Hi and welcome!

Hi and welcome!

Thanks for stopping by my blog, I'm so excited for this year and all of the amazing things that we will get to do as a class! 

First things first - we are a team! Please reach out to me if you ever have any questions about assignments, activities, how your child is doing, or anything else. 

A little about me. I'm a mom of 3 "kids" - my girls are both in college (one majoring in physics, the other in chemistry) and my son works at a ski resort in Wyoming. I grew up in Georgia and have always lived here. Teaching is my second (actually third) career. I worked in corporate for years, then opened a photography business that I ran for six years while my kids were in elementary school. In 2020 I realized that I had an interest in working in education and worked first in an elementary school front office and then as a kindergarten parapro. It was here that I realized that I love teaching and I decided to become a certified teacher. As I worked on my master's degree I came to realize that I love teaching kids to read and that I absolutely LOVE the "new math".

A little about me and math... I was always pretty good at math, but I never loved it. When I chose a major for my undergraduate part of what I was considered was that I did NOT want to take calculus! When my kids were in elementary school I would get so frustrated with trying to understand the new ways that math was taught and I'll admit - I taught my kids the "standard algorithms". I didn't understand WHY things were being done this new way when the "old way" seemed so much faster. And then I spoke to my twins' 2nd grade teacher and she broke some of it down for me. She assured me that my kids would be able to do mental math that I could never imagine, to trust the process. Then, I homeschooled my twins for middle school and I started to see the value in how they did things. Finally, I did my master's program and took a few classes on how to teach math and I SAW it! Suddenly, math has become my favorite subject to do and to teach. I seriously love this "new math", it really helps students understand the WHY behind so many things I'd just been taught rules for. So please, if what we are doing in math ever seems ... odd... to you, please reach out to me. I'd love the chance to talk it through with you and share my new found love of math with you! 

-Ms. Landa