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You hear teachers remind kids of what they should have learned last year. Ninth grade teachers question what eighth grade teachers did. Sixth grade teachers wonder what students spent the year doing in fifth grade. The pattern stays the same. We blame instead of communicate because it's easier to do than deal with the real issue. Recent I sat with a group of elementary teachers and we dug into long division. They showed me two strategies they use. One was new to me and relied

It is early November and every educator is ready for a break. The kids too, if we are being honest. This time of year brings a need for a reset for many reasons. Assessment data comes in and it is not what you hoped. Students feel the upcoming break, and they start to turn all the way up. Teachers want time off and PTO requests increase. Every role feels the weight of this season in a different way. This blog has always reflected how I see myself and my belief in my work acro

In my fifth year of HQIM work, I’ve realized the hardest part isn’t the systems or the pacing guides. That part runs itself now. The real challenge is what happens when lessons push adults out of their comfort zones. I hear it often, “students can’t do it.” But most times, that’s not about the kids. It’s about us. Teachers who are used to the safety of “I do, we do, you do” can wrestle when lessons shift toward conceptual, open ended thinking. That includes me. It took years

We started off working on the lesson internalization. That was the plan. Align the objective, tighten the checks for understanding, make sure the questioning matched the standard. Then the teacher asked me how to reach a student who never joined in. I asked him to tell me about the kid, not the data, not the behavior, just who he was. He told me the student’s mother had been deported a few weeks ago. We can stop right there. Because what else does that child have to think abo

They say if you want to hear God laugh, tell Him your plans. From 2013 to 2015, I found myself immersed in intervention work in math...

Story Time Part 1: How Humanizing Policy Shaped My Efficacy I had no idea what it was called back then. What I now know to be my belief...

I was a brand new District Middle School Math Specialist with nine campuses and 7,000 kids on my plate when HQIM landed in my lap. During...

A month ago, I authored a post on LinkedIn where I shared my thoughts on how we can often confuse support with control. A pacing guide...

My individual teacher efficacy used to vary directly (math fun 😂) based on the leadership I was under. I have had leaders who helped me...

In my early years of being a practitioner of "ignorance is bliss" in math education, the only question I asked my students was “Everybody...

I began dumping my math apprehension on close to 150 kids in August of 2010. I was a brand new teacher and education had become my second...