Planning for a maternity leave, a medical leave of absence or any sort of long term leave of absence as a teacher can be stressful and overwhelming for the teacher and the substitute. I found it was much easier to break down the process of preparing one step at a time. First I took a [...]

I've written before about a bunch of the reasons I love teaching with thematic units. When I pick units, plan,and teach, there are a few Dos and Don'ts I personally follow. Some of them I think are inspired from the criticism I've heard of other teachers who were sick and tired of being bound to [...]

If you're like me, you've struggled with sending math homework home. When I first started teaching, I went with the team and sent home nightly homework that was associated with the math program we were using, and helped students to review/ practice the skill of the day. There was a huge pressure for students to [...]

After working hard to teach math strategies, practicing facts with centers and activities, and games, and doing so on a regular basis, you've got to assess. I know... it's like its own dirty word. It's usually not a ton of fun, but there are a few different ways to assess math fact practice that I'll [...]

I remember when I first started teaching wondering how in the world I was going to fit all of the important skills and curriculum into our school day.  My first year teaching I thought I would just introduce the curriculum and the math facts would follow as they learned the concepts, however, I soon realized [...]

If you're teaching math facts by strategy, and you have been using teacher created, differentiated games and centers to practice and build fluency,  you might be looking for some quick and easy games you can purchase which are fun and also sneak in that mixed fact practice. Here are 6 of my favorite games to [...]

When it comes to practicing math facts, I've always found it most beneficial to practice for fluency as I am teaching addition strategies. (I talk about the perks of this method here). One of the difficult things about teaching math facts by strategy, or even by addend, is that there are few general centers and [...]

Math fact fluency is one of the most important skills for math success, but is also often one of the most difficult skills for students to master.  I can't even begin to count how many times I've heard teachers say that they are struggling to have students retain basic math facts, which then spills over [...]

The end of the school year and the beginning of the school year are alike in so many ways. Holding the classroom community together, fun and engaging activities to keep them learning. I've written before about how I love to end the year with fun themed days. Watermelon day is one of my definite favorites. [...]

As the spring air begins to warm up, I am reminded of the fun end of the year activities. When testing is over,  assessments are largely done, and students are SUPER antsy, it's always fun to use hands on engaging themes to keep them learning and practicing! One of my favorite end of the year [...]