Annie Forest

Hey, Annie, where have you been? I do have a pretty decent (in my opinion) excuse for my lack of blogging lately. I had my second kiddo, Dean, on May 22nd. For some reason my kids like to be born about two weeks earlier than their due dates. So, although I wasn't due until June 6th, I decided to start my maternity leave on May 17th because I was starting to feel uncomfortable, it was difficult to get around, and I just had a feeling that my kid was going to be born soon. And, call me crazy, but I didn't want my 6th graders remembering me as the teacher whose water broke at school! My maternity leave will continue throughout the summer and for the first 10-ish weeks of school. I'll be back in action late October. Until then, I do hope to keep up with blogging. It's been tough the past few weeks, but I do have some ideas that I want to write about. I have been able to keep up with Twitter because it's easy to scroll through on my phone during a 3AM nursing ...

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,...

Here is my criteria for what makes good mathy activities for the end of the school year: -no/low tech (we have 1:1 devices, but the last few days of school usually mean all devices are turned in) -still incorporate math or problem solving in some way -fun and engaging video credit:  http://sci-toys.com 1. My favorite activity is one I've done every year. Kaleidocycles . When I first starting doing them, over 10 years ago, I had to figure it out on my own. Now, there are tons of online tutorials (check youtube) to explain how to color, fold, and glue. You can also check out my blog post about making these . Kid love them, trust me. It's been my go-to activity for the last two days of math class for years for a reason! :) 2. 5x5 Game. Check out Sara's blog post about the rules . She calls it "the most amazing game" and I trust her judgement. :) I haven't tried it yet, but I'm leaving it as sub plans for the last days of school becau...

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! ...