New Year's Eve 2024 (Almost)

As I get ready to wrap up 2023 and think about what I want to bring into 2024, a couple of ideas come to mind...

Being a teacher mom of two, who also happens to be an introvert, is hard work. You are always needed by someone. There is always a to-do list for work/home/life. You are rarely ever alone (although sometimes it can feel quiet lonely). And because of the constant overstimulation, even when you do get a moment to yourself, it can often be hard to get actually something done because your brain doesn't know how to focus. It feels like a million things get started, but very little actually gets done, and when you are physically, mentally & socially exhausted at the end of the day, it's easy to feel like a failure.

I do want to give myself credit. What have I done this year? I birthed a healthy new human, while taking care of another, very active, little human. Both of these humans are amazing people and even though they exhaust me, they are by far, the best things I have ever done in my life and I am humbled that I get to watch them grow and get to be their mom. The older of the little humans is such a cool person - she loves pre-k, she has earned a blue belt in taekwondo, plays soccer, does pre-ballet, and has the biggest heart and silliest personality. The younger little human is the smiliest person I know and makes my heart explode. And when those two little humans interact, my world is complete. 

I have also read 81 books. I have completed 222 BODi workouts. I have walked 1,766 miles (at least) this year. I completed my 16th year teaching math in NYC Public Schools & my 6th year as a Math for America Master Teacher.

Two quotes that have really stuck out to me lately are: 

• "If nothing changes, nothing changes. If you keep doing what you are doing you're going to keep getting what you are getting." - Courtney C. Stevens
  
  
• "You can't edit a blank page." - Jodi Picoult

This time last year, I knew that 2023 was going to shake things up in my life and that there was going to be a lot of things out of my control. I feel a slightly more sense of calm going into 2024 (as calm as moving from the infant to the toddler stage can be at least).

I have been wanting to journal/blog more. I also finally bought a 2024 Commit30 Planner and One Line a Day 5 Year Journal. I am also looking forward to reading Four Thousand Weeks as the Bad on Paper Podcast January pick.

I know it will be hard, but I want to make more time for me in 2024. I want to surround myself with good people and things that make my heart full.  I want to be present & laugh while I play with my children. I want to be joyful while doing math with my students. I want to make happy memories with my family & friends. I want to feel productive without feeling overwhelmed. I want to laugh. I want to be organized. I want to be intentional about acknowledging gratitude. I want to read good books and listen to good music. I want to not be afraid to start because "You can't edit a blank page." I want to not feel guilty for taking care of my own needs. I want to breathe. I want to be the best possible mother/teacher/me. I want to grow. I want to be proud of who I am & the choices I make. I am work in progress. 

Happy (almost) birthday to me & cheers to a joyful 2024!

Bringing Taekwondo Into My Math Class

This summer, my 3.5 year old started taking taekwondo and as a mom it's been amazing to watch her practice, grow & have fun. It has also been inspiring, as a teacher, to watch her classes & her teachers as they teach, so much so that I wanted to write down some of my thoughts on here, as we begin to (slowly) get ready for the next school year.

The first thing that is evident in every single class that she has participated in is that the students and the teachers are having fun. There is joy! There is seriousness! There is laughter! There is learning happening! Every single class also has multiple teachers (two sometimes even three or more) and at various times in the 30-40 minute lesson, there are whole-group activities, small group activities, teachers moving between different groups, sometimes one-on-one practice happening and even though it is clear to everyone who is what color belt, there is no stigma in being a "lower belt" and it is just lovely to watch. As a parent and as a teacher, I so appreciate the magic that is happening! Students progress is celebrated. There is always clear instruction happening. Students are not told what they can't do, but rather they work toward what they can do. Just the other day, a student was doing something other than what the instructor was focusing on (my daughter's class consists of 2-4 year olds so focusing is something always being worked on), and the master turned it into an activity that the whole class would do and thanked the student for thinking up this drill. There are belt tests and ceremonies and not one single standardized test or bubble sheet to fill out. Every lesson really is just lovely to watch.

I want all of my classes to be that next year! I want fun. I want joy. I want seriousness. I want growth. I want laughter. I want learning to happen. Every. Single. Day. I know that there are differences. There are some things that really are beyond my control - class size, content, etc, and teaching Algebra 1 to 8th graders is not the same as teaching taekwondo to toddlers, but good teaching pedagogy is good teaching pedagogy, and I want to be the best teacher that I can possibly be! So, what can I do?

As I begin to plan for year seventeen in the classroom, the themes that I keep being drawn to are joy, fun & laughter. It is so easy to get bogged down by the million little things that make our profession hard - lack of time, lack of resources, lack of respect for our role as professionals... but no job, especially teaching, is sustainable if we cannot find the good in the everyday. I want to think more about ways I can bring the same energy to my math classes because I want joy. I want fun. I want laughter. I want growth. I want learning. Every Single Day.

What I Read This Month - June & July 2023

My favorite form of self care as a teacher and as a mom is reading. I love reading for fun but I also love reading to learn new things. Apparently I forgot to share my June & July book lists to here they are, as well as my five-star reads from each month, in no particular order:

Top June Books:

1. How Do I Un-Remember This?
2. Stories From The Tenants Downstairs
3. Fourth Wing

Top July Books:

1. Yellowface
2. The Better Half
3. Banyon Moon

In July, I also surpassed my Goodreads 2023 Reading Challenge goal of 52 books, which I am pretty proud of. I've done this challenge every year since 2015 and I hope to match (or surpass) last year's total of 100 books, but we will see. 

As I was walking around doing errands yesterday (and probably listening to the Bad on Paper Podcast (which I highly recommend if you are a reader) I was thinking about what is it that I like about reading so much and here are a few of the things that I came up with:

• I love all the lives & places that I get to explore and be a part of in books
• My over-stimulated mom brain loves the sense of peace and quite I get when I read
• I love having a small goal to read one chapter (or even one percent) and meeting that small goal every day
• It's relaxing & fun to me
• It gives my introvert-self something to naturally talk about since I am always reading something new

So far I have finished two books this month and neither have wow-ed me, but I am really liking my current read and am pretty sure that it will be my first five-star book of August. Happy reading!

Teacher Summer Camp aka the MfA Summer Think, Part 2

Like almost all of the teachers & moms that I follow on social media, I cannot believe that it is already August. Luckily here in New York City we still have more than a month of summer break left. I didn't want to much time to go by before reflecting on the rest of my MfA Summer Think experience. 

My first splash session was on creating our Teacher Bucket List. Not only was the session being facilitated by the amazing Brian but the description had me hooked right away - "Close your eyes and envision your perfect lesson. Eliminate all limitations placed on you by your school, administration, the DOE, and just dream. What are students doing? What are you doing? What does the room look like? Are you even in a room? What do you feel? How do the students feel? This workshop will make space to explore such imagining. Join us in rethinking our teaching, classroom, schools, and careers possibilities. By dreaming big, together, we will reflect on what matters most to us and create our Teacher Bucket List: a list of things we want to accomplish as a teacher before leaving the profession. The list will be concrete and aspirational, and get us to imagine what could be beyond what’s in front of us. It will reflect what matters most to us and the teacher we hope to become in the years ahead. All are welcome."

Check out my list on the right, which I have already started to use as I begin thinking of my 2023-2024 goals, which I hope to write about in the coming weeks before the new school year starts.

My second favorite splash session was on KenKen Meditation & Exploration where we did KenKen together & talked about ways to use it with our students.

My other splash sessions included How to Color War Your Classroom where we did summer-camp-like activities & games that we could use with our students to infuse camp joy into our classrooms and as someone who has never gone to summer camp, I loved the vibe it gave me and was inspired to try some new things in my advisory this upcoming school year.

Lastly, for my last splash session, I broke out of my algebra comfort zone & connected with my geometry roots in Fun with Flags! where I used a compass, ruler & Desmos (always) to play around with geometric constructions, which is something I do not do a lot of as an Algebra 1 teacher.

In addition to all of my sessions, some of my other Summer Think traditions included getting stamps in our Summer Think passport, starting our days together as a whole community and practicing mindfulness, doing math together and meeting new people in the MfA community, MfA pizza (obviously),and closing circles and ceremony. Considering that this was my 6th Summer Think, I also signed up to (potentially) help plan out next year's Summer Think, which I think would be a nice way to step up my MfA Summer Think game. Lastly, on a side note, our Deep Dive group has reconnected together via What's App because we had gotten so close over our three days together, which is just another reason why I am #MfAProud and so lucky to be a part of the amazing community of STEM teachers.

Teacher Summer Camp aka the MfA Summer Think, Part 1

Growing up, I had never been to summer camp. I have, however, participated in the Math for America Summer Think every year since 2018. The Summer Think is a three day conference every July, affectionally known as teacher summer camp, and this year's Summer Think was probably my favorite yet! The theme of this year's Summer Think was Exploring the Joy in Teaching & Learning and I can say with certainty that every single session I attended not only made me think & reflect on myself as a teacher & as a learner, but every single session did indeed, bring me joy.

The Summer Think is set up such that there are community activities, multi-day deep dive sessions, mini splash sessions, social hours, community time, circle time and, of course, pizza. As typical with MfA, I wanted to sign up for almost everything, but alas, I don't have a time-turner. I wanted to take some time today to reflect on my sessions, seeing as they are still fresh in my mind, so hopefully I will try my best to get my thoughts down, while my son currently naps next to me.

Exploring Our Identity as an Act of Resistance, Celebration & Joy

My three-session deep dive workshop was probably the highlight these past three days. Originally, it was my second choice, but I am so grateful that this was my workshop. Our time together centered on exploring our identity and making connections to anti-racist and anti-oppression work. Some of the ideas we explored were safe vs brave spaces, check-ins community agreements, collective values, circle practices, ice breakers, story telling, and freedom thinking. The facilitator was wonderful and truly the group of fellow MfA teachers that I was with made our time together magical. We laughed together, we cried together, we shared our stories & listened to other's stories. My biggest take aways from our time together was that at the heart of the math that I teach, are the human beings that I get to share ten months with every year. I already do circle work with my advisory, and this workshop reminded me how important that time together is. After only three days together, I became so much closer to the teachers in my group, which is part of the magic of the MfA Summer Think and none of us really wanted our time together to end. This deep dive was a big part of what made this year's Summer Think probably my favorite one yet & I am so grateful to be a part of this amazing community of STEM teachers who not only appreciate our content, but understand the deeper part of what it means to be a teacher.

Well, my son just woke up from his nap & I have to pick up my daughter from summer camp soon,  so it looks like I will have to stop here for now, but I hope to reflect on my splash sessions sometime next week, because they were also joyful and a big reason why the MfA Summer Think is one of my favorite parts of being #MfAProud

Here were my splash sessions, which I hope to write about next time...

Teacher Bucket List

How to Color War Your Classroom

KenKen Meditation & Exploration

Fun with Flags!

Going Back to Work: Teaching & Mom-ing

Seven weeks ago today, I gave birth to my second child. Two weeks from now, I will be back at work. Granted, it will only be for one day (the last day of school) so I really can't complain... well actually, as a working mother in the United States, I most definitely CAN voice my thoughts on how high the expectations are for working mothers are in this country. Ironically, earlier today I came across this Time article by Kristin Gallent of Big Little Feelings & this tweet from Katie Gutierrez:

At 4 weeks postpartum I was: sleeping 3 *nonconsecutive* hours a night; breastfeeding every 2 hours for at least 30 min a session, so about 6 hours a day; and bleeding through everything I wore. If men did this, the whole fucking world would be structured around parental leave.

— Katie Gutierrez (@katie_gutz) October 28, 2021

Last week my daughter also had her first remote Zoom class of the year due to the Canadian wildfires and I got a tiny taste of parenting school-aged children during Covid, and no wonder moms are burnt out.

Yes, I will have to go back to work for the last day of school, in order to be put back on payroll for the summer and to clean & pack up my classroom and officially wrap up the 2022-2023 school year. It is also my daughter's last day of 3K and the first day I will be leaving my son with the same woman who watched my daughter when I went back to work back in January 2020.

Like last time, I am both looking forward to going back because being a math teacher is a big part of my identity, but I am also sad to leave my infant. Luckily being a teacher means I do have summer break (which teachers 1000% earn and deserve) so I will still get two more months with him before I have to figure out how to do this teaching and mom-ing thing with two children.

Right now, we have a good routine going and I although I do miss my students, I am so very grateful to not have to lesson plan, grade & do the hundreds of other things that teachers do in June. September 2023, like January 2020 will be another learning curve for me. My daughter will be starting pre-k at the same school she is currently in luckily, my son will have to be dropped of at the wonderful baby sitters apartment every morning, which is in the opposite direction of my daughters school and my school will actually be starting 20 minutes earlier, at 8:30 am, next year.

I completely acknowledge how lucky & privileged I am that: (1) I am able to walk to work, (2) my daughter has a spot to go to for pre-k at a school I am happy with that has after school care options, (3) the woman who watched my daughter and will watch my son is amazing. But I am stressed out about finding our rhythm and balancing it all. The fresh start of September is one of the reasons I love teaching, but it is exhausting, and balancing teaching (and the million things that come with being a teacher), being present as a mom (and the infinite things that come with that), and taking care of my own needs, it will be a lot to manage.

Right now, I will try my best to enjoy the time that I do have with my kids (both my children and my students) and take things one step at a time. It's not going to be perfect and it's not going to be easy, but I will find a way to make it work because that's just what moms (and teachers do).

Math for America: Year 6

This year is my sixth year as a Math for America Master Teacher. Last week I attended my last two sessions of the school year (a single session course on writing in math class & the last Thursday Think of the year with Peter Liliedahl). I am also signed up for this year's Summer Think next month, which I always look forward to!

Since I am home on my parental leave, I wanted to take some time to reflect on my MfA courses this past school year:

• Book Club: Mathematics for Human Flourishing: I have participated in this book club for a few semesters now and always grateful because it makes me remember the heart of what it means to actually do math - the human-ness of doing math. Definitely a must read!
• Establishing & Maintaining Cogenerative Dialogues: This PLT probably had the greatest impact on my classroom this year because as a result of these sessions, I actually started up a cogen with some of my homeroom students. The experience overall was really positive. We consistently met every Tuesday during lunch and I feel like I got to really know these students in a meaningful way. I really hope to continue to run cogens in my classes nest school year. I even got to bring my ELA teacher counterpart to one of our sessions, which was awesome.
• Developing a Math Tools Center That Works: These sessions were a good reminder about the benefit of using manipulatives & other math tools in my classes.
• Co-teaching in Inclusive Secondary Math Classrooms: This was another course that I was able to bring one of my colleagues to, which was great because she & I co-teach together and one of our school's core values is inclusion. 
• Delta Math Plus: I got more comfortable with Delta Math features. I mean I already knew Delta Math was amazing, but it's always fun to get the chance to play around with it more.
• Under Construction: Building a Thinking Classroom: After reading Building Thinking Classrooms and leading a single session on it last spring, I was excited to dig into it some more with some awesome teachers. Even though I was only able to attend two of the sessions I was inspired to try more with BTCs next school year. Initially I had started using some of the practices back in 2021-2022, but didn't really use them much this year. Like I said earlier, also getting to hear Peter Liliedahl speak at last week's Thursday Think was really inspiring
• Mathematical Modeling in Middle School: This was a good course since mathematical modeling is a big part of the high school Next Generation Math Standards.
• Writing in Math Class: This was my first session post baby #2, and it felt great to be back at MfA. I liked this single session course because a goal of mine to to have my students write more in math class (even though I am not a fan of grading writing). I was introduced to the PBAT math rubric, which I would like to incorporate into my classes somehow next year, if possible.
• Info Session Host & Small World Network Mobilizer: This year I also got to share my MfA experience with potential MfA applicants during an info session & was also able to be a SWN Mobilizer, which I always enjoy doing because it makes me feel more connected to the MfA community at large.
• Lastly, I am looking forward to this year's Summer Think, who's theme is exploring the joy in teaching & learning.

This was also my second year asa NYS Master Teacher, although I did not do as much as I would have liked with it, I hope to participate more in the upcoming year.

What I Read This Month - May 2023

This blog originally started off as a way to reflect on my math teaching, but has evolved (at least for now) to include my thoughts on being a mom of two and my love of reading - all things I consider a big part of my personality.

As long as I can remember, I have enjoyed reading for fun and going to the library. Understandably there have been periods of my life where I have done more or less reading, and since 2015 I have participating in the Goodreads Reading Challenge. The first few years, as a young-ish adult, working full time, I read about 20ish books a year, and have slowly increased that number to 40ish books in 2018 and 2020 and then 80ish books in 2021 and 100 books last year. I set my initial goal for this year to read 52 books and will likely reach that goal sometime this summer, and set a second goal of 101 books (because except for 2019, when I had my daughter, I have always read more books than the previous year). 

For me, reading is my self-care. I don't really watch much TV and I love when I come into contact with another book lover. I currently read on my Kindle Oasis and follow several book clubs: The Gloss Book Club, Reese's Book Club, Read with Jenna, Spivey's Book Club, Bad on Paper Podcast, Target Book Club, GMA Book Club, Read with MC, Oprah's Book Club, Literary League, BookClubish, Mindy's Book Studio, as well as some local book clubs.

I wasn't sure how having baby #2 would impact my reading time, but I am happy to report that one month in, I am going strong (thank you parental leave). My five star favorites this month (in no particular order) were:

1. Did You Hear About Kitty Karr?
2. Adelaide
3. We Are Not Like Them
4. The Mostly True Story of Tanner and Louise 
5. The Echo of Old Books

Here is the complete list of my 2023 reads so far.

Math Dispositions, Norms & Habits of Mind

What Math Is... And Isn't

One of my takeaways after reading Necessary Conditions last summer was what math is... and isn't from chapter 2 (page 18):

• Mathematicians persist through challenging problems.
• Mathematicians communicate their ideas as clearly as possible.
• Mathematicians don't always get the answer.
• Mathematicians are creative.
• Mathematicians try several approaches to a problem.
• Mathematicians encourage each other.
• Mathematicians find beauty in their work.
• Mathematicians find meaning in their work.

I liked this breakdown of the dispositions of what it means to be a mathematician. During the first week of school I had asked students what they thought mathematicians do and then shared this list with them. My goal was the use these as guiding statements & practices throughout the year. I will admit, they weren't used as much as I would have liked, but I think they are important and I hope to use them more meaningfully in my classes nest year.

Math Norms

After I shared these with students, we discussed our math norms, which I modified from Sara Van Der Werf:

• We do math every day (also from Math Equals Love)
• Make your thinking visual
• Solve multiple ways. Make connections.
• Convince me

This was my first year using these norms and I think they do a great job of encompassing what I want my students to be doing every single day, no matter the content or activity. 

Habits of Mind

Lastly, this school year teachers in our district read Students At the Center and attended professional development on incorporating the Habits of Mind into our classes. We had used the HOM at my previous school, so I was familiar with them, and wish I could have done more with them, but unfortunately wasn't able to this year. I did give my students a survey in the middle of the year about which habits they thought were most important in math and to explain why they chose what they did. Overall, their top three were: thinking flexibly, striving for accuracy & persisting.

Overall I would love to have these discussions next year, but want to find a way to be more student centered, rather than just a brief discussion and then telling the students the dispositions, norms & habits. I would also love to really extend these ideas beyond September - I did have posters with the norms up all year and would refer to them, but I would like to do more with them in the future.