I know it's hard to believe, but back-to-school season is here again. My social media feeds are full of teachers setting up their classrooms, and while I don't head back for another week, I'm already thinking through my own setup. Over the years, I've developed a process that helps me stay organized, avoid feeling overwhelmed, and make sure my classroom is ready for students—not just decorated for the first day.

Getting my students to do homework this past school year was tough. They didn’t see the value in it, and honestly, why would they? They could plug the question into AI, get the answer in seconds, and move on. By the end of the year, it got so bad in one class that some days I stopped really checking homework altogether and just gave a completion grade.

Picture this: It's laundry day. The dryer buzzes, you dump a mountain of clothes onto the bed, and somehow, without fail, every single sock ends up loose and unpaired at the bottom of the basket. Now picture your students' faces when you write √72 on the board. That same feeling of quiet overwhelm. Here's the good news: if your students are struggling with simplifying radicals, the laundry basket is the bridge they've been waiting for.

My students could classify quadrilaterals and explain properties with confidence. But when it came to multi-step angle problems, everything fell apart. Here’s what teaching quadrilaterals taught me about recognition vs. application in geometry.

Struggling ELL students in math often face challenges that go beyond language. Learn how to support SLIFE students while maintaining grade-level rigor through intentional scaffolds.

Geometry isn’t hard, understanding the question is. Learn how the RULES Framework helps students, especially English Language Learners, analyze geometry problems with confidence.

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