I haven't blogged in a year. A lot has changed since then. In June, I finished my fourth and final year at Chelsea High School and in September, I started at Dearborn STEM Academy. As I reflect on my year as a teacher, the decision to leave the only teaching job I've ever had was … Continue reading 2016 – The Year I Switched Schools

I've fallen behind in the MTBoS blogging initiative, but my one day weekend turned into a four day weekend thanks to some well-timed snow, and it's time to catch up! This year, I have been preoccupied with how students forget so much, so quickly. This year, I am teaching AP Calculus, which means that I am … Continue reading What do you think when you see … ?

Grad School: Take 1 I essentially learned how to teach math by thinking about how to teach completing the square. In my high school methods class with Yolanda Rolle, I was paired up with two of my classmates (Mary Feeley and Amanda Miles) to prepare a lesson on completing the square which we would then … Continue reading My Favorite: Completing the Square

My school's new schedule splits eight periods into an A day and a B day with four periods each (plus advisory on Mondays and Tuesdays). My A days are very different from my B days; I teach two blocks on A days, and only one on B day. I decided to write about Thursday (which … Continue reading A Day In the Life

The school year thus far has been rather challenging. I have been constantly working and yet always falling further and further behind. Blogging felt like a vanity project that I could not afford to prioritize over lesson planning, grading, supporting other teachers, writing recommendation letters, and so on. But I worked hard over vacation, and … Continue reading #MTBoS 2016 Blogging Initiative

I recently saw this article, and I thought the "reason for despair" and "reason for hope" conceit was good food for thought to get me blogging again. This year, I find that I am constantly vacillating between hope and despair. Instead of talking about the state of education in general, I want to talk about the different … Continue reading Hope & Despair

A few months ago, I went to my first math ed conference: the NCTM Annual Conference, which was here in Boston this year. I really enjoyed myself, and I think I got a lot out of it. One session in particular gave me the final push I needed to change my teaching in three significant ways. … Continue reading NCTM Lessons: Randomness, Verticality, and Spiraling Activities

A few months back, I attended the NCTM annual conference here in Boston. I wanted to blog about every session that I attended, and while I'm trying to catch up on a bunch of blog topics from this year, I just haven't been able to devote the time and energy to write about every interesting … Continue reading NCTM Takeaways

Recently, Daniel Schneider posted this video of video game designer Edmund McMillen. In the video, McMillen talks through a few levels of a game, illustrating some of the design decisions that make the game intuitive, engaging, and challenging. I loved this video. I immediately watched it a second and a third time, thinking about the parallels … Continue reading Video Game Design

I haven't written a blog post in a long time. I've been some combination of sick and swamped for most of this school year. There are tons of lessons, activities, and challenges that I would love to talk about, and hopefully, I will find time to do some more writing soon with Thanksgiving and winter … Continue reading New Role, New Website, and Being Sick