Why I chose to be a math teacher:

• I enjoy math! I had some great math teachers throughout middle and high school, and I want to help make math a more open and welcoming subject to everyone like it was to me.

Hobbies/Interests:

• I enjoy anything with music. I've been in several choirs throughout my life (including the Singing Statesmen of UW Eau Claire). I also played trombone through middle and high school.

• Theater - I've enjoyed acting since I was 11 years old. I've been in many plays and musicals over the last ~12 years.

• Board games - I have a huge collection of board games, card games etc. I enjoy lots of game nights with family and/or friends.

• Travel - I've been to 5 different countries, and 25+ different states.

Respect

• Respect is the most important thing to me as a teacher. I expect my students to respect me, but I also believe that students deserve my respect. 

• One way I show respect is with time management inside and outside the classroom. We only get 45 minutes per class, and I intend to use them efficiently, and I expect my students to use that time efficiently as well. Along with that, though I will regularly assign homework, as practice is necessary to reinforce what was learned in the classroom, I will only assign the minimum amount of homework I believe is necessary to reinforce the content.

Productive Struggle

• Produce struggle is when students have to persevere and try to work through challenging, or perplexing content. It involves practice that goes beyond just watching or listening to a teacher give the answers. I believe that productive struggle is especially helpful in math class.

• In my classroom, I fully expect and embrace mistakes. Making mistakes is the best way to learn, and I want to build a safe classroom where students know that it's ok to make mistakes. Nobody, not even me, is perfect at math, and there's nothing wrong with that.

Teamwork

• College Preparatory Mathematics (CPM) is the curriculum used in Math 6-8, Algebra, Geometry, and Advanced Algebra. CPM stresses the importance of teamwork, and students will be working in teams almost every day in my class. 

• I believe that students can learn from each other just as much as they learn from me, and effective teamwork skills will be helpful in every career.

• We will go over effective teamwork strategies and skills at the beginning of the school year, and interspersed throughout the school year as needed.