News1016Jan11

Our MathGal Julie took a yearlong sabbatical in 1995 and that's when she began writing modules for a workbook for her Math 105 course, which is the required course for students going into elementary education. "I had a very specific vision, and don't know of another workbook similar, but there might be one out there. I completed 3 modules for my sabbatical, and eventually completed a total of 9 modules to cover our course outline," she said. "I and others at MiraCosta taught using my materials up until very recently. I made a website with my modules so anyone could access them. This was the first of major materials I wrote for my own students."

Julie has always been concerned with textbook costs, and about two years ago she started using MyOpenMath, a free, course-management system designed specifically for math. "For me, it was and still takes an incredible amount of time and work to use this system, but I am dedicated to it. Teachers write problems, share them, help others, etc. It's kind of like putting your own book together online, getting all the problems, units together, etc."

Last semester, another instructor found Julie's Math for Elementary Teachers book and wanted to use it for her class this spring. "I couldn't open the original old Word docs, but I found something and sent to her. She figured out how to open them and do minor editing without rewriting the whole thing," said Julie. "She lives in Oakland. We spent a lot of time discussing it, and I met her at the national math conference this past fall. I decided to make my modules open source and used a copyright allowing others to use and modify my book. I'll be making it available to a wider audience now."

Bottom Line: She is going to use it and it is being printed now. Photo of the cover is above.

"So this is exciting news for me! The past year, I've been writing and editing constantly for my Math 64 Intermediate Algebra courses," she said. "It's been exhausting and time consuming, yet rewarding."