#MTBoS Magic

If you are a reader of my blog and you have ever found anything helpful, I would like to say this is just the tip of the iceberg and there is a whole family of people just like me who share rants, lessons, documents, tips, pictures, hacks, and more.

We are the #MTBoS.

I am officially declaring myself as a #MTBoS Rockstar because I am always trying to improve so I just decided I can be a Rockstar. See how easy that was? Now you can be part of us too, just by deciding you are.

You don't have to have a blog and you don't have to tweet- although we HIGHLY recommend it.

• We want to hear your thoughts and perspective- even if you don't have an awesome project or curriculum or resources to share, you have YOU- and that is worth sharing! 
• If you feel like everything you've used was taken from someone on the Internet, you still made decisions and introduced it and asked questions that came from your brain. 
• Even if you tried something new and failed, SO HAVE WE. And talking about it together is probably the quickest way to find out why it failed and how to make it better.
• If you're very traditional and all these thing seem weird/crazy/hard to you, ask us some questions because we felt scared to try things at some point too. Look for small teacher moves that you can try that don't freak you out so much.
• If the technology seems too hard to figure out, you can google things to figure them out or you can follow me here or even comment on this blog. My email is miss.calcul8 at gmail and I would love to answer any questions you have that you aren't ready for the whole world to see

Some benefits of being part of this community:

• Endless sharing of resources
• Endless answers to questions you have on any topics
• Endless insight in to other teacher's classrooms and teaching strategies
• Endless support and encouragement from people around the world who are very much like you and not like you at all and still support you
• Endless understanding of the job, the ups and the downs, the changes, etc
• Endless community, an extended family across the world whose heart is to share and rise by lifting others
• Endless energy to try something new, to learn, to change, to take that leap, hope that there is always more to come

The disadvantage of being part of this community:

• Losing sleep because there are so many tweets and blog posts and great ideas to read and think and talk about
• Losing the old you. Because now you know there is a whole world waiting out there who values your words....so it's time to start saying them.

Every year we hold a four day math conference called Twitter Math Camp (TMC). We do math together, eat dinner together, go sightseeing together, play games together, etc. Everyone is worthy to present or talk but everyone is also eager to be in the audience. It is a great way to learn with people you are connected to and can continue learning with all year long. It costs $20 to register and then your travel. Next year we are meeting July 19-22 at St. Ignatius in Cleveland Ohio and YOU ARE INVITED! Here is the website for more information. http://www.tmathc.com/

If this sounds like *HEAVEN* to you, here are some next steps.

• Follow me on twitter @misscalcul8 and ask me anything. I would also like to introduce you to the community if you are okay with that. (follow means click follow by my name and picture and we are like Facebook friends now who can read each others posts)
• Check out this website https://exploremtbos.wordpress.com/ which explains more and has lots of activities
• If you are already on twitter, follow the hashtags #mtbos and #iteachmath (follow means you can click on that phrase and it will show you every time someone said those words and you can read it, like jumping to a specific chapter in a book)
• If you are scared to ask questions, start by giving compliments or likes of other teachers comments or posts
• Start reflecting. Whether its on a blog, whether its public or private, start thinking about yourself and you classroom in a way that helps you process.

This year at TMC was the first year that I didn't leave overwhelmed and feeling like I need to redo my whole everything. And this was my fifth time going. I finally changed my perspective and thought about how much I've learned. My morning session leader Chris said that we can add layers of (insert new strategy here) to the things we already love. So that's what I'm going to do. Isn't it exciting to know that my teaching and classroom will get better and better every single year and I DON'T HAVE TO FIGURE EVERYTHING OUT ON MY OWN?

This was the first time I never felt anxious. I made lunch plans with people. I talked to strangers. And guess what....it didn't feel like small talk. It felt like friends.

This was the time I commented and actively participated in each session I went to the most. I finally realized that I have insight into a classroom my twitter friends will never see- mine- and it's my duty to share it.

Because of this community I have tried, succeeded and failed, at so many different things and because of that, I have things to share.

So many people at TMC came up to me and told me things that they see in me and admire about me. WHO DOES THAT? I mean where in the world can you go and have people honor your gifts and speak life into you, personally, and professionally, who don't even live near you or work in your building?

Investors. Investors do that. And that's what we truly are. We are investing in ourselves by investing in others and then the payoff in the end is....WE ALL WIN. We all grow together.

So if you noticed my last 11 blog posts started with #TMC it's because I blog every session I go to. I've done this every year and you can find the past ones by clicking the TMC label --> on the right side of this page. See for yourself what kind of things we are learning about together.

Here is a YouTube playlist of 90 presenters who had something worth sharing.

Here is my sprinkle of #MTBoS Magic!