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Hello from Virginia!
My name is Anne Zumbro, and I teach at a small, private school in rural Virginia. My educational background is in Economics, Geology, and Counseling Psychology (quite divers and non-math related, I know!) I was originally a homeschooling mom (12 years), who re-learned a LOT of what I missed or forgot from high school subjects, such as Algebra. I now teach Algebra 1 and an 8th grade math class, along with Earth Science.
I took the 12 week MMMTM course this summer and loved it! I also read “Building Thinking Classrooms in Mathematics” and am ENERGIZED to make some major changes in the way I teach math! I’ve started doing more group thinking tasks at the whiteboards, as well as making a transition to standards based grading. The challenge I am currently facing is that I want to do all this while still allowing my students to work at their own pace, showing mastery of concepts before moving on to the next topic or unit. I have found this to be rewarding on so many levels (to the students as well as to me)! However, I also recognize that I need to challenge their thinking and not simply have them mimic my teaching. Thankfully, I have a very small class this year, which makes this transition period more manageable for me.
Looking forward to learning from everyone in this community!
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1 Reply
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Diverse indeed! Welcome to the community!
Sounds like you’ve got the right idea already – which is not common! Congrats! It does take time to get into a groove and to unlearn the common urge to rush to algorithms and get students to mimic what we are doing. Thinking is key so as long as you are pushing for thinking, you’ll figure out the rest!
