Jumping in Feet First!

The leap has been taken and I am vowing to blog throughout this year as I journey through re-designing yet another curriculum. In the past it has been computer focused: Web Design, Computer Programming, AP courses, and various others. Last year I made a HUGE change in my life and moved out of the suburbs (and away from a really great teaching job) to relocate my son and I back to my hometown area. We are living in central Illinois now at a smaller school and where I have switched departments. Teaching math full time this past year was great, but a huge eye opener. Having taught elective courses for years and math courses only sporadically, my students were always interested in the classes I taught and had chosen to be there. With math, this is not the case. Blessed with teaching freshmen, I at least have an opening as the transition to a new school leaves them a little unsure and I pounce on that moment of weakness to try and draw them into my mathematically world. I have avoided the blogging world in the past, not because it lacked content, quite the opposite in fact. I was worried about being drawn in to the point of obsessing. There is so much to see (read?), ideas to explore and people to converse with that someone with my limited self control may struggle. To avoid this I am using bloglovin to streamline what I read and limiting myself to an hour a night. (Let's see how that goes) If you want to come on this journey with me, a fellow teacher and I have been re-designing our Algebra curriculum to align more with common core as well as addressing a retention issue our students seem to have. We have modified teaching approaches, homework and grading methods. It will be an interesting year to be sure, but at least we have completed 7 out of the 10 chapters over summer. In this process though I feel I have neglected my Honors Geometry classes. I taught the course last year and could use the same materials, but as I see the changes I"m making in Algebra, it would seem a huge disservice to my other students not to incorporate some of the same types of ideas. It will be limited what is modified this year but I promise to share the changes as they occur because I would LOVE any and all feedback. Working at a school with 5 department members when one is accustomed to a department of 20 it is a massive shift in mentality. My resources have also gone from unlimited to scarce in many ways. Any and all input is welcomed and I promise to respond to any comments or emails that are written. Thanks! ~Marti