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.  

Quick 2023-2024 School Year Reflection

It is officially the first Monday summer break, which is lovely! School ended last Wednesday and boy what a school year it was. It's crazy to think that I have taught for 17 years now. I still so clearly remember counting down the weeks/days/minutes until I was no longer a first year teacher, and now here we are. This year was a rough one, mainly in the trying to balance a full teaching schedule with a full mom schedule. I was constantly behind in planning & grading this year and with the Algebra 1 regents being so early this year, I was both mentally, physically & emotionally checked out for most of June.

This year was my first full year being a teacher and a mom of two and like in "The Pursuit of Happyness," "this part of my life is called running." I will acknowledge that I hasn't in as bad of a place as Will Smith's character, but quite literally, I spent a lot of time this year running... running to work after dropping off my daughter at school, running from work to pick up my kids. This was the school year of no time to breathe because I would get to work, and have to be in front of students. Luckily I had a really lovely homeroom first period every day, which made the chaotic transition easier, but man, as a introvert, with no time to pause & breathe, it was rough. 

I did want to share some updates about the school year overall (and since I only have a few minutes before I have to wake up my son from his nap & pick up my daughter from summer camp, they will be brief, but I do (hope) to expand on them later on...

• Once again, being a part of Math for America really made a direct impact on my classroom practices, specifically in playing math games. I participated in a PLT on the book Math Games with Bad Drawings and had a lot of fun playing games with my students. My personal favorite is Teeko, but we also played The Con Game, Dandelions, Sprouts & a few others. 
  
  
• Speaking of MfA, I am excited to participate in the Summer Think again next week, which is also an inspiring three days of learning and reflecting. This year I will even be leading a splash session on team building for the first time. In addition to the Summer Think, in August I will be part of a cohort of teachers in a CSEd Program, where I will learn to teach Computer Science Discoveries through Code.org. This will be totally new for me, but I am excited to learn something new and to try it out with my classes next year. Next school year I will also be co-facilitating a PLT on FALs at MfA again, so lots of new things happening.
  
  
• I wasn't totally happy with how my Memory Makers elective turned out this year. The yearbook wasn't bad, but I don't think it was our best work. This was my seventh year running this elective and I am always in awe that we are able to make it happen, but I feel like I could use some more structures in planning so I signed up for Camp Yearbook later on this month, which I hope will help with that.
  
  
• I loved using the Desmos 6-A1 curriculum, especially for Algebra 1, for the first time this year, but there are definitely some things I would like to do better next year, in terms of pacing and overall lesson delivery. It is not confirmed yet whether or not we will be using it next year, but I really hope we do.
  
  
• With the Algebra 1 regents being new this year, the test was super early, and I have not gotten any results yet, even though I think my students did finally get their scores. I am curious to see how they did, but I am nervous, with it all being new this past year.

That's all I have time for right now. I haven't had a chance to look at my student end of year survey results, so hopefully I will have a chance to look at that and then reflect some more on here later on this week. I also have to pick out a summer book to read about math teaching, since I always try to read at least one book on teaching during the summer... maybe I will get some ideas during the Summer Think next week?