Rush Hour Conversations

8 Aug 20227 Aug 2022

The highway was crowded. All four lanes crawled slowly northward, each car taking its turn to move a few precious feet before slowing and stopping. Idling. I must have read…

Chelsea

25 Jul 202225 Jul 2022

If you walked past my classroom, you could smell it from the doorway. In fact, you could smell it from slightly down the hall, past my students' cubbies, almost to…

100 Posts

20 Jul 202220 Jul 2022

This post is the 100th on my blog! 🎉 With all due respect to any of you beautiful and talented people reading this, I write this blog, first and foremost,…

Jeni

12 Feb 2022

https://twitter.com/ddmeyer/status/1492240147693326336?s=20&t=U7ocVNde45CfduzletMjjw Dan Meyer tweeted about professional influences. There are any number of people in my life deserving of public tribute -- dozens if not hundreds of amazing educators to which…

Crime and Punishment: A Tale of Changing Beliefs

26 Jun 202028 Jun 2020

"Man is what he believes."-Anton ChekhovWhat happens when those beliefs are unintentionally racist -- and never examined? This is a story of how I changed a belief I once held…

Cultivating Mathematicians… of All Ages

21 Nov 201921 Nov 2019

Original published for @autismplusmath 's Guest Blogger Week at: cake.co/c/kyVnSVj"I mean, you know... I'm not a math teacher," said Jessica*, who teaches Kindergarten. She didn't whisper this confession in an…

A Tribute to My First School: The End of the Beginning

19 Jun 201928 Jun 2020

Yesterday, my First School closed. It was the school that took a chance on me, where an optimistic principal hired me -- a green, green 21 year old -- to…

Keeping a Straight Face

9 Aug 201810 Aug 2018

This is my contribution to the Convention of Mathematical Flavors organized by @samjshah2. He put a call out for presenters to ponder the "mathematical flavor" of their classrooms How does your class move…

We Need to Talk About Crazy Barb, or Throwing Skittles at a Problem

28 May 201824 Jul 2020

A NOTE: While I changed her name and a few minor identifying details, this is essentially a true account. I know it sounds strange -- because it was. This is not…

Doris

23 Jan 20188 Sep 2020

A student from my first ever fourth grade class -- now in his 20s -- contacted me on Facebook today. He was glad that I remembered him. "u and mrs…

The New Kid

16 Oct 201712 Feb 2022

In a nutshell: my district offers a fellowship grant each year for six teachers to spend a (paid) week writing about teaching over the summer. I am never fully certain…