Hello from Fort Stockton Intermediate School's room 20!

My name is Lisa Rayburn and I have been a professional educator for fifteen years in the state of Texas.  I've been an unprofessional educator for much longer, however, since I was a math tutor for several years before becoming certified back in 2006.  My creditials can be found here. Most of my experience took place near the Houston area, where I am from, and all of that was more science-related.  After multiple hurricanes and storms flooded my home area, I decided to pull up stakes and move to higher ground in the fall of 2019.  The timing was perfect because when COVID hit and the world shut down, I was out exploring the Big Bend area with my sweet doggo, Henry. 

I've enjoyed my time in this area and will happily accept recommendations for must-sees and must-visits!  This area is full of history and I've only dipped one toe into it.  After COVID, the increased need for math teachers made me decide to jump over and, man, has this been a neat experience!  I feel that having a science background (Bachelor of Science, biology & geology) gives me an edge while teaching math because I can relate any math problem to a real-life situation, formula, or physically demonstrate the "numbers" to give struggling students a concrete example.

FYI, our math team here at the Intermediate collaborate so we share the remind, edulastic (our fancy self-grading online homework turn-in site), and google classroom responsibilities.  The code for our google classroom this year is nburvux and both students and parents can sign up.  Links to the two or three weekly homework assignments will be posted there.  Students will have a paper copy to work on after our lesson in class but unfinished problems will need to be completed at home then submitted online for a grade.  For some students (fast ones), that means no homework, ever!  For those who are slower or more meticulous, they may need to finish up at home regularly. 

Please, PLEASE, help keep your child on pace so that he or she doesn't fall behind because all lessons build on one another and it can become super stressful for students, parents, and myself.  All homework assignments are quick (7-15 problems) and recap the day's lesson (plus we may tack on a few review questions at the end).  These assignments will be for a grade.  Daily grades like these, worksheets, and quizzes will account for 60% of a student's average while tests and projects will only count for 40%.  Parents will be notified of upcoming tests and a review will be done and be made available online for at-home preparation.  Students will also participate in campus-based testing such as MAPS (skills check) and TFAR (has STAAR-like questions) a few times a year but they will not count towards report card grades as they are simply a tool to get a gauge of student abilities and where they may need extra help during available tutorial times.

Feel free to reach out, any time, but also be aware that I hang up my teacher hat around 7 pm and morph into a regular human.  My email address is lisa.rayburn@fsisd.net.  My conference period is 5th period (11:20-12:05).  To reach me by phone, please call the school at 432.336.4141 and enter my extension, 1320.  You can also reach me (of one of the fifth grade math team) on the remind app by texting @math5team to 81010 and following the prompts that are sent to your phone. 

I'm looking forward to an excellent year!