Annie Forest

I LOVE USING TECH TOOLS. Let me be clear that I don't like using tech just for tech's sake. Instruction first. Always. Also, focus on the learning. I heard someone say "there is no app for good pedagogy." So true. So, with all those disclaimers, why do I love using technology? Well, it's important, relevant, and honestly can redefine your classroom and the learning for students. I love this quote from NCTM's Principles to Actions : The word essential really stands out to me in this quote. Technology isn't something you can ignore or deny. It's an essential part of our students' world and we need to embrace that. But we all know that there is amazing tech tools and some not-so-great stuff out there. How can you decide what to use? When it comes to using technology in the math classroom, I find using it for students to do practice/formative assessment is most powerful. If I can see their thinking, in the moment, and give feedback it ca...

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...

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...

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 ...

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 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 share this picture, not because it's particularly flattering, but because it shows my real life. My husband snapped the pic of me participating in a Twitter chat while holding my little one. I think most people that love their job struggle to find a work/life balance. That is certainly me. In fact, you could say that I suffer from FOMO, or fear of missing out. My family laughs at me because if there is ever a gathering and I can't make it (my mom and sister going shopping, for example), I always say "have fun, but not too much without ME!" Although I mean it as a joke, I'm also quite serious. I hate missing out on stuff! With work, as an educator, and personal life, as a wife/mom, I feel like I am constantly missing out on things. If you are on Twitter and have ever experienced being at home while most of your PLN attends a conference, you know the feeling (my examples: #NCTMannual, #ISTE2016, #TMC16) My FOMO is dialed up even more right now as it is t...

Math is everywhere! As a math teacher, I feel like I'm thinking about math often. But there are some latest inspirations that keeps math on my mind ALL THE TIME. I see math in almost everything I do! My first example of inspiration is " Math Photo Challenge ," a summer photo taking challenge for math-minded Twitter peeps (not on Twitter? check out the website ). Each week there is a different theme/challenge. It's a great way to see the math in your everyday life. The collection of pictures from everyone is also great images to use in your classroom in the fall. You can show pictures and ask your students what they notice/wonder. Or you can use pictures for specific standards and ask students what problems they can come up with that match the image. I'm even thinking about how I can have my students use their iPads to take pictures with a different theme each week so they are inspired to see math everywhere just like I have been! Here are a few examp...

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 had the opportunity to contribute a guest post to Eric Sandberg's ( @ecsandberg11 ) blog, Your Instructional Coach . I wrote about some similarities and differences that I notice between teaching and coaching. It was fun to branch out and contribute to his coaching blog. I hope you take a moment to check it out!

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...

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! ...

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...

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?

If you are following along with the #D100BloggerPD, you know I'm third to post on the topic, "What Inspires You." Check out Post 1 and Post 2 from some great bloggers in my district! You can also follow the hashtag on Twitter as educators will be posting all month (9 in all) about this topic! One fun thing about this #D100BloggerPD is it gives bloggers that write about all different topics a chance to work together on a joint project. I blog about math, some others blog about literacy/reading, while others might be more general education bloggers. I love the idea that new readers might come across my blog and realize it's not *only* about math, or even that math isn't as scary as they thought! :) So while the topic is "What Inspires You," I am taking the opportunity to blog about what inspires me in math education . Many of my regular readers know about #MTBoS, in which case, you will just find this as a love letter to something you already know...