Y'all, I am so excited I can't stand to hold it in any longer! I am embarking on a new math adventure and it's all for you! For about a year now, I have craved, obsessed over, and imagined a community where upper elementary teachers feel comfortable asking math questions and are excited to discuss math topics.

I have hung out in a number of Facebook groups for 4th grade and 5th grade teachers, and while I have enjoyed the dialogue about teaching strategies, how to respond to parents, student discipline, and more, I have also realized that there is a great need for an upper elementary group that brings together like-minded teachers who want to support one another in the pursuit of better math instruction.

Well, if you are 3rd grade, 4th grade, or 5th grade teacher or a curriculum/math specialist who teachers all of the grades who's been looking for a group just like this, you have found it! Read on to find out how you can get involved!

In true fashion of my personality, I've decided to create the group I crave! Lucky for me, I am not going this journey alone!

I am partnering with my beautiful friend Brittany Hege who blogs at Mix and Math and who is an experienced 5th grade math teacher. Her personal mission is to spark creativity in math teachers and to grow teachers' confidence in facilitating high-level math instruction.  That is a mission I can get on board with!

Brittany and I are so excited to work together to create a community of upper elementary teachers who simply want to be the best math teachers we can be!

The Upper Elementary Math Teachers Facebook Group is now a real thing and the doors are opening in May 2018!

Brittany and I are passionate about teaching upper elementary math (did you know this about me?!?) and about sparking the love and perseverance for math learning in students. This means we get ridiculously giddy over math topics and love to stimulate this part of our teaching brain.

Let us tell you more about the Upper Elementary Math Teachers' Facebook Group so you can see if this is something you want to be a part of!

Do you love to teach math and to share your ideas with colleagues?

Is math NOT your favorite subject to teach but you want to try to love it a little more?

Do you just need a community where your #mathmind can be stimulated?

Want to get ideas for math topics that your students are struggling with?

Want to get ideas for making your math block more engaging?

Want to find answers to, “Why in the world do we teach this?!?” or “How can I make this topic more relevant for my students?!?”

Need a place to celebrate your MATH WINS?!?

Well, THIS COMMUNITY IS FOR YOU, teacher friend!

We want to support one another and celebrate awesome teaching moments together!

We also know that math is not everyone’s favorite subject to teach--and if it’s not yours, but you want to be "the math teacher you always wish you had," this community is still for you!

We hope you find the inspiration and support that you are looking for and that you no longer feel alone in that pursuit!

We believe that better math instruction can come in the form of hands-on activities, using manipulatives, connecting concepts to the real-world, differentiation, rigor and relevance.

To be honest, we don’t believe in tricks and shortcuts as strategies for helping students mask mastery of math concepts.

Our desire is to help teachers feel confident in teaching math, understand the standards and how to teach them, with a focus on how to support students’ thinking in their many phases of learning.

We want you to feel supported AND inspired!

And, just to get this out of the way, we want to keep our community a JUDGEMENT-FREE ZONE by remembering that we teachers are in this group BECAUSE WE WANT TO IMPROVE OUR TEACHING OF MATH and ENGAGE WITH LIKE-MINDED colleagues, not because we are already perfect.

If you are ready to Be Postive, Be Supportive, Be Collaborative, Be Open-Minded, and Be Ever Tenacious in the pursuit of being the best math teacher you can be, we want you to join us! 

And, if you think the surprises are over, just you wait! Being on the guest list, you will be the first to hear all that we have in store.

UPDATE: We announced our Summer Book Study for Math Teacher! Head to this post to see what book we are reading together! And, even if you don't have time to read the book, you can still participate, listen, lurk, and learn in our Facebook group!

If you are ready for a summer of energizing yourself to teach math like a boss, stay tuned for more about all the plans we have for the Upper Elementary Math Teachers' community!