My math coach, Tricia, always talks about moments. She reminds me constantly to remember the moments, because not every day of teaching will feel like a win. To help me remember the moments, she always starts our coaching meetings by asking me to share a highlight of my week. We frequently sit in silence forRead More
Back to School MUST HAVES
Welcome to August where back to school is on EVERYONE’S mind. In a recent blog post I talked about ways to get your classroom funded for free! However I had people ask, “What do you do if the items you want are in stores and not online?” There are a few websites that allow forRead More
How to Establish Strong Routines to Increase Student Voice
After an observation my first year teaching, my principal told me, “I noticed you said ‘shh’ a lot.” Management issues aside, this piece of feedback was very indicative of my (then) idea of an ideal classroom. Over the years, I’ve learned to push the value of student voices in my classroom and added some newRead More
How to Set Up Your Whiteboard
As summer winds down, many of us are starting to plan for back to school and dreaming up what we want our classrooms to look like. (No? Just me? Okay.) In the next few blog posts, I will walk you through parts of my room. If you are like first year me and have noRead More
How to Enjoy a Guilt Free Teacher Summer
Until this past week, I’ve been enjoying a lot of structured relaxation. As soon as school let out in June, Fred and I headed to Seattle for my sister’s graduation from the University of Washington. From there, we went on a 10-day trip to Maui and Oahu. Every day in Hawaii, Fred planned a packedRead More
How I Stocked My Classroom For Free
This post from my friend Tiff @tiffinthemiddle SCREAMED to me and I immediately reposted it to my instagram story with a million clapping hands surrounding it. Every year, before school starts, Fred will always ask, “How much did you spend this year?” and I’ll either reply, “I lost the receipts” or “$100 something *casual shrug*”Read More
“Are You Chinese?” My Journey as an Asian American Educator
My first teaching job straight out of undergrad was teaching 6th grade math in New York at a school located in Washington Heights. A majority of my students identified as Dominican and a few identified as black; we had no students who identified as white or Asian. At my school, I was the only AsianRead More