After finishing my student teaching January 2014, I joined a small team of passionate educators to work on a new education-related website called Expii (see expii.com). I've worked mainly on creating concept maps of calculus and geometry, and on writing interactive explanations of topics within those subjects. In June, I married my now-wife Allie, and we promptly moved to Durham, North Carolina, where begin fall 2014 teaching math at C. E. Jordan High School. Jordan could be considered somewhere between urban and suburban, as it draws from both downtown Durham and some of the surrounding area. It's an incredibly diverse school, racially and socio-economically. I'll likely be teaching calculus and computer science, and I'll be leading and coaching the school's math team.
As I'm preparing for my new teaching role this fall, I am particularly thankful for how TPP transformed me into a truly reflective teacher. Before TPP, my preparation for a new teaching-related task would have consisted mostly of biting my fingernails and hoping for the best, but TPP has equipped me to recognize areas to prepare myself in before the school year starts, and to find good resources to do that. Even more, TPP has fostered my appreciation of the complex art of teaching and my heart for students to grow and to learn.
Teaching is an intellectual and interpersonal challenge, and it's tiring. At the same time, teachers change students' lives, and they have the privilege of watching that change happen over the course of a year, which brings me a lot of joy. I've learned to always remind myself to let the students be the focal point of the classroom, not myself.
As a Christian, I feel that God has called me to teach. Teaching involves both suffering and joy, and I draw inspiration from Jesus, who "for the joy that was set before him endured the cross." It's by his example and by his help that I take on the attitude of a "servant" in the classroom, which I think is so essential to good teaching.
I student-taught at West Windsor-Plainsboro North fall 2014, teaching calculus and geometry, and I was honored to be awarded the New Jersey Distinguished Student Teacher Award for my student teaching.
Throughout the spring of 2014, I tutored several PUPP students on a regular basis, and these tutoring experiences were extremely impactful for me as an educator. All of the PUPP students I worked with were extremely bright and hard-working, and the only thing standing between them and success is a lack of resources, especially good teachers. So my experiences with PUPP gave me an appreciation for the achievement gap, as well as an increased sensitivity to students' diverse cultures.
Several years ago, I organized and taught a seminar for middle school and high school students to improve their math competition performance. That experience led to a more formal teaching experience last summer at a math camp, IDEA Math, which is also geared towards students interested in math competitions. Because of these experiences, I'm always wrestling with the question of how to teach problem-solving to students, and I carry my attention to problem-solving into the high school classroom as well.