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.

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. 

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? ;)