School is out - whoa, what is this "free time" thing you speak of?

Hello all!

After such an overwhelmingly supportive reception from the online math teaching community, I completely dropped of the face of the internet. Sorry about that, guys! I didn't die or anything dramatic. I am just one of those unfortunate souls that hasn't worked out how to keep five minutes on the internet from turning into five hours on the internet, and cold turkey was the only strategy keeping me alive during the long months of the school year when there are always 25hrs of work to do today.

But SUMMER. Summer is when I actually have time to reflect on all those hours of work and decisions made ten minutes before class. I know everyone else stops blogging and twittering in the summer but, honestly - how do you people have the time in months when the temperature is below 78 degrees?

So a quick summary of the past year for those who might have been wondering what I've been up to:

1. My implementation of SBG and varied skill levels was a success, at least in that I stuck with it for all my classes, I felt good about it, and I got positive feedback from students. Sadly, I don't think I kept the kind of data that can demonstrate the improvement it had on my classes more quantitatively than that.
2. My classroom management improved, even though I don't really know why.
3. I used guided notes in my Algebra class and loved it so much I am now hoping to do it for Geometry as well.
4. I got engaged! And I'm getting married THIS AUGUST!!

So more posts to follow, at least for the summer anyway. Although I've been silent, I've been keeping up with everyone's blogs pretty well, and it seems like you all had a good year of trying new things - so here's to a well-deserved summer for all!