I really am a Desmos Fellow!

 I just got back from the Desmos New Fellows Orientation in Dallas, and it still hasn't quite sunk in that I
am now a part of this group of educators!

This week I learned that the Desmos Calculator was "born" in 2012 and I have been trying to think back to when I first came across Desmos & started using it. The furthest I seem to be able to go back to is an email to my principal at the time, at my current school, back in April 2016.

Like I said earlier, it still hasn't suite sunk in that I am part of the Desmos Fellows Cohort 7. I know I will have more to say about this later on, but for now, I think my biggest takeaway is the connections I have made with other passionate math educators from around the country who love to support students in math classrooms as they learn and love incorporating technology to improve the teaching and learning process. I also got to fangirl over & socialize with some of my favorite math social media educators, like Fawn Nguyen & Benjamin Dickman!

Every single person I talked to these past 48 hours welcomed me, taught me something, encouraged me & inspired me, whether they were a new Desmos Fellow like myself, or they were from an earlier cohort, or they worked at Amplify or Desmos! We did math together, we shared stories about our classrooms, we enjoyed some very delicious food & beverages, and my heart is just so full!

I cannot wait to get some time to process it all, after I take some time to rest for a bit and enjoy my summer (we are only in week three of our break here in NYC after all and between the MfA Summer Think last week & Desmos Fellows this week, I am looking forward to enjoying some time "vibing" with my two kids.

Hello from Texas!

 The 2024-2025 school year ended a little over two weeks ago. Since cleaning out my classroom for our last day of school in late June, I have gotten a hair cut, taken my kids to our local pool five times (which is no easy feat when your kids are two & five and the pool is a 30 minute walk from home). I have had lots of ice cream and read five books just for fun. In addition to all of that, last week I attended my seventh MfA Summer Think conference. The theme this year was "Spontaneous Sparks: Embracing Growth & Innovation in Teaching" and I attended some fabulous sessions on making math visual via problem-solving summer camp, queering my classroom (supporting LGBTQIA+ students) and love languages in the classroom. All the sessions & connections were inspiring! Currently, I am coming to you live from Dallas, TX at the New Desmos Fellows Orientation! It is quite fitting that my last post on here in January was about applying to be a Desmos Fellow again. I had applied last year and didn't make it, but low and behold, on Pi Day, I found out that I was selected for the 2025 cohort! 

Fast forward to today, where I am an hour away from kicking off orientation with 30 other new Fellows! Aside from the MfA Summer Think, I had never presented or attended any sort of teaching conference (despite teaching for almost twenty years). I had some reservations (I am not a fan of flying, and I have never been away from my two kids for an extended time... mom guilt is so real!) but I accepted, booked my flight and was on my way to Dallas before sunrise this morning. I am proud of me for pushing myself outside of my comfort zone and trying something new that will help me continue to grow as a math teacher. 

Like Chilli, my brain hasn't quiet comprehended this idea of "relaxing," not that I am here to relax, per say, but being in another state (1500 miles away) and not having to be the main person responsible feeding/entertaining/keeping alive two other small humans is unusual. It wasn't easy saying good bye last night, and I cannot wait to hold them in my arms again, but for now, I am going to enjoy my time as a Desmos Fellow and am looking forward to the next day and a half!

Desmos Fellows Application 2025

Very proud of myself for submitting my Desmos Fellows application for 2025 this past week. I had applied last year but did not make it. I have been using Desmos activities for years and specifically the 6th - A1 curriculum the past two years and love it. I have heard nothing but great things about the Desmos Fellows program (especially from other MfA teachers) and hope to be a part of the community. Similar to the MfA reapplication process, the questions really made me think about my goals as a math teacher and how I hope to grow. Hopefully this weekend I can share out some of my responses, but in the meantime, here is my application video, sharing some of my favorite Desmos features. 

My Goals for the 2024-2025 School Year & the TRU Framework

For the past five years I have used an idea from Math Equals Love and have written out teacher goals for myself before the start of the school year. Seeing as we are officially halfway through this school year,  wanted to share mine for this year. This year I have six big goals & tried to align them to the TRU Framework which is "a framework for characterizing powerful learning environments in crisp and actionable ways. It provides a straightforward and accessible language for discussing what happens (and should happen) in classrooms... TRU is consistent with what we know to be good practice; and it focuses classroom and administrative attention on what counts in learning."

My Goals for the 2024-2025 School Year

1. I want all of my students to feel welcome in our class community. (TRU: Agency, Authority & Identity)
   
   
2. I want to get better at using the Desmos curriculum (pacing, individual/pairs/pairs sharing…) so that we maximize our class time & all students feel appropriately engaged and engage in productive struggle. (TRU: The Content)
3. I want to use equitable grading practices (TRU: Equitable Access to Content & Formative Assessment)
4. I want to use authentic, engaging math tasks that promote inquiry and problem solving so that all students engage in math in a way that pushes their thinking and deepens their understanding and makes them curious & motivated to learn more. (TRU: Cognitive Demand)
5. I want to incorporate some computer science practices into my classes and have students do at least one cross-curricular project.
6. I want to continue to use Class Dojo to share with families the work that students are doing in class.

You can check out all of my goals and action steps here. Now that I have shared them, I would love to do a formal check-in about how they are going and how I plan to revise or recommit to them for the last twenty weeks of the school year.

Not Enough Time

Back in January 2021, I came across this article, Instead of Saying "I Don't Have Time," Say "It's Not a Priority". As a mom of two young kids, who also works full time as a teacher, I constantly feel like there is never enough time. Simply rephrasing " I don't have time" won't magically make more time, but it can help me be more realistic about what I practically can and cannot do, and pausing and being more reflective (both on here on in general) is something I would like to work on in 2025, so here I am making at least some time to pause and write on here (even with my almost 2 year old on my lap). 

I just finished reading Stolen Focus, and I related to a lot. Particularly this year I find myself reaching a point, where  my brain actually cannot process another piece of information, both at work and at home. It's a little scary to reach that point, but I am trying use that awareness as a sign that I am doing a lot and actually must slow down. Any working mom or teacher (or both) knows that there is always more to do. 

And with that being said, it's time to get dinner ready, give my kids baths and get ready for the work week ahead. Did I get everything done that I want to (nope). But maybe I can try again tomorrow.

Big Ideas from Applying for my Third MfA Fellowship

I just submitted my application for my third MfA Fellowship, and yes, I was listening to "Defying Gravity" as a did. Here are some of the big takeaways from reflecting on the past eight years, being a Math for America Master Teacher:

• Formative Assessment Lessons and the Teaching for Robust Understanding Framework are amazing resources for great math tasks and powerful learning environments. I first learned about these resources thanks to my first MfA Fellowship and actually had a lesson that I taught recorded.  Since then I have used the TRU Framework when planning out my big overarching goals for the school year.
  
  
• The Desmos curriculum is such a powerful tool for students to explore rich, deep, meaningful mathematics and aligns so well with NYCPS's math shifts.
  
  
• Being a part of the MfA community these past eight years has been a major reason why I have stayed in the classroom. I started teaching math in September 2007, right out of college, as NYC Teaching Fellow. I have two masters degrees, and several teaching certificates, but nothing has compared to the community that I am a part of in MfA. Teaching is true profession and great teachers are always learning. Excellence comes out of deep collaboration and growth and teacher accountability should be complex. MfA honors greatness, which honors the profession. 

I hope to share parts of my third MfA Fellowship application more in depth in the coming weeks, but for now, I need to celebrate my application being done, get ready for the teaching week ahead, and enjoy the rest of the weekend being mom. 

Next up, applying (again) to be a Desmos Fellow, because why not try defying gravity? ;)

Math for America III (Hopefully)

Back in 2016, I applied for a Math for America Master Teacher Fellowship. I made it to the interview stage, but ultimately did not get in that year. I was disheartened to say the least and wasn't sure if I would even try applying again. Lucky for me the Living Environment teacher at my school (who had also not gotten into MfA in the past) encouraged me to apply again the following year, and the rest is history.

MfA Master Teacher Fellowships require re-applying every four years, so here I am in the process of reapplying for my third Master Teacher Fellowship, and just like when I was reapplying for my second fellowship back in 2021, I am humbled by the application process, in a good way. 

Good teaching requires not just being knowledgeable in content but in being a reflective professional. MfA believes that teaching is a true profession, great teachers are always learning, excellence comes out deep collaboration and ongoing growth, teacher accountability should be complex, and honoring greatness elevates the profession. The mere process of re-applying the MfA always forces me to critically think about my core values as a math teacher in New York City Public Schools. I hope to go more in depth into sharing some of my responses in this year's application soon, but for right now, I just want to say how grateful I am to be a part of Math for America. Being #MfAProud these past eight years has allowed me to grow in so many ways and I hope to continue learning and growing as an MfA Master Teacher for the next four years.