Professional Learning for Busy Educators

So what’s the secret? The MAGIC answer? The COOL tech tool that will automatically give my classroom the fun, joy, and happiness that can grow thriving students? Quite simply, it’s you, me, the teacher.  Find the joy in yourself, in your work, your students, then find as many ways as you can to share it. All of the ways I do it work for me, but may not work for you. Actually, they work because I have refined my strategies with each year I teach (going on year 22). There are failures. Learn from them. Every teacher must find the joy they have for what they do and share it. Here are my tips:

It’s difficult to be a teacher today. Between covering all the state standards, preparing students for state testing, conducting data analyses of student learning and our own progress as teachers, and providing evidence for evaluations, we have a lot on our plates—and I didn’t even mention preparing lessons, let alone teaching them. It’s even more difficult to be a teacher of mathematics, that being a subject that students rarely find interesting and engaging. However, I’ve found some techniques to make math joyful and interesting to students, while still covering the standards and adhering to all the mandates of education today.