Annie Forest

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...

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...

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...

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 ...

One of my favorite things is presenting to teachers. I've fallen in love with working with adults that want to improve their practice. Nothing beats being in a room of educators nodding their heads as I share with them about topics I'm passionate about too. Of course, there is a fine line between giving people what they want and presenting about topics you feel could push people's thinking and be about what the education profession needs . Dan Meyer wrote a post about this (and the comments are also important to read). It made me think, I'm certainly not just presenting to entertain people for an hour, but being entertaining helps get people's attention. I'm also not there to harp on reform and changes, but I wouldn't be my authentic self if I didn't slip a little of my progressive ideals into my presentation. My formula lately is: a little teaching philosophy (why) + resources (what) + pedagogy (how) + humor (I hope!) There is a reason educ...

Twitter: 1. Following along with the NCSM Annual Meeting (#NCSM16) and the NCTM Annual Meeting (#NCTMannual) and all of my tweeps attending (#MTBoS). Feeling super jealous that I can't be there, but making the best of learning from afar! 2. Trying out using a Twitter chat format in my classroom. As a warm-up I post three questions on the board using the format Q1, Q2, and Q3. Then I ask students to fill out our Twitter google doc with their response to a chosen question using A1, A2, or A3. They also include the hashtag: #6Amathchat. I then curate answers and post to our class Twitter account ( @6Amath ). It's a great, quick formative assessment! 3. Continuing on my journey thinking about how I can be more culturally responsive. I've been reading a lot about white privilege and white silence in education. I'm following #educolor and a few people that have really pushed my thinking: Jose Vilson ( @TheJLV ), Rusul Alrubail ( @RusulAlrubail ), and Greg Curra...

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!

I had an opportunity to present at the Metropolitan Mathematics Club of Chicago 's conference on Saturday. It was a great event full of learning! I really look forward to this conference every year. Besides doing a regular session about using technology in the classroom and for professional learning ( find the slides here ), I was also one of six teachers asked to do a 10-min "ignite-type" session after lunch. I was actually more nervous for these ten minutes than I was for my 75-min session! ((talking with my hands, as usual!)) In the end, the 10-min talk went great. I got a lot of good feedback and teachers told me they were inspired to try out Twitter because of what I shared. So awesome! If you are interested, here is a screencast version of my talk encouraging teachers to try out Twitter and become involved with #MTBoS . Another great part of the day was being able to learn alongside two of my mentees, Anna and Alix. Not only did they give up their Sat...

Twitter: 1.  Ilana Horn  ( @tchmathculture )  had a great idea to ask the #MTBoS to tweet their favorite or most popular posts of the year using the hashtag #MTBOS2015. I tweeted both my favorite post and most popular post and got lots of people  visiting  my blog! 2. Some teachers in my district started a monthly chat (#D100chat). It's been great participating and connecting with teachers across my district! 3. Love seeing a tweet like this one by Martin Joyce  ( @martinsean ). It's so cool to be able to recommend resources to teachers from all over! Resources and Blogs: 1. If you have iPads in your classroom you just have to try Class Kick . My favorite for having kids working and giving timely feedback. 2. My students absolutely beg to do Kahoot! I like it too, but try to limit our use to once every few weeks. I think it could lose it's novelty and I don't want that to happen. One word of caution-- it's a game where accuracy an...

There are a few great conferences that I am really looking forward to in 2016. Here is where I'll be in January and February: January 23- iMATHination Presenting two sessions. One about "Math Discourse" and another about "Using Social Media in the Math Classroom" January 26- Metropolitan Mathematics Club of Chicago (MMC) Conference Presenting about using "Tech and Social Media in the Math Classroom." Also doing a 10 minute presentation at a special after lunch session where each of 6 presenters get 10 minutes to present about a topic. I haven't decided yet... suggestions? February 20- Students In Technology (SIT) Conference This conference is for students and the presentations are by students as well! I am helping to organize the conference and will serve as a sponsor for student presenters. February 26- Illinois Computing Educators (ICE) Conference A tech conference, this is new for me! I'm presenting again about ...

Twitter: 1. If you aren't following my class, consider following  @6Amath . All tweets are collected on a google form and curated by me, but completely written by students. 2. Follow  @Tolerance_org for great ideas about being inclusive, kind, and respectful from the people at Teaching Tolerance . 3. I've made some "virtual" friends through Twitter. So, consider following two of my Twitter friends,  @KhatriMath and @MrP_tchr . I've never met either in person, but I feel like we could be friends in real life. ;) Resources and Blogs: 1. I'm always going back to Math Equals Love for ideas or just a fun read. I really like Sarah's style of writing and she also shares great stuff. I stole her growth mindset bulletin board idea lately. I know she stole my pi banner idea , so I like thinking about how we have similar items in our classroom even though we are hundreds of miles away. 2. I'm reading and loving everything I see on David W...

Last week, the Illinois State Board of Education, Illinois Federation of Teachers, and Illinois Education Association recognized teachers that had won teaching awards from professional organizations in the past year. The new State Superintendent of Education, Dr. Tony Smith, was there and gave a nice speech about his goals for his new role, including changing the conversation about teachers to a more positive one in the state and media. It was a nice luncheon with a chance to chat with some passionate educators! I also had a chance to connect with some tweeps (Twitter peeps). Two math teachers that I follow and follow me were there and recognized me from Twitter... so fun!

Have you heard of the Presidential Awards for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching (PAEMST) ? It's quite a mouthful! And it's quite an honor. According to the website : "The Presidential Awards for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching (PAEMST)  are the nation's highest honors for teachers of mathematics and science (including computer science). Awardees serve as models for their colleagues, inspiration to their communities, and leaders in the improvement of mathematics and science education." I was very honored to be nominated by an awesome West Cook Math Initiative (WCMI) math coach, Sendhil Revuluri (@revuluri). It's true that it is an honor just to be nominated (but of course, really awesome if I win!) So, I'm in the process of working on my application. It's due May 1st... so what am I doing on this fine afternoon of April 18th? Writing a blog post about the application I should be working on, of course! :) The ...

Thanks to the peeps that came to my session at the MMC Conference! As promised, here is a link to my presentation from today. I would love it if you want to: -check out other stuff on the blog -comment on something! -follow me on twitter (@mrsforest) -"Like" the ICTM Facebook page Again, thanks for being so open today and for the great discussions!

I while back I wrote about a free, downloadable book called Nix the Tricks .  Feeling inspired by the idea of getting rid of "tricks" that we used to teach in math because they get in the way of students' understanding, I decided to present about it at the ICTM conference. I was a little nervous to tackle this topic because I'm not an expert… it's just a topic that I've been thinking a lot about lately.  Luckily, a fellow ICTM member tipped me off to a great article by NCTM called " 13 Rules That Expire ," which gave me more material.  I also knew that I wanted to do some activities to I went to my old favorites: Math Talks and Get it Together Activities .  I also showed the video that I blogged about a few weeks ago, which went over well too. I titled the workshop, "Say Goodbye to Aunt Sally," as a nod to the "PEMDAS" acronym some people used to help them remember the order of operations.  Math joke! :) The workshop we...

Yesterday was such a great day at the Illinois Council of Teachers of Mathematics Annual Conference!  I got to hear Dan Meyer speak (my math hero!), I presented my workshop to a great group, and then I went to the ICTM awards ceremony.  My parents, husband, and baby came to the ceremony where I accepted my "Middle School Teaching Award."  It was such an honor and I was even moved to a few tears during my acceptance speech!  Good thing I had a few jokes in there to get me through and, luckily, people laughed at the funny parts.  I was also so touched that some of my colleagues made a special effort to be at the award ceremony.  Thanks to Sue, Sendhil, Margie, and Marty.  It meant so much to have you there! Here is the less tearful version of my speech: I teach middle school math.  Those words probably don’t sound that out of the ordinary in this group.  But that sentence has 2 parts that when I say them because people...

My blog recently was added to the ICTM website as a featured blog!  So exciting!!! Because of this, I realized that I might have some new visitors to the blog so I wanted to say WELCOME and THANKS for stopping by!  There are so many great blogs out there, so I'm honored if you take a minute to visit mine. I also realized that I haven't been posting too much "mathy" stuff lately because I'm finishing my maternity leave and haven't been in the classroom.  That will all change soon since I'm going back on Monday! In the mean time, I thought I would provide links to some of my favorite past posts in case you want to check them out. Thanks again for stopping by and I would love to hear from you… leave a comment or send me an email! Favorite lesson posts: Rubrics Student Blogs Discovering Pythagorean Theorem Teaching Transformations Formative Assessment Lessons Favorite math education policy posts: Homework Screen Time...

In my school district, once you receive 3 "excellent" ratings on your evaluations, you can move from having classroom observations to doing goals every other year.  I've had the privilege of doing this type of work for the past couple of years.  This year, it is time for me to come up with two professional goals. One goal revolves around SBG… continuing my work and helping others do it too. My second goal has to do with being more involved in expanding my professional development reach and getting involved more in professional organizations.  I reached out to Illinois Council of Teachers of Mathematics and offered to help with putting content on their Facebook page which I noticed hadn't had a post in a while.  Well, they took me up on my offer, so I'm now an editor on their page.  I'm excited for the chance to share some content that I think is relevant to the ICTM crowd!  Only, it's not really a crowd yet with only about 60 "likes."   ...

I'm starting to think about my presentation for the ICTM conference in October .  My topic is about how teachers' use of "tricks" has changed since Common Core. "Tricks" would be things like "FOIL," "PEMDAS," "flip the second and multiply," "cross multiplication,"  "add a zero" when multiplying by 10, "two negatives make a positive," key words, etc… Here are some questions that I posed to some of the math teachers in my district: 1. What trick(s) did you learn as a student or previously teach that you don't now? 2. Why did you abandon this(these) trick(s)? 3. What trick(s) do you still use in your teaching? 4. What makes this(these) trick(s) helpful or useful to your students? I'm interested to hear their responses.  I want to be able to include some of their thoughts in my workshop.  I also plan to refer to "Nix the Tricks," which I wrote abou t a few months ago. ...