to present the idea to all of the kindergarten and 1st grade teachers. She did an awesome job sharing how she was using the routine in her classroom. Next, I put together a traveling "Counting Collection Collection." I went to the dollar...

Dusting off the old blog. How is it possible that I haven't blogged since October?! I've missed you! Lately I've been thinking a lot about how to help with a common phrase I hear in education: "One more thing." As in, "this new ( initiative/idea/curriculum/app ) is just one more thing I have to worry about in my classroom." And I get it! With the rate of new initiatives/ideas/curriculums/apps coming across my desk, it's a dizzying pace of new and change. But I also like a lot of these new ideas.  I often present to teachers about these ideas!  So, in my role of instructional coach, how can I help teachers embrace them too without feeling overwhelmed or burning out. First, I think we need to look at the ideas of happiness and success. In this Ted Talk by Shawn Achor, he looks into the idea that being happy makes us more productive. Often, we might think that success will lead to happiness, but this is backwards. And, in fa...

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 went to ISTE last week and I felt like I was cheating on my math friends. WHAT IS ISTE? First, ISTE stands for International Society for Technology in Education. They have a big annual conference every summer. This year it was in San Antonio and I was lucky enough to get to present and attend. If you have never heard of ISTE, you aren't alone. Despite the fact that this conference is HUGE, many educators don't even know it exists. (I didn't until a few years ago.) And I saw on Twitter a few math educator friends asking what #ISTE17 stood for because they were seeing it in their newsfeed. And, to make it even harder, I looked at ISTE's website and had to dig a bit to even find it all spelled out! So, why hadn't I heard of ISTE until recently? I've connected mostly with the math ed crowd on social media and engage with the fine folks in #MTBoS often. I just don't hear much about tech stuff as it relates to math... with the big exception being fo...

The end of the school year is a natural time for reflection and celebrations. Around the 8 schools in my district, I've stopped in many classrooms these past few weeks to sweaty kids just back from "Park Day" or tired teachers just back from a field trip. I've seen high fives, hugs, and dance parties. One of the classrooms I worked with the most this year even gave me a handmade card and flowers on our last day working together! Taking the time to recognize the hard work of others and letting them know the impact they had on you is important. Not only does it make someone feel good, but it's also important professionally to know that your work matters. One of the most impactful "gifts" I ever got was a card from 3 teachers I mentored where they wrote down "Annie-isms" that they called "Words of Wisdom." Just knowing that they remembered things I said to them during our work together meant so much to me. More than tha...

It's that time of year! The end of the school year! When I was a classroom teacher, it was a complicated time. I'm was feeling a little sad about ending my time with a current group of kids. I was also looking forward to quality time with my own family during the summer. But I was also using it as a time of reflection and looking forward. I would start asking myself a lot of questions: What went well this year? What do I keep, what do I change? What are my goals for next year? What new things do I want to try?  This reflection and planning is important. Of course, I fully advocate for teaching right up until the end. Keep it mathy! I blogged about some ideas to use during these last few weeks . But, as you wind down the year, while things are still fresh in your mind, write down some goals or plan for next year. Then, when it's August and you are refreshed and ready to get back to it , you have something to revisit and help you remember what changes you wanted to ...

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! ;)

I'm sure we all can think of people (in education or not) that play it safe. They don't take many risks, but also don't really do anything noteworthy. Then there are the risk takers. Trying new stuff and sometimes falling on their face. But these people also sometimes succeed, and when they do they are doing amazing things. My husband might laugh if I told him that I identify more with the risk taker. That's because when it come to my personal life like finances, buying a house, buying a car, raising kids, I don't like to get too crazy. I drive a Honda CRV, for goodness sake! However, when I'm talking about trying new things in my job, I'm a lot more willing to "change it," "try it," "let's see what happens!" Does this look like the ride of a risk-taker? lol The thing about being a risk taker is you have to put yourself out there... and there have been plenty of times, some embarrassing, that haven't worked out...

I'm happy to be participating in another #D100bloggerPD book study! This time we are reading Start. Right. Now. by Todd Whitaker, Jeffrey Zoul, and Jimmy Casas. You can read more about our book study and find links to all the contributors here ! Our district's technology conference, iEngage Berwyn is coming up in a few weeks and one of our keynote speakers is one of the authors, Jimmy Casas! The portion of the book I'm reflecting on is the second part of Chapter 4: Go the Way. There are four sections in this portion of the chapter: Tell the Truth, Ask for Help, Stay the Course, and The Way We Respond.  Tell the Truth At first glance, this one seems obvious. I'm a truthful person and bad liar--although pretty good deadpan/dry sense of humor ;) But this section is also about being truthful and honest even when it's having a tough conversation. In reflecting, I can think of several difficult conversations that I just plain avoided instead of ad...

Mistakes aren't just okay , they are gifts ! Six years ago, I was attending some amazing professional development as part of the West Cook Math Initiative- now called Metro Chicago Math Initiative . We had a frequent guest facilitator, David Foster , leading us in a math talk and then discussing re-engagement lessons. I will never forget the day that he said, "Mistakes are gifts." In fact, I believe he said he had heard this from a teacher in Japan that was explaining the role that mistakes can play in helping students understanding mathematical concepts. Bottom line, I don't know who to give credit to for this quote, but it certainly has had an impact on me. It is something that I repeat to students that I teach, teachers that I coach, and participants in professional development that I lead. I just can't say it enough! Here's my vlog of my reflections on this idea: If you like the idea of using mistakes in your classroom, consider re-engage...