Educational Journey
Follow my transformation from teacher to educator, showcasing my personal and professional growth in the classroom for inner city youth.
Path to Excellence
This platform represents my commitment to enhancing educational practices and connecting with others in the teaching community. I have worked to improve outcomes for students by using data to informed instruction, focusing on academic ownership, building better relationships with students, and creating opportunities for my students to explore STEM.
Academic Ownership
Various videos and pictures demonstrate my students work as they take ownership of their math education through productive struggle, projects, videos and individual learning plans.
Productive Struggle: Student Work as Class Art
Math Projects: Videos
Math Projects: Game Boards
Student Testimonials...
When asked "What is 1 way that Ms. Washington has shown she wants you to succeed?"
"One way she has shown me that she wants me to succeed is when it gets really hard she doesnt give up on helping me and will help till i get it."
"...by making me do work so I can get grades."
"..she always helps me. She feels like a second mom to me."
"She always pushes me to do my best in not just her class but everyone else class as well."
"..by teaching me lessons."
"..saying she don't want us to be a failure."
"I REALLY DONT KNOW, I JUST KNOW."
"..by being patient with us and not giving up on us."
"..by asking me twice if i understand it."
"..when im talking a lot she calls my mom."
Student Testimonials
When asked "What is 1 positive experience that you have had in math class this year?"
"..I feel like I could actually be taught unlike my old school."
"I have learned new things and played educational fun games"
"..she made sure i knew the work in a way that was easier for me to understand."
"Learning a lot with Ms. Washington."
"Learning how to graph."
"..substitution and elimination was one thing i positively learned"
"I learned how to multiply and divide fractions."
"A positive experience is when we are testing in ms.washington class and she be giving the class snacks."
"...learning how to divide fractions and decimals and thats helps with money."
"idk we had alot."
My Teaching Practice
Progressing from a teacher to a true educator demands a dedication to lifelong learning and continuous professional growth. To ensure my instructional practices remain innovative and effective, I actively engage with premier educational networks. In addition to my experience with Teach for America, I participate in the Computer Science Teachers Association, as well as the National and Michigan Councils of Teachers of Mathematics. Leveraging these platforms allows me to integrate evidence-based strategies into my daily practice, specifically focusing on Tier 2 and Tier 3 targeted instruction and robust formative assessments. My ongoing professional development includes mastering contemporary pedagogies like productive struggle, building thinking classrooms, and cross-disciplinary computer science integration. The attached photos document my commitment to these collaborative learning environments.
Reflecting on Being a High Impact Educator
As I work to cultivate my skillset as a high-impact educator, I continue to purposefully grow in several key areas. First, I focus on building strong relationships with my students, which directly elevates our classroom culture. This foundational connection has consistently driven strong academic outcomes, as evidenced by the student growth data detailed in the following section. To support this, I intentionally foster students' non-cognitive skills by integrating Social-Emotional Learning (SEL) into our daily "Do Now" routine, establishing a supportive and collaborative community from the moment class begins.
Beyond core instruction, I am a strong advocate for expanding educational opportunities both inside and outside the classroom. To that end, a colleague and I co-founded a student drone team that meets during lunch, which recently earned the STEM Ambassador Award. Additionally, I coach our FIRST Tech Challenge (FTC) Robotics team, guiding our students to notable competitive success. While these achievements are exciting, my primary focus remains on helping students apply their knowledge in diverse, real-world settings. I view competition not just as a race to win, but as a powerful tool to build confidence; for students who may initially hesitate to try, experiencing tangible success proves to them what they are truly capable of achieving.
Regarding peer leadership, my perspective is undergoing an intentional shift. Historically, I have hesitated to step into formal leadership roles because I maintain a strict "learning mode"—a mindset where I often equated leadership with absolute mastery. While I recognize that continuous learning is essential in education, I am still remapping my internal definition of a leader. In practice, however, I consistently engage in informal leadership and peer support. For instance, I regularly utilize my preparation periods to mentor and assist a first-year mathematics teacher, and I frequently troubleshoot technology integration for colleagues during testing windows. I am eager to continue aligning my mindset with these leadership actions.
Formative Assessment
During this formative assessment, students use individual whiteboards to allow me to check for understanding throughout the lesson.
Tier 2 and Tier 3 Instruction
This is a reteach lesson for my Tier 2 students during small group instruction. My small group instruction consist of 4 groups. Two groups work on math instruction for at their own pace using Zearn and I ready. One group works on a few grade level assignments using Zearn or Iready together on the whiteboard. The last group recieves reteach, lesson support or lesson extension depending on the Tier level.
My Teaching Practice: Colleague Perspective
This video is my colleague and mentor, Kadesa McGowen describing my teaching style and relationship building with my students.
This is a reteach lesson for my Tier 2 students during small group instruction. My small group instruction consist of 4 groups. Two groups work on math instruction for at their own pace using Zearn and I ready. One group works on a few grade level assignments using Zearn or Iready together on the whiteboard. The last group recieves reteach, lesson support or lesson extension depending on the Tier level.
Intentional Data Collection
In mathematics education, data is the compass that keeps my instruction aligned with student need. Rather than relying on static post-mortem scores, I systematically gather real-time insights by balancing quantitative data with qualitative student voices. Daily exit tickets objectively gauge conceptual mastery, while student surveys, focus groups, and community talks provide the crucial cultural context and "why" behind the numbers. This comprehensive framework allows me to build a responsive classroom that honors both academic progress and the human elements of learning.
The true transformation occurs during my post-lesson analysis. By immediately tallying whether students met lesson outcomes completely, partially, or not at all, I create an actionable diagnostic snapshot of the day's instruction. Instead of just recording grades, I use this process to identify correlations between specific teaching strategies and student outcomes. Spotting these patterns early allows me to flexibly group students, address misconceptions, and adapt the next day's tasks to foster productive struggle rather than frustration.
The Data
Growth Data
A comparative analysis of our Beginning of Year (BOY) and Middle of Year (MOY) data reveals a statistically significant, positive correlation regarding student growth trajectories.
Specifically, there is a demonstrable increase in the number of students transitioning toward or achieving at-and-above grade-level proficiency. This upward trend validates our targeted instructional interventions and underscores the efficacy of our data-driven classroom adjustments during the first half of the academic year.
End of the Year Survey
The End of the Year Survey data demonstrates an overwhelmingly positive classroom culture, heavily dominated by "Strongly Agree" and "Agree" responses. My greatest strengths lie in fostering an inclusive, high-expectation environment where students feel deeply cared for and loved. Notably, the strong agreement with the statement "I can make mistakes in math class and still be successful" proves that I have successfully cultivated a resilient growth mindset, establishing a safe space where mistakes are embraced as a natural part of the learning process.
While the data is overwhelmingly positive, it highlights subtle opportunities to strengthen student self-efficacy and real-world application. The prompts "I feel successful in math" and "I can see how math relates to my everyday life" yielded the highest concentration of neutral and disagree responses. To address this, I can leverage my community talks and student focus groups to weave more culturally relevant, real-world connections into our curriculum, while continuing to use your daily exit ticket tallies to provide students with tangible, micro-proof of their academic growth.
The results and questions from the End of Year Survey.
Hear from My Students and Colleagues
Cynthia Clayton, Principal
Burns Elementary Middle School
Kadesa McGowen, Colleague
Burns Elementary Middle School
Student Focus Group
Burns Elementary Middle School
Connect with Me
For inquiries, feedback, or collaboration opportunities, reach out via the channels listed below.