Annie Forest

Annie’s Substack | Annie Forest | Substack My personal Substack. Click to read Annie’s Substack, by Annie Forest, a Substack publication. Launched 9 months ago.

Oh, yeah, I know you have a bunch of good stuff on your site!
I just was asking if you thought about the platform for blogging and if certain ones aren’t getting used as much.
I started using Substack for my posts and can link to it other places.

open.substack.com/pub/anniefor...

Good idea!

I’m also lucky enough to be able to attend conferences and get to see people there. It always makes me wonder how in the world newer teachers would ever get that type of community?!

Do you think you’ll keep your posts on a blog or move to a new platform? I decided to head over to Substack and feel like it’s given my writing a new life.
It’s also easier for me to read others work. It’s like the new “blog roll”

I miss it too 😭

The calmest way to quiet a room of kids or adults is a chime I bought after attending a PD where the presenter used it. 🔔
I just looked it up and I bought it in 2013. Still one of my most used teacher items!

Find the chime and some other fun stuff on this list I put together for back to school! ⬇️

Those who say "Without tests, we wouldn't know how kids [or teachers] are doing" just reveal their ignorance about alternative assessments. But such statemts should prompt all of us to ask if we, too, sometimes make a statemt ("X is necessary") instead of asking a Q ("Are there alternatives to X?").

You Don't Need Any of This But, if you are looking for a back-to-school treat for yourself, I've made a list. 💸💸💸

I wrote another Substack post with a list of teacher favorites! If you are trying to save money or just want to rein in overconsumption, just know you don’t need anything new! What you have is probably enough.

But if you need a back to school treat, here you go! 💸

Ope, I kinda like them! 😬🤪

Hey @triangleman.bsky.social, now the cats are playing (er, pushing the tiles off the table) 😹

My Kolam Tiles came today!
The 9 year old and 5 year old are giving them a try as an after dinner activity. 🤩 (not pictured, my husband giving it a whirl as well!)

Yes, I’ve heard this in a lot of districts. “Fraction bootcamp” before we start the ratio unit, for example.

I also kinda cringe at the language of “in the trenches” to describe classroom teaching.

I just had the back to school teacher nightmare where you can’t find your classroom, can’t get control of the class, & everything is going wrong.

I’m leading PD today for adults (who are choosing to be there!) so I think they will be lovely. And I’m not a middle school classroom teacher anymore! 😂

bert from sesame street is sitting in a chair and looking at the camera ALT: bert from sesame street is sitting in a chair and looking at the camera

When I was little, I remember Bert saying his favorite number on Sesame Street. I guess I found his reasons compelling enough, so it’s been my favorite too.

Great, cute, quick tips. Thanks Annie! (I'm going to try that dry erase conditioner. My white boards are awful!)

Thanks Jennifer! I hope you have a great school year with gleaming, erasable whiteboards! 🤩

+1 for blue green!

I said what I said!
😉

A beautifully detailed version of an old pie chart joke.

You have me thinking about useful and how it’s similar/different than helpful.

But I want to be useless to oppressive or harmful systems.
I want to be useful in terms of community.

This counts as a business expense! 💸💸

Yeah, I like that better than my big eyeball. 😂

Would love your thoughts on this.

❓When do we do each?
❓Are you ever asked to be at a level that doesn’t match your needs?
❓Which level are you thinking at as you prep for the school year ahead?
❓What is missing?

👁️Eyes on group/individual (formative assessment)
🚗Car view, you see just road ahead & road behind (lesson)
✈️Airplane view, you see bigger picture & how roads connect (unit)
🚀Rocket view, big picture (school year)
🌌galaxy view, how it all fits into the overall experience (grades before and after)

Today I’m thinking about the different perspectives you need to take when planning as a teacher.

I think this can help when it all feels overwhelming. Maybe you are too zoomed out or too zoomed in for what you are planning? 🔎

This thread has my ideas for different zoom levels. 🧵

A scribble drawing by a child. It depicts a small box at the bottom with a wavy line going up

I love this kind of thing.

When my youngest was 3, he thought Heaven was called Kevin. I hated to correct him because it was just so cute. And, tbh, my kids haven’t had any formal religious edu.

He sat down and worked hard on this and told me, “it’s the map to Kevin.” 😇🥹

Yes, I like that.

I totally get why teachers ask. Especially if I’m leading Pd or sharing at a conference. People want to know if you’ve come in contact with real students and have ideas that actually work. They are little burned out on pd that doesn’t feel super practical.

When someone asks me, I hesitate. I’m not full time teaching in a k-12 district and that is what I think people are asking.
But maybe not? I don’t want to diminish the work done at the college level by instructors.
If you teach at college do you say you are “in the classroom”?
What about adjunct?

When do you think the answer is “yes” to the question: “are you in the classroom?” In terms of teaching?

Does it need to be full time? At least 1 class/course?

Certain ages? K-12? Undergrads?

If you are prepping, grading, planning activities, is that it? Or is it about something more?

you won't regret reading this for the black socks tip

These tasks are so, so good. The percent one in 7th grade is one of my favorites!