PassItOn.com

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This summer, my family celebrated the milestone of high school graduation for my niece.  Yes, as we all know, this was not a typical spring for graduations, but we were able to find a way to celebrate her accomplishments in a special way.   Four years ago, when my niece started her freshman year of high school, I decided that I would send her a text the morning of the first day of school with an inspirational quote to let her know I was thinking about her on this “big day”.  Knowing that navigating the ups and downs of high school life continues beyond the first day of school and beyond freshman year, I continued to send motivational messages every Monday morning for her entire high school career.  I wanted her to know someone was always thinking about her and I wanted to prompt her to reflect on her experiences.  This connected us in ways that I could never have imagined and opened up opportunities to have real conversations and reflect on the things that life threw our way. 

As we jump into this uncharted territory of the 2020 school year,  I feel like we as teachers are starting our “freshman year of high school”.  Learning to navigate this new territory is going to be an adventure of peaks and valleys.  We need a continuous message of motivation, knowing someone is thinking about us and find ways to reflect on our experiences. 

Here’s my first “text” to you….find a friend to share it with (or maybe even your students), use it as an opportunity to reflect on what it means to you and how you are thriving (or can work towards thriving) in this “freshman year”.  Making these  connections is powerful and can keep us going through the highs and lows. I chose four of my most recent favorites to share with you.

I’m thankful for PassItOn.com who supported my ability to engage with my niece in this way.  Their automated daily emails provide me an opportunity to pause and reflect as well as find my favorites to share.  Check out PassItOn.com if you are interested in daily emails.

Thank you for all the hard work, new learning, and extra time you are putting in to make learning math, this year especially, the best possible experience it can be for your students.  Remember to give yourself grace as you learn and grow (which involves lots of mistakes and missteps) from this experience.

Hang in there!  Together, we got this!

Courtney LaRoche

Back to School Resources from NCTM

Check out these great resources from NCTM.  Helpful learning opportunities in this time of change. 

https://www.nctm.org/backtoschool/