I actually learned very little about teaching in undergrad/graduate school. I recall the “kiddie math” professor pointing out some manipulatives on a shelf and telling us to play with them! No direction whatsoever.
In the early 2000s, I read an article in the local newspaper pertaining to a grant Auburn University had received to assist mathematics teachers. The program was called TEAM-Math or Transforming East Alabama Mathematics. When the funding expired, the program was absorbed into Alabama Math, Science, and Technology Initiative (AMSTI).
At the time, I was employed as an adjunct faculty member at a local community college. I did this part-time so I could earn a little household income AND be home with our children who were 11, 9, and 1. However, I promised myself that when I returned to public schools, I was going to be a part of that program.
Lo and behold! in 2005, I began my dream job teaching 7th-grade math at a junior high school. There was an actual math department with four 7th-grade teachers and four 8th-grade teachers. Around October, the math chairman resigned from teaching. The principal asked me if I would take on that responsibility. I actually told him I would with one stipulation: our school would become a TEAM-Math school.
In order to be accepted ALL eight teachers were required to commit to two summers of two week training and meetings once each quarter on a Saturday morning. WE DID IT!!
I have been so blessed by this approach to teaching math because it is based on understanding the why of solving problems. And there are multiple entry points to problem solving. Some of my students initially need the concrete, relying on the hands-on use of manipulatives; others can draw pictorial representations; a few actually grasp the abstract and can use simple equations.
Every year, except one, since 2008, I have had a university intern with me for a semester. I know they have learned from me, but what I have learned from them is immeasurable. And when there is a training session during the summer, just like this summer, I attend enthusiastically.
That is the most wonderful success story. Never tiring of hearing people succeed. Good for you, and good for your school!
What I mostly remember about my time in the program was that I was terrified of exams (couldn’t take the math PhD exam after taking all the classes years later) and got them to give me a thesis instead. Added two years to graduating. Took the reduction languages of John Backus, who invented FORTRAN, and developed a curriculum to teach it. Variable free. Had the interesting property that you COULD teach it up to 6th grade. After that, you needed a masters degree to understand. As a graduation/birthday present, dear husband gave me a compiler for the language.
I have always advocated strong early elementary reading programs with tutoring and strong summer programs tomkeep children at or above grade level K-4.
People do not understand that math is a language just like French, Germa, Spanish. If children are not fluent in Academic English they have a hard time understanding math nouns, pronouns, adjectives, modifiers, etc.
Bravo to those striving for excellence in the classes they teach. I am also an advocate for Dr. Gardners multiple intelligences styles of learning and teaching! If one shoe doesnt fit try another and another until the student and teacher are on the same page going in the same direction. The teacher that demands all students fit in the same groove destroy a chlilds love of learning in elementary school, they rarely get it back. Children thus affected struggle through life and have tragic ends in many cases.
Our schools and children deserve the very best, but in many instances we only get what we pay for and promote those who make us comfortable and toe the line. A sad discourse for American Education.
We can fix this! Let us truly embrace MAGA! The quicker the DS is destroyed the sooner we can raise a generation of great Americans who truly can make the whole world sing!
Winning Bigly! WWG1WGA!