I came home after the first week of the spring semester emotionally drained. Nothing major happened. No classroom blowups. No admin emergencies. No parent conferences gone wrong. Just… teaching. One student was absent most of the week and only showed up for one day. Another is dealing with family situations that make it hard to focus on school right now. Several students are frustrated and refuse to use the supports provided to them, like a word-to-word dictionary, despite re

Combine that with my nickname, Beetle, and Bugged About Math was born. What started as a quirky classroom tool became the perfect name for a space dedicated to making math fun, approachable, and full of little helpers along the way.

If you've ever had a student who was perfectly capable of doing the math, but struggled to understand questions and explain their thinking, then you've seen firsthand how language can be a barrier in math classes. For English Language Learners and struggling learners, math isn't just about numbers. It's about vocabulary, sentence structures, and confidence. That's where word walls can help. When used intentionally, they can be one of the most powerful tools for supporting ELL