Welcome students and families!
Many of you may know me from previous years, as this is my 36th year teaching in OOB. This will be my eighth year teaching math, and I continue to challenge myself to find new ways of reaching students for whom math is a struggle. I am excited to watch my students challenge themselves and their thinking as we work together as mathematicians! We use math EVERY DAY and as we practice our math skills, we improve them!
I am a single mom to 3 boys. AJ, 26, graduated in 2019 from Elizabethtown College in Pennsylvania with a degree in Music Therapy. He currently lives in the Boston area and works as a Music Therapist. Noah, 24, graduated from South Portland High School in 2017 and works for Hannaford Supermarkets. He is super creative and an amazing artist and has done some freelance work in that field. Benjamin, 22, completed 2 years of college in Boston before transferring to USM and is currently finishing up a degree in Computer Science.
In my spare time, I am a mentor for the South Portland High School Robotics Team 58. Additionally, I have a craft business that I started a few years ago, selling a variety of handmade items. That is keeping me very busy, and I love that I get paid to create things! I also love spending time with our two cats, Maru and Gizmo, both of whom we adopted from Georgia.
Life is busy, but I wouldn't have it any other way!
On this website you will find a variety of resources and information about both math and social studies, as well as general information about things happening in 6th grade. We will be primarily using email to communicate with students and families.
Please look around the site and check out the various pages. If you ever have any concerns or are unable to find an answer to your questions here, feel free to contact me at school at 207-934-4848, or by email ([email protected]).
Thank you for taking the time to visit our classroom website. I'm looking forward to a terrific year!
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We work hard in 6th grade to instill a love of learning. We want students to recognize that it's important to use effective effort in all that we do. In math, we started off by developing our "mathematical mindsets." (There is a section in "Resources for Parents" that explains this in more detail). I want students to feel that it's ok to make mistakes and realize that there are many different strategies for solving problems that can all result in the "right answer".
Much of the work that we do, particularly in math, relies on students working together in pairs or groups. For the last few years, I have arranged seating based on the research of Peter Liljedahl, a professor at Simon Fraser University in British Columbia. VISIBLE RANDOM GROUPS are an alternative to students and/or teachers choosing seats (both of which have their drawbacks... seating charts are one of my least favorite things to create as a teacher). Students are frequently up out of their seats and working in teams at white boards posted around the room, and these teams are changed up daily. Students will have the opportunity to work with a variety of peers throughout the course of the year.