I'm your Math Workshop Coach! In addition to your coach, I currently am a 5th-grade teacher and high school boys’ basketball coach in Woodhaven, Michigan. I was born into an entrepreneurial family, and quickly gained a love for continual growth and success. My family always pushed me to dream big and work towards my goals, so that’s what I’ve tried to do throughout my life.

Straight out of college, I started teaching 4th grade in an all-boys’ Jewish school for a short time and then was hired into a public school as a 5th-grade teacher. This public school was a Title 1 building that was struggling academically and behaviorally. I taught all 5th graders in the building mathematics using a student workbook with page after page of math problems. I had three sets of 32 students for mathematics that year, with a 10-year-old curriculum that did not match the current Common Core Standards. This was not how I dreamed up math instruction! I knew there was a better way.

Needless to say, that year inspired me to dream bigger and imagine math instruction differently. I started to notice students disengaged and growing to dislike math. This was the moment I began reading, researching, and attending as many math professional developments as possible.

Throughout all of that learning, I was able to build out what is a successful Math Workshop Framework for me and many of my colleagues. I began sharing this Framework with others through EdCamps and other professional networking events and quickly realized how much interest there was around this idea of making math instruction innovative and engaging using Math Workshop.

I use this Math Workshop Framework every day in my math class and it is my students favorite time of the day! They can’t wait for math now, and visit me year after year asking if I still do “Math Workshop.” This framework changed the way I teach math and the way my students learn! I can’t imagine teaching from a whole group perspective anymore.