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Farewell to 2020: Another Ode to Desmos and the #mtbos

 I tried to blog every month this year, but remote learning and grad school classes kept me from it. How fitting is it for this school year that I waited until the absolute last day of the year to write my final blog post?? We can all agree this was a weird year. There were days where my anxiety levels reached the highest points they ever have. I think I have officially had every physical symptom of anxiety that exists this year. But I know that overall, I had it pretty good in 2020. My family and I stayed healthy, we found ways to stay connected, and I was able to spend lots of time with my husband and dog. I also learned a lot about my biases and my privilege this year, and I'm thankful for the ways I was challenged to work on these.  When I think back on this year, I can't imagine how much different it would have been without twitter. I love how teachers came together to support each other this year. And without the many teachers I have the chance to collaborate with, I can
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Why I'm LOVING portfolios in my fully remote classroom

 I meant to blog in August but, you know, school started and all of that! We are starting fully remote.  I could not have been prepared for how different, awkward, and exhausting online learning would be. The energy during class is extremely different than when you're in a classroom, which makes my portfolios that much more needed.  Some background: 1:1 with chromebooks this year 6 periods this semester Periods 1-3 M/W from 9-12 Periods 4-6 T/Th from 9-12 The afternoons are for asynchronous work time, teacher office hours, small group intervention, and extra AP blocks.  Fridays we have advisory, an all school meeting, and will have time for clubs to meet. Daily Plan: Each morning I post a "Daily Links" google doc (thanks to my twitter friends for this idea!). The students open it before class. This helps us bypass the "no live links in the chat on chromebooks" issue 🙄 We start the class with a warm up problem that I screen share. The students respond in the ch
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So You Want to Try an Asynchronous Number Talk?

A few weeks ago, I saw conversations about number talks on twitter and I thought, "How can I incorporate these asynchronously in a distance learning model?" Then, like magic, I came across a webinar from  Achieve the Core  and decided to sign up. During the webinar, Bethany Lockhart Johnson demonstrated how she used Flipgrid with her kindergarteners by having them record their answer to a problem, and then she would create a summary video where she pointed out different solutions and strategies and she shared that with her students. Check out her post about it  here . I was inspired by Bethany's idea, and I thought, this would work perfectly for an asynchronous number talk! I have used flipgrid in the past, but only a couple of times and not with many kids at once. So I put out a call to the #mtbos to help me out, and they delivered! I created a topic with a number talk using visual patterns (I got this idea from Sara Van Der Werf, check out the blog post  here ). I asked
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July 2020: Creating a Class Website

At this point we all agree that we will inevitably  have at least some of our students learning virtually this year (or at the very least, absent from our classrooms for an extended period of time).  Our school hasn't decided what school will look like in August yet, but I want to be prepared. We will be one-to-one this year, so I plan to use our chromebooks often. One of my goals is to find ways to improve my online teaching experience from the spring. We used google classroom at our school. Overall, I think it's great. It's easy to use, you can schedule assignments ahead of time, and giving feedback is a breeze. However, there are some things I didn't like about it: Not being able to have important information pinned on the stream Being overwhelmed by all of the documents and information on the classwork page (even when it was organized) Not having a central place to post important links to things we used often Thankfully, our school required us (and paid for) all of
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May 2020: The One Where We Wrapped Up The School Year Over Google Classroom

I can't say that I have necessarily missed my classroom during all of this. There are no windows, the desks are hard to group, it's crowded. My makeshift desk at home has a window next to it, a furry co-worker, ample bathroom breaks and time to eat vs. inhaling my food at lunch duty. My makeshift desk, complete with my fav candle, cold brew coffee, and my airpods #essentials But what I miss (and what most of us miss) is the conversations. While filling out my end of the year reflection evaluation, I had a hard time deciding what to put. My goal for this year was to encourage conversation among my students and teach them how to work together in groups and explain their thinking. I wanted to dive deeper into the #ThinkingClassroom model. I finally got my AP on board to see what I was trying to do.                       Some of my students working in #VRG earlier in the semester on our #vnps Then COVID happened. It isn't feasible to expect our students to complete synchronous
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April 2020: Five Things I've Learned About Myself During Emergency Distance Learning

I think we can agree we've all learned a lot about ourselves right now. I'm fortunate. My family is healthy. We are able to work from home. We have fairly little responsibilities right now. My dog is ecstatic that he gets multiple walks a day. We get to cook and bake much more often. We have time to work on our house that we bought last year. As often happens during times of change, I've learned some things about myself. It is possible for me to stay awake past 11:30. (I actually hate it though. I'd rather get up earlier and go to sleep earlier. I'm working on that, if anyone has suggestions...) I need my students and colleagues. I crave social interaction all day and my husband has zoom calls and work to do. I'm sure even my dog is getting annoyed with me. I miss hearing about my students' weekends and chatting with my department in the hallway during passing periods. (I still don't miss lunch duty. I will never miss lunch duty). I have starte
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March 2020: An Ode to Twitter (and My #MTBOS Community)

Today is day two of virtual learning, and I am already feeling restless, a little skeptical, and a little claustrophobic. I have always struggled with anxiety and transitions. In this time of unknowns, my mind continuously races. Will I get sick? Will my family members get sick? Will my students continue learning? Will we ever go back to school? When will things go back to normal?? I am somewhat of a homebody, but being trapped in my house has me feeling claustrophobic. Thank God for my husband, my dog, and FaceTime! Clearly my dog, Theo, is excited to be home and snuggle with us for the foreseeable future :) But the thing I'm most thankful for during this time of chaos is twitter and my #mtbos community. Last year, I made a twitter looking for ideas about how to get my students to practice more, and I found SO much more than that. I can't describe the ways this twitter community has changed my teaching practices for the better. But even more than that,
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