Issue #3 Spring 2009
Faculty Focus - Dr. Brynja Kohler, Assistant Professor, Mathematics and Statistics Department

I recently read a story about "polar plungers" jumping into the cold winter waters of Hyrum Reservoir. I pictured paramedics leaning against a shiny ambulance—just in case. The scene reminded me of my own plunge into teaching high school mathematics in Los Angeles, California.  As a recent graduate of the University of Chicago, I got my feet wet in the mathematics teaching profession by teaching five classes per day of 30 to 40 students each.  All alone with a plethora of new responsibilities, I found the classroom to be a chilly place, and I quickly understood the problem of retaining teachers in urban America.

Without sufficient support, the transition from student to teacher can be a shock to the system.  For this reason, the USU Department of Mathematics and Statistics provides extensive field experience with faculty support to our Math Education majors.  As liaison between the university and secondary math teachers, I coordinate teaching opportunities in the real world—local middle and high school classrooms.  Math education majors have a chance to learn to prepare for their profession while interacting with real students, real teachers and administrators, and real curriculum.

I teach a course called Methods for Secondary Mathematics Teaching which is required before the student teaching semester.  During the first six weeks of university classroom instruction, I get to know the students well and give a crash course on lesson planning.  I then establish collaboration groups with professional math teachers at Logan High School and Mount Logan Middle School—quality teachers with whom I have worked for years. For eight full weeks, university students do much more than observe. They prepare curriculum, teach, and evaluate—more like an apprenticeship than observation.  Additionally, they have the support of each other, since we meet in the schools as a whole class.  As a result of this program, we provide a smoother transition to life as a professional teacher.  The only real shock to the system should be receiving a paycheck, rather than paying tuition.

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