Email Templates - #MTBoSBlaugust Day 6

 

Do you ever have one of those moments where you wake up in the middle of the night with an idea that you think is brilliant?  Sometimes the ideas really are... sometimes not... and sometimes you can't even remember them in the morning!

Today's idea came to me this morning as I was laying in bed reading and I truly had one of those "why have I never thought of this before?!?!" moments! 

Okay - so here's my idea... Email Templates!

I like to communicate with my students and their parents on a regular basis, so I utilize our gradebook Mass Email option a lot.  But until this morning, I had never thought of capturing those emails as templates to use over and over again instead of reinventing the wheel each time!

So once I sat down at my computer this morning, I went to Google Drive and started a new folder called Email Templates.  Then I made Google Docs for each of the emails that I would send throughout the year.  Finally, I went through last year's Sent Email box and copied the emails to paste into the G-Doc.  Thankfully this didn't take forever because I've only been at my school for one year! :)

As I use each one of these emails, I can edit in Google Docs, then copy/paste into our Gradebook Mass Email system!  

Hopefully this will save me some time this year.  One of the comments that I received multiple times in May from parents was how much they really appreciated the constant communication as teenagers are not always the best at telling their parents about upcoming events!  I'm sure there are others who were annoyed by my emails, but if it helps just one student, then it's worth it!

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If you are interested in joining in the #MTBoSBlaugust fun, here's a post with some prompts to help you out!  The idea is just to blog / micro-blog during August to help us focus and reflect on the year ahead.  Please tag your post on Social Media with the hashtag #MTBoSBlaugust so we can support you in your blogging journey!

My Favorite Friday - #MTBoSBlausut Day 5

 

Y'all, I've already messed up on my Blaugust plans!  Every year, I have hoped that I could get every day in August and every year, I have failed.  But that's okay!  What's important is that we get up and try again!!

Yesterday was our first 1/2 day back at work, then we report again on Monday.  I honestly thought I would come home and work on my pacing calendars and take some time to blog about what I learned yesterday at our ACT training, but I just wasn't feeling it!  Instead, I grabbed my Kindle and did some reading.  Why do today what you can put off 'til tomorrow, right? :)

In honor of the Friday, I am doing a My Favorite Friday post!  Years ago, at Twitter Math Camp, one of the best parts of the day was the "My Favorites" where people would get up and share 5-10 minutes of something in their practice that was a favorite.  From there, it turned into some blog posts to share just little blurbs of things you've enjoyed over the week...

My Favorite #1 - My Course Schedule!

Check it out!  I get to teach Stat again!! :)

I had taught AP Stat for 21 years at my own school, so one of the first questions I had for my new school was whether they had a stat program (NO) and if not, could we start one? (YES!)

So when it came time for enrollment, I knew I would have a few interested in taking stat, but when I received my rosters today, I have *25* enrolled in a non-AP Stat course!  Wowsers!

My hope / goal is to build the program this year and maybe next year be able to have both an on-level and an AP Stat course, but I'm so excited to be teaching Stat again!  I started mapping out my curriculum this week and I think it's going to be a really fun class.  I've never taught non-AP, so it will be some trial and error, but it's nice to know that I don't have a test looming over me in May!

The rest of my schedule is pretty nice as well - I have 3 Honors Geometry classes and 2 on-level Geometry classes.  It's going to be a good year!

My Favorite #2 - TI's new printables!

Have y'all seen the most adorable new freebies from TI (Texas Instruments)?  

Printable Stickers

Printable Posters

Printable Coloring Sheets

Now, don't get me wrong - the hold that TI has on the market has me just as floored as every other math teacher out there, but I am a sucker for cute things and the positive affirmations that go with math / calculators are just the cutest.  I might have already printed some of them for my classroom! :)

What have been some of your favorites this week?

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If you are interested in joining in the #MTBoSBlaugust fun, here's a post with some prompts to help you out!  The idea is just to blog / micro-blog during August to help us focus and reflect on the year ahead.  Please tag your post on Social Media with the hashtag #MTBoSBlaugust so we can support you in your blogging journey!

Planning out the Year - #MTBoSBlaugust Day 3

 

Back to school is RAPIDLY approaching and summer is winding down.  In general, I love our school schedule as it provides a lot of days off, but tomorrow is our first 1/2 day of PD, then we go back on Monday for staff meetings and kids come next Thursday!  In fact, kiddos were at the school today picking up their schedules, so it's official - summer is pretty much over!

Sadly that means it's time to focus!  

Today's big goal was to sit down and start looking at the nitty-gritty of lesson plans.  I don't know how other people plan, so I thought I would share my process...

First goal - Make a calendar!

Years ago, I found a calendar similar to the one pictured on the right online, but that site went away at some point, so I had to make my own.  It's okay - that allows me to use shading for our days off.  You'll notice the boxes aren't huge - this is just a "big picture" calendar and not meant for a lot of details.

Second goal - Block off even more days!

Now that I have my calendar set up and printed, I usually mark off the days that I know for sure won't be used for content - you know, those first days of school when you are setting up procedures and the days at the end of each semester for final exam review / finals.

Third goal - Figure out pacing!

Now it's time to look at my curriculum and standards and kind of give myself a general goal of each unit / chapter.  For example, Unit 1 might take ~3 weeks, so I'll mark U1 ------> for the first 3 weeks and continue on.  Of course, you are working around days off and trying to get through a certain number of units before the semester ends.  This isn't a daily schedule, this is just based on the order of topics and a general guide based on your district's curriculum map / textbook suggestion.  I usually build in an extra day or two for each unit / chapter because we all know that things happen and we need to budget flex time for things like fire drills, teacher absence, or even just needing an extra day to practice a concept.

Finally...

Now that I have a general guide for one of my preps, it's time to repeat it again for the other preps!

Getting the big picture in mind really helps me with some of the anxiety of back to school and gives me a roadmap for the semester.  After that is in place, then my brain is free to focus more on some of the day to day details of the first couple of weeks.

How do you plan out your year?  

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If you are interested in joining in the #MTBoSBlaugust fun, here's a post with some prompts to help you out!  The idea is just to blog / micro-blog during August to help us focus and reflect on the year ahead.  Please tag your post on Social Media with the hashtag #MTBoSBlaugust so we can support you in your blogging journey!

Blogging and Collaboration - #MTBoSBlaugust Day 2

 

I started blogging in 2008.  I remember early in my blogging journey that I would come home from work and open up my blog roll to see the newest posts by math teachers around the world.  I would read and learn something new almost daily.  To say the MTBoS (Math Twitter Blog-o-sphere) has had a profound impact on my life and career would be an understatement.  I have met some of my dearest friends and grown professionally because of this amazing online community.  I am blessed with colleagues locally that I met as a result of the MTBoS and I have friends across the country / globe that I turn to on a daily basis.

When I look back at old blog posts, I am sometimes hit with a profound sense of loss.  I don't always recognize my own voice and I can see moments of extreme growth in the times when I blogged regularly.  I was able to reflect and process my daily lessons as well as get feedback from teachers around the globe.  I would read about other people's struggles and triumphs on their blogs and use it to fuel my own creativity in my classroom.  As time went on, the blogs died down, many are no longer in existence and so many of the bloggers I followed left the classroom.

I read - a lot.  I always have a book in my hand, although it's usually on Kindle in today's world.  I have a huge professional library and used book stores are some of my favorite places in the world.  In the spring, I ran across a series of 3 books on Kindle Unlimited and this quote from Lean Lesson Planning really stood out to me:

How true is that?  

Now don't get me wrong, if you get a group of teachers together, they will start talking about school.  But how much of that discussion is centered around the content we teach and why?  I know we often have those hallway conversations about how to approach topic or a quick discussion about pacing, but for me, this was an area where blogs and Twitter helped fill the gap.  Why do we teach about triangle centers?  What is the best order for Right Triangles?  

Collaboration is vitally important, especially in the world we live in now.  Time with our families and self-care are priorities for many of us, but we also want to be able to create those moments for our students.  Having a collaborative team to help spread the load is more important now than ever.  

For those of us who teach in a small school, collaboration in our local community might be more difficult.  Thankfully, we are not limited to just the people in our hallway - we have the power of the internet in our hands!  

I'm grateful for the conversations and connections that Social Media has provided me over the years.  One of my goals this year is to get back to blogging and reflecting daily, to build those collaborative networks, and to spend more time sharing practices with others.  As a friend of mine often says... "We are better together"

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If you are interested in joining in the #MTBoSBlaugust fun, here's a post with some prompts to help you out!  The idea is just to blog / micro-blog during August to help us focus and reflect on the year ahead.  Please tag your post on Social Media with the hashtag #MTBoSBlaugust so we can support you in your blogging journey!

My Word of 2022-2023 - #MTBoSBlaugust Day 1

 

It's August 1.... I don't know how this year has flown by so quickly, but it has!  The past few years have been a struggle for all of us as we have learned to cope with the effects of a pandemic, both at home and in the classroom.  Pre-pandemic times both seem like it was a very long time ago, yet also like no time has passed at all.  Teaching in a pandemic has been difficult and I know I was not at my best.  However, a new year is ahead of us and it's time to get back to being a reflective learner and teacher, so #MTBoSBlaugust is back to help us get back into the groove!  You can read more of the details on this post - we would love to have you join in the fun!

My Word of 2022-2023

A few years ago, inspired by @pamjwilson, I started coming up with a word of the year to help guide me in setting goals.  While I usually do a personal word for the calendar year, I also started doing a "teacher word" to help guide me during the school year.  Several years ago, Pam sent me the beads to make a word of the year bracelet so I would always have that visual reminder on my wrist.

My word for 2022-2023 is Moments.

I've known this was going to be my word since January 2022 when I read the book The Power of Moments by Chip and Dan Heath.  While the Heath brothers do not write specifically for education, many of their books have  great take-aways for teachers and The Power of Moments was no exception!

Here are some of my favorite quotes from the book as it related to education:  

"Even though high school students log more time in the classroom than anywhere else, their most memorable experiences rarely take place there."

"A math professor said, “I want them to think of math as fun and interesting in its own right, not just practical. . . . When they see a link to a math story, I want them to click it.” "

"How much of your current syllabus will advance your students toward the dreams you have for them?" 

"A few minutes can change a life. These moments didn’t just happen; thoughtful teachers made them happen." 

One of my favorite examples in the book is about a hotel at Disney.  It's not the fanciest hotel, but it has the Popsicle Hotline.  You can call in and order your favorite flavor of popsicle, which is delivered on a silver platter by a white-gloved employee at no charge.  Moments like that doesn't take a lot of extra work or effort, but can elevate an average hotel stay to something that is memorable.  

In the classroom, we can do the same thing.  We can take those worksheets and elevate them using a game.  We can use some of those application problems and actually DO the experiment or gather the data and see what happens.  As the professor said in the quote above, we can make math fun and interesting for our students!

So this year, I am challenging myself to make moments for my students - to make the math meaningful and memorable.  I want to help them make connections, to be proud of their accomplishments, and to elevate some of the ordinary into the extraordinary.

#MTBoSBlaugust is BACK!

Y'all, August is TOMORROW!  That means it's time again for the #MTBoSBlaugust blogging challenge!  It's been months since I have blogged, so I'm very grateful to @pamjwilson for getting the ball rolling for this year's challenge!

What is Blaugust?

Well... years ago, hubby decided he was going to blog EVERY DAY and has now been blogging every day for like 9 years or something.  He decided to challenge his online community to try it for one month and I decided to give it a shot.  (I should mention here that I've never successfully completed the challenge...)

Obviously, as teachers, time is short in August as we prepare for a new school year and blogging often falls by the wayside.  We would love for you to join in, so feel free figure out the platform that works best for you and try it out!  Maybe it's a traditional blog like this one, maybe it's a micro-blogging platform like Instagram, maybe it's some other platform that I don't even know about.  But ultimately, the Blaugust challenge is about personal reflection and sharing ideas with others in the community, regardless of platform choice! :)

The Rules:

The rules are pretty simple... all you need to do is blog or micro-blog!  :)

Maybe your goal is to post every day, or other day, or weekly, or to write at least 10 posts this month... whatever it is, you can do it!  My personal goal will be to blog daily, but I'll be honest - that's been my goal MANY times and I have YET to achieve that goal!  But it's okay - blogging once is better than not blogging at all, right? :)

Whatever platform you use, we would like to encourage you to use the hashtag #MTBoSBlaugust on Twitter, IG, etc so we can find your post and cheer you on!  

The Prompts:
Note:  These prompts are NOT required, it's just a brainstorming list to help you on those days when you don't know what else to write about! :)

1. How I teach / do ______ (INB, unit organizers/dividers, VNPS, VRG, BTC, topic of choice)

2. My Favorite “rich problem / task”

3. My favorite "rich problem /task" resource(s)...

4. Sharing an idea I learned at a PD event this past year

5. Something new I plan to try this year…

6. How I use ____(tech app of choice) in my classroom

7. Share a lesson that uses tech (Desmos AB, Geogebra, applets, etc)

8. Write a post related to pandemic teaching.

9.  I want to grow as a #teacherleader this year by… 

10. Share your #MTBoS Photo Challenge photos (#MathPhoto22)

11. Go on a “math walk” - take a photo to share with us… What do you notice? What do you wonder?  How could you use this photo in your classroom

12. How do you handle homework / daily practice?

13. Self-Care…  how to make it a priority?

14. Math Makeover - Take a traditional question/problem to solve and make it better.

15. My favorite go-to ____(Online resource, book, blog).  Share an idea of how you have utilized this source.

16. Something I struggle with as a teacher/in the classroom. 

17. How I used something unexpected in my classroom to… 

18. #made4math - Create something you can use this semester, such as a tarsia puzzle, question stack, game, card sort, etc.  (Or share one you have previously created)

19. #myoneword - What is one word that you can use to focus your energies this year?

20. What is your favorite quote?  How can you share/use it in your classroom?

21. How do you handle Parent Communication?  What has been successful for you?

22. Tell us about a favorite activity/lesson that makes you jump for joy when you get to use it.

23. Shoutouts!  Give a shout-out to a former teacher, a colleague, or someone in your school or community who is a difference maker.

24. Time Capsule - revisit an old post and reflect. If you are new to blogging - find a post on this day from the past on someone else's blog-read, share, reflect.

25. What’s a practice you keep doing year after year? Either something that works great or something that maybe needs examining. Why do you keep doing it?

26. What’s the one thing in your school year you’re most looking forward to? A lesson, a unit, a field trip, a school tradition

27. Fav [math][ed] book read and take aways for 2022-2023 (and beyond?)

28. Favorite non-ed book you've read so far this year!  

29. What's on your reading list?

30. How do you support struggling students?  What intervention strategies have you used?

31. Observe yourself!  Record your lesson using your phone in your pocket and use it to reflect

32. A peek into my classroom - show us your classroom or describe a typical day / hour

33. A Day in the LIfe  (#DITL)

34. Letter to my first-year teacher self…

35. Tell us about your first day plans!

36. How do you develop a positive classroom culture?

37. What would you like to Start doing this school year?  What would you like to Stop doing?  What would you like to Continue doing?

38. What are your best organizational tips?

39. My classroom “must-haves” are...

40. Be the Change… what will you do this year to impact the culture of your school and/or classroom?

41. What is your focus / theme / mantra for the year and why?  (Quote / Saying / Song?)

42. What are your favorite formative assessment strategies?

43. What is your Professional Goal for the year?  Your Personal Goal?

44. What are your biggest classroom pet-peeves and how do you do handle them?

45. #Read3 - Share 3 blogs (or blog posts or tweets) that impacted you

46. Tell us about you!  (20 facts or ABCs?)

47. What are your New School Year Goals or Resolutions?

48. What’s your “One Good Thing” for today?

49. #MyFavFriday - Tell us about your favorite moments of the week!

50. What do you do on parent night / open house?

51. What’s the toughest challenge you face as a teacher today?

52. How do you support / encourage colleagues?

53. What makes you/your classroom unique?

54. What are you most proud of in your school community?

55. What makes your community so special?

56. Three things on your bucket list.

57. What's something/someone you want to celebrate from last school year? Maybe it's something "that kid" did or said…

58. What is your school mascot? Describe a fun event / tradition in your school.

59. #teach180 - Share a photo from your classroom and tell us about it

60. What I did this summer….

#MTBoSYuleBlog - One Word Challenge for 2022

 

One Word Challenge for 2022

Winter Break is coming to an end and like so many years before now, I will not have met my goal of 12 posts, but that's okay!  If you've been reading along, I appreciate you!  This blog is meant as a reflection tool and journal of my teaching journey.

Today is the first day of 2022.  The end of 2021 brought some sadness as we said goodbye to our last Golden Girl - Betty White.  The Omicron variant has us all wondering what Winter 2022 will bring, but in the midst of the unknown and the sorrow comes a new beginning.  In my devotion today was this quote:

"Every single day of our lives we get a new set of twenty-four hours to be the people that God calls us to be."

I think that sometimes we forget that new beginnings don't just happen when the calendar turns over, but they can happen every single day.  Don't get me wrong - there's something magical about a new calendar / planner page - a new time of possibilities and choices, but that is also true each day as we start anew.

For the past several years, I've joined the One Word Challenge, where you choose one word to guide your year.  In 2021, my "calendar year" word was Joy and my "school year" word is Lego.

For 2022, my word is...

2021 took me to new places - in 2022, I want to explore those new places, create new opportunities for learning and growing, and just enjoy the ride.  The past two years have taught us that the future is unpredictable and that each day is precious.  

(Source:  Google Images)