Tag Archives: Math Teachers

Teachers who specialized in math.

Math teacher Michael Harding named Minnesota’s 2023 Teacher of the Year

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Mathematics teacher Michael Houston has been named the 2023 Minnesota State Teacher of the Year. Photo credit: Minnesota Public Radio

There are many people today who are calling for curriculum that meets real-world needs. Minnesota teacher Michael Houston has developed an instructional program that responds to this call. And he has been rewarded for his effort. Michael has been named the 2023 Minnesota State Teacher of the Year.

Michael teaches mathematics at Harding High School in the Saint Paul Public Schools system. In a career that spans 19 years at Harding, Michael has devoted 18 of them to the school’s football program, ten of them as Head Coat. He also serves as the Mathematics Department Chair, he is a learning team facilitator, and he is active in the local teachers’ union. And as if all that were not enough, he also works as an adjunct professor at Concordia, teaching math classes to prospective elementary teachers.

Born in Columbus, Ohio, Michael was raised in a single-parent household. He struggled in school, but when he earned his Bachelor’s degree from Concordia University, St. Paul, he was the first in his family to graduate from college. Michael also earned a Master’s degree from Hamline University.

Michael works diligently to develop curriculum that is relevant and responsive. “I did a lot of reflection about my teaching practices and what I can do, especially when we come back to the classroom, about trying to engage students and mathematics. Especially when they try to apply it outside the classroom,” explains Michael. In response, he developed lessons on personal finance, taxes, 401K’s, pensions, and Social Security.

“The generation now is really heavy on the use of technology,” observes Michael. “So I try to include investigations in which they can use their device,” he continues. “We were learning about exponential functions, and we were learning about investing, and there’s a nice little app, a little game that students were able to engage with and learn how to pick stock and invest and see the growth of that over time,” he concludes.

This is the second year that Michael has been nominated for the Teachers of the Year Award. He was named a finalist in 2017.

 

VA educator Jennifer Hatch garners agriculture award

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Middle school teacher Jennifer Hatch has won accolades for incorporating agriculture into her mathematics curriculum. Photo credit: Virginia Farm Bureau

Much to the delight of their students, some educators throughout the country are incorporating agriculture into their course curriculum. One of these is Jennifer Hatch, an award-winning middle school teacher teacher from Virginia.

Jennifer teaches mathematics at Franklin Middle School in Franklin County, Virginia. Because the class is inclusive, her students display a wide range of learning needs. Her course curriculum includes a unit on gardening with hydroponics, which she admits is one of her favorite units. In their garden, her students grow lettuce, basil, and cilantro year-round.

“The hydroponics project allowed me to present my students with a hands-on way to apply required math concepts while also integrating lessons about agriculture,” Jennifer reveals. The students collect data, record plant measurements and growth rates, and perform data analysis throughout the growing process. “It is gratifying to see the pride in their eyes when they harvest their plants,” she says. The students also gain a farm-to-table experience by preparing meals using the produce grown in their classroom. The students use math to budget and shop for additional ingredients, calculate recipe proportions, and work on serving sizes.

For her hydroponics unit, Jennifer has garnered a 2023 National Excellence in Teaching about Agriculture Award by the National Agriculture in the Classroom Organization, US Dept. of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture and Farm Credit. Each year the organizations partner to honor teachers in pre-K through 12th grade for innovative ways they are using agricultural concepts to teach reading, writing, math, science, social studies, and STEM.

Jennifer has also been honored as a 2024 Regional Teacher of the Year for Franklin County. Last year, she was named Franklin County Public School’s Teacher of the Year. In all, her career as an educator spans 25 years.

NY teacher Kemeisha Barrett garners 2023-2024 Big Apple Award

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Math teacher Kemeisha Barrett of Brooklyn, New York, has garnered a 2023-2024 Big Apple Award. Photo credit: Ebbetts Field Middle School

The city of New York is very proud of their public school teachers. In fact, city leaders regularly honor exceptional educators with their annual Big Apple Awards. For the 2023-2024 school year, one of these exceptional educators was Kemeisha Barrett, a middle school mathematics teacher at Ebbets Field Middle School in Brooklyn.

Kemeisha says her goal as an educator is to equip her seventh and eighth grade students with the tools they need to become problem-solvers and independent learners. “Math is often seen as a challenging subject, but I believe all students are capable of being successful with math,” she declares. “Students respond well when they are able to make connections between their academic encounters and cultural backgrounds. As such, I have challenged myself to establish a culturally responsive classroom environment for ALL of my students,” she continues.

The school where Kemeisha teaches is as special as the honored teacher. Ebbets Field Middle School is an education center founded in 2005 and located on the Jackie Robinson campus, the original home of the Brooklyn Dodgers. A large number of students who attend the school are immigrants or the children of immigrants. The learners who attend the school form a small community where every teacher knows every student and every student has plenty of opportunities to form and maintain strong friendships with other students.

This year, the Big Apple Awards were presented to 49 superlative New York City teachers. Each one was nominated by their principal for work in the profession that inspires students, models great teaching, and enriches school communities. The recipients were chosen through a rigorous selection process that includes community nominations, principal recommendations, classroom visits, an interview, and a review by a board of judges. To learn more about the program and this year’s recipients, click on this link to Big Apple Awards.

Ohio teacher Eddie McCarthy donates a kidney to student

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High school sophomore Roman McCormick with his Geometry teacher, Eddie McCarthy. McCarthy teaches at Whitener High School in Toledo, Ohio. Photo credit: Washington Post

Every once in a while a story emerges about an admirable teacher who has made a heroic sacrifice for a student. Eddie McCarthy, a high school geometry teacher from Toledo, Ohio, is one of those incredibly noble teachers. After hearing about the severe medical condition of his student, Roman McCormick, the teacher volunteered to donate one of his own kidneys to the young man.

Roman, a sophomore at Whitmer High School in Toledo, Ohio, had been diagnosed with Stage 4 kidney disease, the last stage before kidney failure. Unfortunately, no one in the fifteen-year-old’s family was deemed a viable candidate as a live donor for a kidney transplant. It appeared that Roman would be forced to go on dialysis in order to prolong his life until a suitable kidney from a deceased donor could be located, a wait that could stretch from three to five years. And there was no certainty that Roman would survive that long.

Roman’s Geometry teacher, Eddie McCarthy, was stunned to learn about his student’s dilemma. “He always turned his work in on time, and he was definitely one of my best students,” the educator explained. “But I didn’t realize he’d been going through something this serious.” That’s when Eddie stepped up to the plate and volunteered to donate one his own healthy kidneys.

The surgery was performed on July 19, 2023, at the University of Michigan University Hospital in Ann Arbor, near Detroit. Doctors have deemed the procedure a rousing success.

Eddie knows that Roman won’t be in any of his classes in the upcoming school year. But the teacher says he is looking forward to giving him a high-five in the hallway. “It will be pretty crazy when I watch him walk by,” says Eddie. “I’ll be able to say, ‘There goes my kidney.'”

Wisconsin’s Katelyn Winkel-Simmerman garners recognition

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Middle school math teacher Katelyn Winkel-Simmerman has been recognized as one of her state’s five Teachers of the Year for 2024. Photo credit: Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction

Congratulations are due to Katelyn Winkel-Simmerman, a middle school educator from Cedar Grove, Wisconsin. She has been named one of five teachers in the state of Wisconsin who earned 2024 Teacher of the Year recognition.

Katelyn teaches mathematics to fifth graders at Cedar Grove-Belgium Middle School. She has taught at the school for the past six years. Students and staff say Katelyn. has a reputation for having a warm demeanor, empathetic nature, and upbeat attitude. “You feel valued when you are a student in Mrs. Simmerman’s classroom,” says the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction in a statement published on Facebook. “If you miss the bus and come in late for the third time that week, she greets you with a smile and tells you she’s glad you are here,” the statement continues. “If you are having a rough time at home, she provides a cozy space in her classroom to rest your thoughts because she knows you need a clear mind to learn at your best,” the statement concludes.

In addition to her work in the classroom, Katelyn serves as the adviser for her school’s Student Council. In this capacity, she works with students to plan events and provide meaningful opportunities beyond the classroom which have a positive effect on her school and community.

In addition to her Teacher of the Year recognition, Katelyn was one of two teachers out 100 applicants who garnered a Herb Kohl Fellowship Award for Excellence and Innovation in the Classroom.

Katelyn earned her Bachelor’s degree in Elementary Education in 2015 and her Master’s in Teaching and Learning with an emphasis in Math Intervention in 2019, both from the University of Wisconsin at Oshkosh.