Abdi Abdinoor
6th & 7th Grade
Hiatt Middle School, Des Moines

There are numerous factors that led me to pursue a career in Mathematics but to mention a few of them I would say it is both personal preferences and community responsibility. I worked with Des Moines Public schools from February 2011 to June 2022 as a Somali community liaison. During this time frame, I worked closely with parents, teachers and students. I tutored students, interpreted during conferences and ran numerous parent classes. Although I worked closely with refugee students, it seemed that I was not doing enough. I saw most of them joining trucking school after high school. I knew they needed a role model. Someone who looks like them and shares the same background who succeeded in education and became a teacher. I decided to become a teacher so they can see themselves in me. I knew this profession is not for money, but it helps the next generation and that motivated me to pursue it. In addition to that, I also come from a family of teachers. My dad, my grandfather and my four siblings are teachers, so it is a family call and my passion to help youngsters.

In my first year I am looking forward to new experiences and skills that will improve my teaching. I am looking forward to learning new strategies and collaborations that will help my students’ success. I am looking forward to working closely with my PLC to improve my skills. I am looking for a successful year that will help me obtain valuable skills.

Lauren Anders
Algebra I
Ottumwa High School, Ottumwa

I have known that I wanted to be a math teacher since 4th grade. I had amazing, supportive teachers throughout middle school and high school that allowed me to be unapologetically myself. I was very much a music and theater kid. I spent every waking hour rehearsing or watching videos of other people performing. My first love was absolutely math (probably because it was the only subject I could get an 'A' in), but my second was music. After high school I decided that math was definitely my passion but that didn't mean that music couldn't be my hobby. I continued to dance and I auditioned for choir at UNI. Unfortunately the spring of my freshman year was when COVID sent us into lockdown and I was thrown into independent living and was forced to find joy in new hobbies. I listened to podcasts and painted, I got back into reading (probably the first time since 7th grade), I tried a million new Pinterest recipes, and I walked my dogs multiple times a day. These things became my new forms of self care when I was knee deep in lesson planning and grading during my student teaching. I found these things were what kept my head above water and allowed me time to reflect on myself rather than my students for just a small portion of my day. I am looking forward to sharing these things with my students and teaching them the importance of taking time everyday where they only focus on themselves and their needs. With the first year of teaching there are always endless invitations to attend student games, matches, and activities. My goal for the next year is to practice and pick up soccer- which is really popular among my students this year. I'm hoping that by showing them that I am trying something new that they care about I can form deeper relationships with them!

I am so excited to gain experience with ELL students and their families. being from a suburb of Des Moines, I did not have a large community of these kids to work with. I am going to challenge myself to learn some Spanish so that I can communicate with my families without fear of misunderstanding and I want to make sure that when I reflect on my first year I can say that I did everything in my power to help my students succeed.

Joshua Benitez
Algebra I
Roosevelt High School, Des Moines

I knew from early on that I wanted to be a teacher. I discovered that I had a passion for working with children through teaching swimming lessons during the summers. Seeing the look on a student's face when they are finally able to accomplish something they have been working on is such a special moment. I was also always looking up to my mom throughout my childhood, as she was a teacher herself. I saw the difference she could make in kids' lives by giving them support that they had never received from an adult before. These are only a few examples of what drew me towards teaching.

I would definitely say that I had a love/hate relationship with mathematics when I was growing up. Looking back on my experience, I do consider myself to be a person who enjoyed math classes more than some of my other classmates had. I loved the educational challenge that comes along with math, and how great of a feeling you get when you finally understand a concept you have been struggling with. However, there were definitely times that I found myself struggling so much with a math assignment that I would be in tears. Through these tough moments, I learned that it's okay to struggle, ask questions, and lean on others for support. Now that I get to be in the teacher's position, I want to use my past experiences to be able to provide support to the kids who "don't get it" as easily as others, as well as build a strong foundation in mathematics for their future.

I'm excited to bring forth new ideas into the classroom that enhances learning for students and provide authentic experiences with mathematics in which students can witness the topic being utilized in the real world. Furthermore, I look forward to developing new connections among students and parents, guiding them all they go about in their educational journey, and providing insight from the experiences I've gone though to develop a foundation of understanding. Most important, I'm prepared to demonstrates to all my students that I encounter the potential they have in developing themselves into an individual they can resonate with, tearing down obstacles that once were impossible for them but now appear to be learning curve.

Lydia Butters
English Language Pre Algebra and Pre Calculus
Waterloo West High School, Waterloo

I have always had a passion for learning. I grew up in a classroom; I spent many afternoons in my grandma’s kindergarten classroom helping her prepare for the next day. My love for mathematics grew during my eighth grade year while I was in Algebra. The complexity of the subject drew me in as well as my math teacher that year. She encouraged me to challenge myself by working on the tougher problems and to be a peer mentor to the other students in the class. She helped me build my confidence in mathematics. I really started to appreciate math’s beauty after taking Discrete and Argumentative Mathematics. The fact that you could prove something was true on this planet was enthralling. I enjoy the aspect of argumentation and justification. I want students to experience the challenges mathematics has to offer, which can help foster resiliency. I want to teach others that mathematics is all around us. Patterns make up mathematics. Fractals can be used to help put a model to a rainforest to predict the amount of CO2 it can retain or they can be used to create a pattern on a shirt. The Fibonacci sequence can be applied to hurricanes and flower petals. Percentages can help a consumer save money. Statistics can help us understand inequalities in the education system as well as in the prison system. Understanding how mathematics works can help us understand how accurate certain claims actually are. Mathematics can help create reasoning and justification for ideas we have, such that a better argument can be built. Mathematics makes communication more precise. I want others to learn the power of mathematics.

I am most looking forward to the diversity of the students I will teach. I am excited to learn about their different cultures and their different ways of thinking about topics; such that I can adapt my curriculum to best suit their needs. I am excited to learn from them and get to know them better. I am also looking forward to implementing strategies, from the book Building Thinking Classrooms in Mathematics, into my teaching like using non-permanent surfaces as well as random groups each day. I am excited to help students build their confidence in mathematics and develop their communication skills through justification and argumentation.

Franchesca DeVore
Algebra 1, Geometry, Algebra 2, Pre-Calculus, and Calculus
Baxter High School, Baxter

Growing up, when I was asked the question of, "What do you want to do want to be when you get older?" I would always respond with, "I want to become a teacher." I have always had a love for mathematics, but this love grew the most when I was in fifth grade. My school just got a new curriculum that my teacher was struggling to understand. When it came to the math curriculum it came to me very naturally. There were times I was helping her teach the class the curriculum. From that moment on I knew I wanted to become a math teacher. I wanted to continue sharing my passion for math with as many people as I could.

My favorite part about mathematics is that it can be very black and white with little to no gray area. I also really like that mathematics there are multiple different ways to get to the solution of a problem. It is very interesting to me to see the different perspectives that people have to solving a math problem. I hope that by sharing my love for math with others it will help others hate math a little less. I want students to realize that they are smart enough and capable of succeeding in a math classroom.

During my senior year I was granted the opportunity to experience what it would be like teaching mathematics. My fifth grade math teacher came to me asking if I would take the time out of my schedule to come down every day to teach eight fifth graders, that were way too advanced for her class, Introduction to Algebra. I enjoyed every moment getting to work with these students, beginning able to teach them math, sharing my passion and love for mathematics with them, and forming relationships with them. They were such a fun group of kids that I knew at that moment that I was going to work towards becoming a math teacher. 

What I am most looking forward to in my first year of teaching is getting to know and build relationships with not only my students but the community as well. It is important in a small town to get to know the community and build those relationships because nothing beats a small town community when it comes to helping out. I am also looking forward to utilizing what I have learned from my mentor teachers to create my own classroom environment. While I am excited to utilize what I have learned from college and my mentor teachers, I am also looking forward to trying new things within my classroom. I am very excited but also nervous of becoming a first year teacher with five preps.

Ashley Gonzales
5th Grade, Southeast Valley Middle School, Burnside

I always loved math in school and had amazing teachers. I learned different ways that math can be taught to help reach different types of students. When some of my classmates needed help understanding the content we were learning, I would help them and figure out different ways to explain it to them to help it make more sense. I want my math classroom to be a place where students are able to enjoy math and be able to learn math concepts in new ways.

In my first year of teaching, I look forward to implementing instructional ideas that I learned in my college classes as well as ones that I learned about at conferences. I look forward to having my own classroom and being able to have a positive impact on my students' lives.

Brittany Gray
Advanced Algebra, Geometry, and Mathematics in Real Life
Colfax-Mingo Senior High School, Colfax

In middle school, I started thinking about what I wanted to go to school for and after having an amazing algebra teacher in 8th grade, I started to think that I would really love teaching mathematics. This idea was solidified when, during my sophomore year of high school, I was having a conversation with my teacher about wanting to be a math teacher, and she told me I would be amazing at teaching math and to go for it! So when applying to Iowa State, there was no doubt in my mind that’s what I was going to study. After completing my practicum experiences, I knew that I had made the right choice and knew that teaching math was the right path for me!

I am most looking forward to meeting all of my new students and getting working with the community of teachers in the school. I am excited to be part of the school community and work with the veteran teachers to learn new concepts of teaching.

Adrienne Howard
Geometry, Probability, Statistics
Mid City High School, Davenport

My teaching career began from a desire to change the educational system. I believe one way for me to do this was to become a superintendent. So, I researched the rules to become a superintendent in the state of Iowa. I learned that I would need to be a teacher first. I thought I would have to go back to school to get a bachelor's degree in education, since my undergraduate degrees were in mathematics and political science and my professional degree was a juris doctorate. However, I learned that I could obtain a master’s degree and teach. This led me to choose a career in teaching mathematics.

A fun little side note is that I have been tutoring classmates and students in math since I was in grade school. I assist classmates and schoolmates in preparation of their current course and the Georgia High School Graduation Test; I tutored Upward Bound students, and I volunteered at math programs during my time at the University of Georgia. It was not until after I had children of my own that I turned my hobby of assisting students into a career! " In my first year of teaching, I am most looking forward to helping the students see that they can succeed whether it be in math or a different area of their life. I saw how important this was for students during my first semester of teaching in January 2023. I observed that the students who believed they could succeed tried in my classroom. Teaching at the alternative school, I see that many of my students come in with a mindset that they are a failure because this is their second or more time in geometry or have failed a different math course previously. This mindset hinders them in math, and I believe if I can help them see success as a possibility in one area in their life then they will be more open to learning math.

Jessica Jacobs
7th Grade Math
Grinnell-Newburg Middle School, Grinnell

Growing up, I had wonderful math teachers at the middle school level. These teachers not only inspired me but made math engaging. When my peers and I needed help, they were always there. Building positive relationships is a key to a successful learning environment and I had that with these math teachers. In middle school, we were always using some sort of manipulatives and visuals as much as we could. I know that each student learns in different ways and my math teachers understood this. We could explore new concepts, make predictions, and look for connections. My math classes at the middle school level were not lecture-based always. My goal is to do my best to make students understand math concepts, inspire them to at least enjoy math class with me, and think about math ideas in new ways. Not all students will like math, and I get that. But, my goal is to make them succeed.

This upcoming year as a first-year teacher, I am looking forward to several things. I cannot wait to have my own classroom and design it. With tons of knowledge from my past methods courses, I cannot wait to put several of those tools into action. I want to do a variety of hands-on activities as well as give my students flexibility in tools in which best they learn. I want to incorporate student-led conversations, embed group work, as well as allow for individual work time. I am looking forward to getting to know my students and guiding them in their learning.

McKinley Lain
Algebra II, Precalculus, Statistics, and Algebra B
Centerville Community High School, Centerville

From the very beginning the teacher in high school I most looked up to and still do is a math teacher who molded the raw skills and knowledge of math into a problem solving and teamwork short course that has long left an impression on my actions in life and perception of mathematics. That led to thinking engineering was my professional calling to apply the mathematics to real world problems. I soon found biological systems have long-ago solved many of the challenges we face today so I adjusted course to regenerative farming without losing the wonder and skills provided to me by math.

Once I was regularly in the classroom as a substitute it became evident the classroom is where I feel most engaged and impactful, so I began looking at how I could be in the classroom full time. Between my mathematics curses for engineering in university for the endorsement and RAPIL for licensure the door to teaching full-time was opened.

Often students have a tenuous relationship with math based on their previous experiences or via self- or other- applied expectations of the subject. I am most looking forward to developing a classroom environment that allows for the space, focus, and motivation to master skills promptly as a method to illuminate indirect and direct applications of the knowledge and skills. I want students to look back on this year and say Mr. Lain's class was the most "challenging, supportive, insightful, and applicable class I have ever taken."

I look forward to the moments of accuracy and consistency that reveal proficiency in the content. I also look forward to the prerequisite stumbles and teaching methods to regain direction and confidence in the content. The skills of math and perspectives centered on growth are the true rewards I seek for my students' after working hard throughout the year. 

Spencer McGrane
Algebra 1
Valley Southwoods, West Des Moines 

During my sophomore year at the University of Iowa I was business major, but I was not interested by any of my courses except for business statistics. I really enjoyed the content of that course, but more than anything I was inspired by the professor's passion for teaching it. Seeing how much he enjoyed being in class everyday and sharing his excitement for statistics is what made me want to be a math teacher.

Teachers have always been very influential people in my life from elementary to middle school and high school, I have had great teachers who are still role models to me. However, no teachers have been more influential or better role models for me than my parents who are both teachers. They have both shown me the kind of person that it takes to be an impactful teacher and role model to students.

I am most excited to meet the students and begin building rapport with them. I also am very excited to have my own classroom and have the freedom to design engaging lessons. I want to try to incorporate group work as well implement rotations which I learned how to do during my student teaching experience.

Caleb Potts
Algebra 1 & Geometry
Mid-Prairie High School, Wellman

Throughout my academic career, I always found myself in a position where I would be lending a helping hand to my peers in the classroom, especially in math. I was always very strong mathematically and was always happy to help those around me. Throughout high school, the math department was very strong. I looked to them as role models in my life and they also made school a joy to come to. So, that’s where a small bug got planted in my mind that maybe a career in teaching would be a good fit for me. Along my academic career though, I had classes with teachers that made me feel the complete opposite though. I dreaded being around them, having their class, it made my day really drag until their class was over. That’s also part of why I wanted to take a teaching position as well, believing that I could be someone that makes students want to come to class instead of the alternative.

The one thing I’m looking forward to the most this year is the improvement in my pacing of content as well as my effectiveness to teach it. I’m excited to try new lessons and projects that I didn’t get a chance to utilize last year due to time constraints (turns out I wasn’t perfect on pacing my first time through!) So, I’m really excited to dissect Algebra 1 a little more and make time to get to those lessons I didn’t get a chance to try out, especially because I believe students will get more involved with math while doing so! I’m also looking forward to teaching Geometry since I haven’t had much experience with it outside of being a student. I’ll have the chance to teach this class alongside my mentor teacher as well, which is an opportunity I’m very grateful to have the chance to experience!

Elizabeth Riege
Algebra 1A, Algebra 2, Calculus, and Consumer Math
Hartley-Melvin-Sanborn High School, Hartley

Throughout my time at school, I was one of the few people who loved going to mathematics class. I was eager to learn the next thing and most of the time mathematics came pretty easy for me. I loved to help others in my class understand the concept and most of the time I was pretty good at explaining what was going on to them. By the time I got to high school, I was finally challenged with mathematics. My high school Algebra 2 teacher was the first teacher to really challenge me, and I was frustrated at times because the concept did not come as easy as before. This is when I knew I wanted to be a mathematics teacher. I was good at helping those who struggled as well as wanted to ensure I was challenging the students who grasped the concepts quickly. As high school continued, I was told by multiple people that I would be a great mathematics teacher and help students change their mindset about mathematics. This is when I knew I wanted to become a teacher who would make mathematics meaningful and fun for all my students. Once I got to college, the professors quickly saw my passion for teaching as well as mathematics. From the time I spent in a middle school and high school classroom, there was clear evidence I was called to be a mathematics teacher. With the help of my high school mathematics teacher and the support of friends, family, and community members, I quickly knew teaching mathematics was what I wanted my career to be in and change the mindset of mathematics in students.

One thing I am looking forward to being a first-year teacher is getting to know my students and creating a classroom environment welcoming to all students. I am also looking forward to helping create a more positive mindset in mathematics. I want my students to see the real-world application of mathematics as well as connect mathematics with things they are passionate about. The idea of having my own classroom and teaching my lessons is another thing I look forward to. I know that I will make mistakes and not everything will be perfect, but I look forward to learning with my students. I want to normalize mistakes because in mathematics mistakes are expected which creates a better learning opportunity. Through having my own classroom and being a first-year teacher, I look forward to building a better foundation for both me and the students I will be teaching as well as look for ways to improve my teaching for the years to come.

Stephanie Wittstock
K-3, Mathematics Intervention
Panorama Elementary, Panora

It was a bit accidental that I ended up in mathematics, but I am so glad that I am here. As previously stated, my major was early childhood education with a minor in TESOL so I always assumed I would end up in one of those two paths of teaching. However when searching for jobs, math intervention was presented to me and I could not turn it down. I am so excited to be able to help students make connections between mathematical ideas and explore with numbers. As a student myself, I was not very fond of math because even in early elementary I recall seeing it as “answer getting” and feeling like I just had to reproduce exactly what I had been shown on the board.

I want to be able to provide students with a deeper understanding of mathematical concepts and show that numbers can be fun. I would love for my classroom to be a collaborative, explorative space where it’s okay to question each other, talking about strategies and big ideas. I know so many students who do not like math because they think that they cannot “do” it or do not understand it, including myself when I was young. I want to help students see what I have come to learn in the last few years- math can be fun! We can learn so many different ways to help us understand and we can have different perspectives and that's okay! Everybody can be good at math, we just have to know how to help get them there.

I am excited to be able to put into practice all of the ideas that I have learned through my methods courses and a couple of additional courses that I took over the summer. One course that I took focused on the use of games in the math classroom to offer opportunities for rich practice of various skills. I am so excited to incorporate many of these games as a means of intervention and get students thinking and having so much fun at the same time.