A Grant Full of Thoughts: Team Teaching Insights

Taking the road less traveled has always been my life’s choice. Whether the decisions have been personal or professional, I am comfortable choosing a path that is not clearly defined. When I was approached in 2003 about participating in Stark County’s MSP (Math Science Partnership) Grant, I thought it would be a way of broadening my horizons and exploring opportunities to contribute to the field of education. As I reflect on the four years I worked on the grant, it has been that and so much more.

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I,
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

Robert Frost

Although I brought to the grant my years of business management experience in the areas of career development, financial staffing, health care and insurance services as well as my time spent teaching in the classroom at both graduate and undergraduate levels, I did not attend public school as a child and wanted to experience working with elementary and high school students in that setting. During the four years in which I contributed my time and energy to the grant, I had the privilege of working with teachers at five middle schools and two high schools. I encountered hundreds of students from grades 6 through 12, engaging them in mathematical conversations individually and in groups. Writing lessons with colleagues and team-teaching those same lessons with access to various graphing calculators challenged me to develop new ways of explaining the same material I had previously mastered during my own educational pursuits.

In addition to time in the classroom, my creative tendencies prompted me to collaborate with two other teachers in writing a 250-page binder of information on the subject of data analysis. In conjunction with the writing, we presented the material in two formats: as a 6-hour workshop for teachers and as a presentation at The Ohio Council of Teachers of Mathematics 54^th Annual Conference. During my second year, I contributed to the Math Science Symposium program as a co-presenter in a presentation on collaborative teaching; I also spent some months during the summer of that year assisting with curriculum development of an Ohio Graduation Test Third Credit Math Course and then presenting that information in a workshop. The grant also afforded me the chance to attend a conference in Washington, D.C. concerning the assessment of student learning, thereby providing me endless avenues to network with other educators at the national level.

With each experience at the different schools, my role as a college coach evolved with every interaction. With regard to the teachers, my goals included assisting them with the development of lesson plans, discussing topics to cover, and giving suggestions of how to teach the material while simultaneously integrating technology to enhance comprehension. We reviewed content and fine-tuned misconceptions regarding the particular subject at hand while elaborating upon the relation of those very topics to the fundamental mathematical concepts required for student success. When questions arose during lectures or group discussions, sometimes I would be asked to share my thoughts regarding the topic. Often, a mere few minutes spent discussing different methods to teach a subject resulted in fewer student questions and a more confident and succinct delivery.

Team teaching and individual student attention

Any students willing to engage me in conversation received individual attention in clarifying key mathematical concepts. Perhaps I explained the idea slightly differently than their previous or current teachers. By reminding them of the value of hard work and true conceptual understanding, I reiterated the focus of life-long learning and not simply rote memorization. I became another person in the classroom with whom students could make an intellectual connection and another resource to ask about the college experience.

Team teaching is collaborative, not competitive

When questioned about my ability to walk into so many different classrooms without creating tension between the teacher in charge and me as the visiting college professor, my answer included three parts:

1. Respect the authority of the teacher.
2. Realize no one including myself knows everything about everything.
3. Adopt the mindset of assisting in any way possible.

This approach to each and every situation never failed to cultivate a productive and cooperative team teaching environment.

In 2003, I could not have explained the direction in which my life would turn when I accepted the invitation to participate in the MSP Grant. I only knew then that I wanted the opportunity to try new things and was willing to enter into uncharted territory to do just that. In four years, I had met new colleagues and had made new friends; had collaborated in diverse and challenging projects; had reviewed and expanded my knowledge of many math topics concurrently; and had learned a tremendous amount about the public school system. At the end of those four years, I walked away with broadened horizons from the intellectual collaborations and the emotional connections, still knowing that the best path for me is the one less traveled.