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We are changing the way we do math!!!  We are working on implementing Illustrative Math next year.  We have had teachers pilot this curriculum and seeing more of our students talking and thinking about math!

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I love the ownership my students are taking in their learning. I am excited to get a new series and hopefully it will be geared towards everything we have been working on this year in IMLA!

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This has been an incredible growth year for me, transitioning to a problem centered approach to teaching. Using the different tools, protocols, and resources has expanded my personal tool belt and provided my students with a better learning experience. This was a challenging yet great year. Plan to continue into the next.

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This year, we have focused more on ways to get students thinking and collaborating, but realize we need help in these areas with the student's lack of social skills. We did some work with exploration tasks. We also did a lot of work with learning goal alignment and implementing district tests. Our goal for next year is to implement more collaborative practices allowing students to communicate mathematically.  We are going to continue to develop thinking tasks to use within the collaborative practices along with using anticipation guides to work on vocabulary building so that conversations will be mathematically correct.

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My students are demonstrating much better number sense and math flexibility since the beginning of the year. I plan on continuing and enhancing the use of what I classify as novel strategies with more intent for the next school year.

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Goals - To keep up with my group and implement what we have created this year with the rest of our buildings. Success - Working with my group of ladies has been wonderful. We do not see each other in person, but we are still able to share resources and help each other out. This will be a great team to consistently go back to to share what we have done.

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In my classroom I have been trying to facilitate meaningful mathematical discourse. One thing we have been focusing on is our math vocabulary. If the students can understand what the words mean, then they are deepening their mathematical understanding. So each time we have a discussion and the students don't use the mathematical terms, I always follow with "And how do I make that statement like a mathematician?" Then the other students will jump in and add in those math vocabulary words that we have been focusing on for that unit or lesson. Next year, it is a goal of mine to have ALL of the vocabulary words typed up with a picture next to them so that I can have them posted on my back wall. By the end of the year, I want to have created a giant word wall for the students.

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We have introduced more collaborative practices by putting desks in pods and asking meaningful questions to have students discussing mathematics in the classroom.

Our goal is to implement the collaborative practices even more and implement activities to assist in that process.

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I have switched the traditional bell ringer of just procedural type questions with open ended questions to allow students to collaborate, think critical about the question, and present their thinking.

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1. I've been successful at transitioning my procedure focused goals to learning goals that promote conceptual fluency. I have also placed a greater emphasis on mathematical language and I hear my students using math vocabulary appropriately. I introduced the concept of The Learning Pit and my students love it. It has really helped them persevere and enjoy the productive struggle of problem solving.

2. One goal I have for next year is to incorporate more open ended tasks that have multiple entry points throughout each unit.

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We have had some good progress with group discussions.

I want to forward this student teach sessions.

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Success: using conceptual and engaging questions to encourage more mathematical communication
Goal: continue to practice the above goal (especially to promote written communication) and to encourage the verbal discourse to be more conversational

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Success:  Better at asking questions and setting goals for lessons.
Goal For Next Year: Improve with assisting students with Productive Struggle...not helping too soon. This goes with the questioning that I am getting better at but still need to improve upon.

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It has been fun meeting and sharing ideas with the Edison Math Team on a weekly basis... They are just an incredible group of people and passionate educators. IMLA has given us a shared understanding and goal. I will miss them dearly next year when I move to the High School.

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Our goal for next year is to begin sharing the message with the rest of the four buildings. Success: my teachers in this group are amazing at being open to new ideas and ways of teaching.

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My students are doing a much better job communicating about math in productive ways and debating in ways that are respectful. I'm not hearing name-calling any longer! Next year I want to be more consistent in how frequently I'm doing multi-step, complicated tasks as opposed to more traditional kinds of instruction.

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I feel that my questioning to the students is leading to deeper discussions with them sharing their thinking.

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By doing some problems that have multiple entry points, my learners are gaining more confidence and starting to take risks.

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Surviving....
But also, had a lot of low performers and working on their confidence has definitely impacted their success!

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2022 has been somewhat thin on success so far, unfortunately.  Lots of snow days/illnesses/absences and having a very hard time motivating students.

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Glad to know about the Iceberg Model and the Keep Indiana Learning websites to help inform our curriculum adoption and discussions with new Admin

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Glad to know about the Iceberg Model and the Keep Indiana Learning websites to help inform our curriculum adoption and discussions with new Admin

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I had students shout out an answer to a problem we have been working on and they were different. Then I had the students discuss as a group why their answer was correct. This was so wonderful watching and listening to them. They did such a wonderful job. The students that got it wrong understood where they went wrong at on their own.

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I am an elementary Instructional Coach in Westfield and participated in IMLA last year. Spending time collaborating around math instruction with a team of teachers was a powerful experience. I am excited to spend a little time with this group of math leaders!

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We did "Which one doesn't belong?" to help students see that there may be multiple answers to a problem and how their justification to get there is different.  I followed it up with an open ended question from IDOE that had multiple answers.  They worked in pairs to come up with a solution.
Reflection: It was cool to see them solve the problem and how all the solutions were different. We checked each of their solutions to be sure they worked. It was a good learning experience.

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Success: I feel like I've been questioning students better and prompting them to share their thinking during discussion. Of course this is limited if I forget or am short on time, but these small moments keep me hopeful.

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Ugg! Problem solving is so difficult for these kids. They see numbers and they just want to put them together. Our district goal is to use CUBES across grade levels. I love when students circle key numbers and underline the question without being prompted. I give DOJO points to students with this and make a big deal of it!

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I've had students who consider themselves experts (high performers) challenge themselves and face some unknown problems and persist through multi-step problems

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Hello everyone, I'm Brandon Gleason and I am the instructional coach at the middle and high school level.  I am most looking forward to being better able to support the math teachers and to reinforce our math practices and strategies throughout the district.  Thanks!

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Received huddle boards unexpectedly.  Decided to use them on a Thursday problem solving day.  For about 15 minutes they actually were engaged.

I felt at the time the notion of regular sessions of problem solving were possible.

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I did an activity at the beginning of the year called the 100 number task. It had the students all working together to circle numbers 1-100 as fast as they can. It had the students engaged and all working together, and it was a good introduction to show how group work should work in my classroom. It was also a good introduction into how we should discuss things mathematically in the classroom.

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Students are starting to understand that their math classroom is a community.  They are constructing arguments and able to critique the reasoning of others. We have been focusing on the teaching practices and creating a culture will students feel safe to make mistakes and learn from one another.

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Although this is my first meeting, I have noticed that I worked on supporting a productive struggle. It was exhausting with students complaints about not knowing what they were doing, but after calming them and explaining that they may not know, they got to work. In introducing our Logic and Proofs unit, our first day was a group activity with the "L pattern task" to find patterns and make an equation based on the number of boxes that were added. I enjoyed the "math talk" amongst students and hope to continue similar struggles within future units.

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In Algebra 1, I used an open middle task for students to create a two step inequality with the solution of of x< 2.  You could use an numbers from -9 to 9 only once and the inequality started with ___x +_____ > 2.  It was great!  Students had to try several inequalities.  Productive struggle came with having to reverse the symbol in the answer and not being able to use the same number.  The students who figured it out felt so successful!!!  BTW, this was in an inclusion Algebra 1 class.

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All of my math students showed up for like a week straight!

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I feel like the kids are really engaged for 90 minutes since the learning is chopped into small increments. I am encouraged because I feel like I am maximizing instructional time and kids are realizing that they know more than they thought they do.

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Students were able to discover the exponent rules on their own using an inquiry approach that we hadn't used before. It was a fun activity that made learning truly fun and students were able to build concrete understanding of the rules.
It felt good. It was awesome to see the "lightbulbs" light up!

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To improve instruction, our LT is focusing on internalization, namely scripting Teacher actions/Student actions for the WTDs and strategies. There have been several "Ah-ha" moments for teachers as they realize the power of this and how helpful it is during lesson delivery.
Reflection: Even though I experienced the expected feedback, it was good to see teachers giving it a try and feeling the difference - experiencing the success. Many times, teachers found this helpful as classroom disruptions occurred, the scripting enabled them to get back on track.

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I use turn and talk with my students all the time to see what they are thinking and how they are learning the concepts.  It allows students to help others and then we have discussions and students can say I agree because... or I disagree because... and share their thoughts.  I believe it helps me to see what they are thinking and where to take my next steps in teaching.

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We've done I Can Statements for years; now they also want "Success Criteria." What Tasks/Goals will lead to accomplishment of the I Can Statement. I think it's good to have specific, understandable things for Students to work towards.

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Ted mentioned using huddle boards. Shortly after receiving them from the district, I had observed two of our math teachers jumping in and putting them into practice (not including Ted)

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Celebration: I have been giving students "investigation activities" to extend student learning.  I give them little directions and just give them time to process by themselves or with a partner. Many students will get the answers using different methods.

Reflection: This is helping me see if students can apply what they are learning to real world problems. It is also helps me see how they process information and can explain it themselves.

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My celebration is that my students are increasing their stamina in working out a math problem. I have replaced some traditional bell ringers with some problems that have multiple entry points. I have students share out the strategies they used for an entry point. Focusing on strategies instead of procedural type problems has been eye opening. I have students rate their stamina in working through the problem several times. Their stamina is increasing.

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1. I formed small groups targeting students with gaps in computational fluency. While all our students practice math facts using XtraMath, these small groups give us a chance to give students multiple strategies to add, subtract, multiply, and divide.
2. I had some students ask about the small group on a day they were not scheduled and they were excited to work together. It felt good to have students excited about learning math!

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When teaching integers, we used integer counters/chips and after an exploration lab students observed patterns and came up with the algorithm on their own! It taught me that with good scaffolding and questions students are more than capable of observing patterns and collaborating effectively.

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Celebration: my kids are getting better at persevering and reasoning their way through multi-step word problems.

Our schedule has changed this year, and I am loving the way I have additional time to mix up what we do each day and get deeper into thinking and reflecting.

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I have enjoyed focusing more on discourse this year. We had an easy math-based discussion on day 1 and have tried to build on it from then- encouraging mathematical vocabulary and communication.

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I was able to share the conceptual understanding of division to a coworker. This success made me feel successful as a math interventionist at our school because I was able to help another teacher with a strategy.

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I have been working on breaking down story problems using the strategy of C.U.B.E.S.
I have convinced about half of all of my 6th graders that it is helpful and not just extra work.

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Valuing Students Thinking - Using questions to understand students' thinking.  This helps me understanding where students are in their math process and can meet them where they are in their thinking.

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Colleen O'Brien, Edison MS.  Weekly Think-Notice-Wonder Writing Activity. All students share 1 of their statements.  I love hearing every student voices at least once a week.

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Colleen O'Brien, Edison MS.  Weekly Think-Notice-Wonder Writing Activity. All students share 1 of their statements.  I love hearing every student voices at least once a week.

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We used huddle boards and it went quite well!!! We used three different methods of finding GCF: List method, Prime factor method, and Cake Method.

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Heyo! I’m Logan Inman and I teach 7th and 8th grade math at danville middle school!
I’m looking forward to a normal(ish) year!

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I'm Maya Szymanski and I teach 6th grade math at Enlace Academy in Indianapolis. This will be my second year of teaching. I am looking forward to learning content that will benefit my students and school.

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I'm Maya Szymanski and I teach 6th grade math at Enlace Academy in Indianapolis. This will be my second year of teaching. I am looking forward to learning content that will benefit my students and school.

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During the summer…

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My name is Brad Lile and I'm an 8th grade Math teacher at Edison Middle School in South Bend. This will be year 18 as a teacher, mostly at the middle school level with some PreK-4 sprinkled in.

I'm most looking forward to sharpening my skills with remediation and differentiation in the near future.

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Math is and should be fun and collaborative!

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Hey! My name is Carly Bermes and I teach 6th grade math at Hanover Central Middle School. I am excited to learn new material to take back into my classroom. 

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Hey! My name is Carly Bermes and I teach 6th grade math at Hanover Central Middle School. I am excited to learn new material to take back into my classroom. 

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Good morning everyone! My name is Michael Budzinski, and I am the principal at Edison Middle School in South Bend.

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When your teachers thought they were being clear in their instruction...

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Hello! I am Kaitlyn Ramp and I am a first year teacher this coming year. I will be teaching Geometry and AP Stats at Bosse High School in Evansville, IN. I am looking forward to working with a new team and starting my first year!

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Hello! I am Kaitlyn Ramp and I am a first year teacher this coming year. I will be teaching Geometry and AP Stats at Bosse High School in Evansville, IN. I am looking forward to working with a new team and starting my first year!

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Teaching Math

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Good morning! My name is Katie Byler. I teach 5th grade math and language arts at Rossville Elementary School - entering my 5th year! I am looking forward to a post-COVID year with new students. I can't wait to see their smiles again!

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jrentschler@dekalbcentral.net
Just wrapped up my 10th year as an educator. I am currently an Innovation Coach working with K-8 teachers at DeKalb Central Schools. I most excited to start work with our middle school math teachers again after a 5 year hiatus.

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Matt Vince, Principal at DeKalb Middle School in Waterloo, Indiana.

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Matt Vince, Principal at DeKalb Middle School in Waterloo, Indiana.

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Looking forward to hearing how we can improve our math performance on ILEARN. For example, Our NWEA shows our 8th grade students need to score in the 75 percentile or higher to pass ILEARN. This seems incredibly high. Is anyone else seeing this correlation?
email: mvince@dekalbcentral.net

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My name is Chad Dennison, and I am the proud principal at Rossville Elementary School.
Excited to see where this venture takes us and how we can inform others at RES of best math practices.
I cannot wait to see my students and staff!!!

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Hi my name is Myssir Isa and I am going to be teaching Algebra 1 & Geometry at Hanover Central High School. I am excited to meet new people and learn new ideas.

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I am currently in my 5th year teaching at Dekalb Central High School. I have been teaching high school math, all levels, for 20 years. I enjoy interacting with students from the classroom to coaching sports.
I am looking forward to trying some new teaching techniques this coming school year.

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Hello!  My name is Ryan McGrath.  I teach 5th grade math at Hanover Central Middle School.  I am excited to start the year off in a somewhat normal manner!  

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Hello!  My name is Ryan McGrath.  I teach 5th grade math at Hanover Central Middle School.  I am excited to start the year off in a somewhat normal manner!  

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I am Tracy Slack. This will be my 22nd year of teaching. I teach 5th grade math and science at Danville Middle School. This will be my 5th year at Danville. I teach one class of regular 5th grade math and one class of high ability 6th grade math. I love to learn from others and share what I know. That’s what I’m most looking forward to this year and in this cohort.

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Hello, I am Erin Fee and I have been teaching for 8 years.  For most of these years, I have been teaching 8th grade, but I have taught most math subjects from 7th grade to AP Calculus.  I am excited to get back to seeing all the kids this year!

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Hello, I am Erin Fee and I have been teaching for 8 years.  For most of these years, I have been teaching 8th grade, but I have taught most math subjects from 7th grade to AP Calculus.  I am excited to get back to seeing all the kids this year!

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Hello!  I am Lisa Anderson, a 20 year veteran of education.  I began teaching in South Bend in 2004, previously I taught in Tennessee, my home state.
It is very exciting to work with such amazing people in this school setting!

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Hello! My name is Angel Hocker and I am new to the role of Director of Learning for Decatur County Community Schools.  I have worked as an administrator in both a high school/junior high and most recently, an elementary setting.  I am excited to learn along with my team of teachers from all four of our DCCS buildings. 

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Hello! My name is Angel Hocker and I am new to the role of Director of Learning for Decatur County Community Schools.  I have worked as an administrator in both a high school/junior high and most recently, an elementary setting.  I am excited to learn along with my team of teachers from all four of our DCCS buildings. 

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Hello, I taught 4th grade for the past 3 years and I am moving into the role of an interventionist.

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I am Kristin Anderson and I going into my 5th year teaching at Bosse High School in Evansville, IN. I love math, reading, and I am an avid crime junkie.
I am excited to meet new students this year and see how students I have had in previous years have grown.

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Hi! I am currently teaching Algebra 1 at North Central High School. I have worked in Washington Township for over 20 years in a few different roles.
I look forward to learning new ways to increase student understanding at a deeper level.

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Hello fellow educators.  I am Colleen O'Brien, 22-year veteran Math Teacher.  I am looping with the 6th Grade students from last year and rejoining my 7th Grade Team at Edison Middle School in South Bend, IN!

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Hello fellow educators.  I am Colleen O'Brien, 22-year veteran Math Teacher.  I am looping with the 6th Grade students from last year and rejoining my 7th Grade Team at Edison Middle School in South Bend, IN!

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Greetings: I am beginning my 5th year at Edison Middle School, teaching 7th grade mathematics. Although I have been in education for 30 plus years I am still enjoying working with children. My goal for this experience is to improve the academic outcomes of my students. After going through the pandemic experience I have been quite disappointed in the growth I have seen in my students and look forward to a refresh of pedagogy and methods to better help my students succeed.

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Hi I am Ted. I teach at Edison Middle School in South Bend, Indiana. I love traveling, fishing, the beach, reading and such. I want to get more creative in my instruction approach. Looking forward to learning, creating, implementing new strategies in my class this year!

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Hello! I teach 6th Grade at South Decatur Elementary School in Greensburg, IN. My hobbies are volleyball, softball, bond fires, and a love of learning new things. I am looking forward to learning/applying these new methods and strategies in my math class. Here's to a new school year.

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I love to read, but math has always been my favorite thing to teach! I love to empower and encourage kids who think they are not good at math or just don't like it, changing their outlook and turning them into math lovers!

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I love to read, but math has always been my favorite thing to teach! I love to empower and encourage kids who think they are not good at math or just don't like it, changing their outlook and turning them into math lovers!

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Hey there! I'm currently in Indianapolis in my who knows what year of education....I am the K-8 Math Specialist for Enlace Academy. I'm looking forward to a fabulous year with actual in-person students. We have new team members and new ideas. This is going to be a great year!
I love baseball and spreadsheets :)

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Starting my 9th year of teaching at Bosse High School in Evansville, my interests are Geometry, Astronomy (science in general), History, Politics, movies and cycling. I've been a high school swim coach, and (picture) Math Team getting 2nd at State was a highlight.

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Robin Fricke

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Hi! My name is Denisha! I am a third grade teacher at Rossville Elementary School! I live in Kokomo, IN with my husband, our 2 year old son, and our goldendoodle, Lucy. I travel to my school about 45 minutes each morning and afternoon. I love where I teach, so it's worth the drive! This upcoming year will be my 7th year of teaching third grade at RES. I absolutely adore the grade I teach. I am looking for more opportunities for student engagement as well as incorporating math centers in my instruction. I am looking forward to this course! :)

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Denisha Howell

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Cambria Jones

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I'm Cambria and I teach 7th Grade Math at South Decatur Jr./Sr. High School in Greensburg, IN. I love llamas, tacos, learning Spanish, and National Parks and I do my best to incorporate those topics into any word problem I create in my classroom. This fall I will start just my second year of teaching. Starting teaching during a pandemic was chaotic and overwhelming, and I am looking forward to calmer waters and better routines this upcoming school year! I am looking forward to trying out/learning different ways to engage math students in critical thinking and perseverance in problem solving which are skills that go beyond the math classroom. My classroom tagline is: I am a good mathematician!