2012 Year in Review...

It's so hard to believe that December 31 is here! This is a look back to some of my favorite moments of the year...

2012 started out fairly quiet as I prepared to say goodbye to my graduating AVID seniors after 3 years together. One of the highlights of early 2012 was going to the T3 conference in Chicago and chilling out with my bestie, @approx_normal, at the Statistics Symposium and both of us met up with @cannonsr for some authentic Chicago-style pizza.

Once I was home from Chicago, the school year ended well. We had a very mild winter, which meant we even got out of school with zero snow days! Then the craziness of summer started! The first trip of the summer was to Kansas City for the AP reading and I had the pleasure of meeting up with @mathheadinc and her husband. They were the ultimate KC tour guides, treating me to some traditional KC BBQ and showing me some of the MANY fountains of KC.

June was also the month that introduced me to Pinterest as a teaching tool and ultimately lead to the beginnings of #Made4Math Mondays. Thanks to @pamjwilson and her encouragement, #Made4Math became one of my most favorite events of 2012. It was simply amazing to watch the creativity being shared by math teachers over the past 6 months. It would be almost impossible to narrow down my favorite posts from the #Made4Math initiative, because every single post was amazing and sparked ideas that just kept growing!

Just a few weeks later, I was again at a workshop, but this time it was Twitter Math Camp in St Louis. I wrote about TMC12 here, but words cannot explain how amazing it was to be surrounded by 30+ of the most amazing math teachers out there. Memories such as @approx_normal running to find (and tackle) @samjshah or @jreulbach and @jamidanielle breaking out into song (on a regular basis) or @approx_normal standing on a trashcan to (almost) reach @mseiler's upraised hand or making origami stars at dinner with @rdkpickle or enjoying a quiet evening in the executive lounge with @gwaddellnvhs and @aanthonya. There are so many more memories, but I don't want to bore you! :) Needless to say, it was an awesome week with awesome friends and I can't wait to repeat it at TMC13!

During TMC12, @samjshah led a session on the math-twitter-blog-o-sphere, which resulted in a website to help math teachers new to our online math department, as well as a 4-week "New Bloggers Initiative". This program allowed new math bloggers a way to get their name out there as they answered new prompts each week. By the end, we had many new online colleagues in the blog-o-sphere.

Also during TMC12, I was introduced to Interactive Notebooks (by @mgolding) and Foldables (by @jreulbach). Both of these helped transform my classroom this fall and I am forever grateful to Megan and Julie for their guidance and encouragement. Several other people at TMC12 also helped my classroom, particularly those that shared during one of the "My Favorite..." sessions and the resultant #MyFavFriday blog posts. Thanks to all of you for having such an impact!

Honestly, after having a simply amazing summer, I was so excited for the new school year and ready to tackle the new challenges. The year has been more challenging than I expected, but even while feeling discouraged, there were still amazing things happening around me. This fall saw the introduction of #GlobalMath, an online professional development project headed up by @mgolding. Every Tuesday night, math teachers congregated to learn from their peers about a variety of topics. I wasn't able to participate as often as I would have liked, so I'm looking forward to increased participation in 2013.

As you can tell, 2012 really was an amazing year - and not just because the Mayan calendar ended! Can't wait to see what 2013 brings!!

(PS - I would have liked to share my favorite blog posts of the year, but I'm too afraid that I would leave someone out on accident! So, here's my compromise... if you want to know my favorite posts, go back and read all of the #Made4Math posts :) Those people are my teaching heroes! I appreciate that each of them took the time to share their thoughts, ideas, classroom tools and strategies. I know that *I* am a much better teacher this year because of #Made4Math participants!)

Made4Math - Week 24

Don't forget to submit YOUR #Made4Math post HERE

Here are today's submissions:

@tbanks1906 - What I have done the past few weeks

@misscalcul8 - City Design Project

Bree (@btwnthenumbers) - All The Things

Beth - mid-year reflection: student insight

Made4Math - Week 23

Don't forget to submit YOUR #Made4Math post HERE

Here are today's submissions:

Beth - Transformation in Context

@mathequalslove - Point-Slope Form Foldable

It's Friday!!! and a short apology... :)

Yay!!! Friday is finally here! I am SO ready for this weekend! I need time to sleep, catch up, and get my bearings again.

I feel horrible for not posting much lately, other than the #Made4Math and #MyFavFriday collections, but this school year has majorly kicked me in the tail. To add on to it over the holidays, my car had to go into the shop to have the fuel pump replaced (who would have thought that leaking fuel was a bad thing???) and my roof has to be replaced. Nothing like major expenses during the Christmas season! :) The car thing really irks me because if you search for my car model and fuel pump, you get page after page of "recall" notices... but not for my specific VIN, so GM won't cover the repair. *sigh* Thankfully, my stepmom was able to lend me her car for the week, so I've still been able to have transportation. *silver lining*

I have several posts for #Made4Math ready to write, but simply no time to write them. When the "Day in the Life" inititative was going on earlier this month, I tried for several days to track my activity, but every day by 9am, my list was already long and I got overwhelmed and gave up. This entire semester has been like that :( I am juggling as many balls as I can, but no matter what, something ends up dropping :(

But, even in the midst of craziness, good things are happening! I enjoyed spending time with my family and I am reminded on a daily basis of the blessings in my life.

All that to say... I'm so ready for life to settle down! :)

Happy Friday and happy weekend to all!

My Favorite Friday - Week 18

Don't forget to submit your post HERE

@_CindyWallace_ - Bloom's Taxonomy and Technology Guide

Made4Math - Week 22

Don't forget to submit YOUR #Made4Math post HERE

Here are today's submissions:

@wyldbirman - Systems of Equations

Beth - Mixed Practice Equations of Lines

Fouss - Precalc Stations

@luvbcd "Middle School Math Rules!" - Tackling my Printables TO DO list

@misscalcul8 - Unit Plans

Made4Math Monday - Week 21

Happy Thanksgiving!!! I hope all of you have very safe travels and enjoy an amazing time with your family and friends :) During this time of giving thanks, let me share how much YOU mean to me. When #Made4Math was started this past summer, I don't know that any of us could have dreamed of how well it would be received and how much effort people would put into their creations. It has been simply amazing to see the resources that are shared every week and the creativity that goes into each and every post. Thank you all for being supportive of #Made4Math! As @samjshah pointed out the other day, this has been a heck of a year for the math-twitter-blog-o-sphere and I'm so proud to have played a part in it. Have a wonderful week!

Don't forget to submit YOUR #Made4Math post HERE

Here are today's submissions:

Beth - Point Slope Form

@misscalcul8 - Piecewise Functions and Cup Stacking

@sqrt_1 - Dry Erase Practice Folders

@tbanks1906 - Made4Math: Homework Help - Smartboard...