Upper School Math
17 years teaching, 11 at Country Day
Why is it important to build strong relationships with students?
If you’re learning something for the first time, there is a sense of vulnerability. And if you don’t feel safe, you won’t feel that you can trust the person who’s delivering the information. You can’t learn deeply enough, because too much of your headspace is taken up with nerves and anxiety. Getting to know my students on a personal level—what’s happening in their lives outside of the classroom—builds the trust needed for them to take risks, to know that grace will be shown if they fail, and that we are in this together.
How are you a lifelong learner?
When you’ve done something for a long time, I think it just becomes second nature to want to improve on your craft. It seems like every day something inspires me that I can tie into my classroom to keep the content fresh and engaging—I know math content can be dry! For instance, my children received the strategy game Qwirkle as a gift. We had so much fun with it as a family, I decided to incorporate the game into the power functions lessons I was teaching at the time in my Honors Algebra 2 classes. I’ve done that with Battleship and other games. Even though playing games in class doesn’t involve equations and solving algebraically, my students are learning or reviewing concepts in fun and memorable ways. I also like to bring art into the classroom, even though I don’t necessarily see myself as an artist. As part of our unit on transformations, which entails mapping a pre image of a shape or a function to an image of the same shape or function, we made stained glass windows. It involved glue and the tearing of tissue paper. It’s a hands-on activity where the students can fail and try again, use a different part of their brains, and still make those important connections to the content. I hope my students remember what I am teaching them in terms of the math, but I think the experiences I am creating and the way they felt in my class are what they are going to remember years from now and that will bring back the math.
What do you know now that you wish you knew when you first started teaching?
There’s no one way to do anything. Early in my career, I thought I had to be in lock step with my mentor. It’s great to have mentors to show you the ropes when you first get started, but you can also change the method while still delivering the same content. I’ve learned that if you’re authentic to what feels good and right to you, it’s more effective for the students.