This web site is sponsored by Washington Teachers of Teachers of Mathematics (WaToToM).
WaToToM members include faculty members in mathematics and mathematics education from all of the state universities and numerous private universities and community colleges, K-12 teachers of every level, and a number of other valued members of the mathematics education community.
What we offer on this website is the fruit of our experience and of our discussions.
The Executive Committee of WaToToM is:
- Keith Adolphson, Eastern Washington University
- Celine Dorner, Pacific Lutheran University
- Joyce Hammer, Green River Community College
- James King, University of Washington
- Jo Anne Robinson, Washington State Mathematics Council
- Kimberly Vincent, Washington State University
- Ginger Warfield, University of Washington
Biography will be added shortly.
Celine Dorner is the former chair of Mathematics Department at Pacific Lutheran University and the math education specialist in the Mathematics Department. Dr. Dorner has taught math internationally, at the junior high level in Oregon for six years, and has developed math content and math pedagogy classes at the university level. Dr. Dorner most recently served as the Washington Higher Education Coordinating Board (HECB) Improving Teacher Quality (ITQ) project Math coordinator to ensure successful Project development and implementation for the year 2007-2008. She has done extensive community based mathematics projects for the local K-12 school districts in Pierce County.
Joyce is a mathematics instructor at Green River Community College where she has taught for over 14 years. In addition to algebra courses, her main focus has been to teach mathematics courses for future K-8 teachers. Having taught K-12 earlier in her career, Joyce is interested in finding ways to engage students of all ages by utilizing technology, incorporating real-world applications, and encouraging hands-on activities. At GRCC, Joyce also is the chair of the Instructional Council and is the Co-Director of Project TIME (Transitions in Mathematics Education) which is a secondary/postsecondary partnership sponsored by the statewide Transition Mathematics Project. Finishing up the coursework for a Ph.D. through Oregon State University, Joyce's dissertation will be focusing on K-12/community college transitions.
Biography will be added shortly.
Past President Washington State Mathematics Council
Coming from the era of teaching mathematics only by lecturing and learning by memorization, I was always afraid that I really did not “know math” and that I was not “gifted” in math. Though I had many different teachers, hours and hours of hard work and self‐teaching helped me become a mathematics teacher. Teaching mathematics did not change the hard work aspect for me personally but I found that teaching it differently than how I had been taught was transforming. I found joy in watching students solve challenging problems through collaboration and experimentation. Their exultation in applying past experiences in math to grapple with real‐life, practical situations was inspiring to me as their teacher/facilitator. Throughout my career I learned to appreciate the intertwining of mathematics in all its aspects, within itself and in the interaction with the world around us. Being part of making mathematics meaningful and understandable to others is my life-long reward. I hope that I fit in the second part of Ralph Waldo Emerson’s statement: “The great teacher is not the one who supplies the most facts, but the one in whose presence we become different people.“
There are two major influences that impact how I do and teach mathematics. The first major influence was my father. Growing up in Maine it would be considered sacrilege not to play cribbage. When I was five years old I began playing cribbage with my Dad. He taught me to look for patterns and to find shortcuts, when counting my points. He also challenged me to figure out why 19 was an impossible hand. He instilled a love of problem solving in the way he encouraged me to think. My students are a major influence on how I teach. When I was working on a PhD in mathematics I took notice of the drop in numbers of women from the first semester of calculus to the third semester of calculus. I switched to mathematics education upon completion of my coursework. Women’s attitudes toward mathematics gave me incredible insight and transformed how I teach mathematics. Teaching to memorize facts does not work for the majority of women/girls. Teaching for understanding gives them confidence, problem solving abilities and an appreciation of mathematics that rules did not give them. And by the way, understanding mathematics, rather than just memorizing it, actually helps the men/boys as well. I teach mathematics courses and methods of teaching for the Dept of Mathematics at Washington State University.
Ginger Warfield has loved mathematics and people from the cradle, but it wasn't until she finished her doctorate in Probability that she discovered the joys of combining those two loves. The resulting fascination has led to her teaching mathematics and/or the teaching of mathematics to children, undergraduates, graduate students, pre-service teachers, in-service teachers, and any neighbor who didn't duck fast enough. It has also led her into the field of Mathematics Education in a number of ways -- and her horizons are still expanding. She launched WaToToM on the theory that all of us working together can accomplish far more than each of us working separately, and is delighted to have had that theory validated.
For more details, see www.math.washington.edu/~warfield/