One Little Word

I had never heard of the "one little word" concept until I saw it on Twitter today, but it apparently has been around for a few years. Instead of a resolution for the new year, I am going to choose one word to guide my professional life for the next year. The word I choose is ANIMATE. I want to make everything I present to my students, athletes, colleagues, and superiors come to life and inspire them to think and learn.

In the beginning of November, I was fortunate enough to attend the Miami Device edtech conference. The majority of teachers and presenters had elementary backgrounds, but their energy and ideas were amazing. I left with a ton of resources (flipped tools, augmented reality resources, classroom design ideas, etc...) and even more questions about how I could translate what I had learned into something that would reach the high school juniors and seniors that I teach.

Over winter break I was catching up on some reading and came across an article in the November issue of NCTM's Mathematics Teacher by Michael George. Michael compares mathematics instruction to storytelling in "Mathematics Teaching as a Narrative Art." I highly recommend this article to anyone who teaches math at any grade level.

So, combining the toolkit I brought home from Miami with Michael's ideas, I plan on creating my lessons (and anything else I may present) so they come to life and inspire kids to think about mathematics in a positive light.