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Distinguished Teacher Selected as Mentor Fellow

Math for America San Diego is pleased to announce the selection of  Brian Shay as a Mentor Fellow for the Math for America San Diego Fellowship program.  

Brian Shay

"Brian is a very accomplished and inspiring mathematics teacher," said Barbara Edwards, MfA SD executive director. "He was selected as a mentor for his extensive mathematics knowledge, communication skills and commitment to improving mathematics teaching and learning.  We are delighted to have a teacher of his caliber working with our new fellows."

Shay will provide one-on-one, onsite support to selected new MfA SD fellows during their first years of teaching.  He also will participate in professional development activities, including an annual three-week summer institute and academic year workshops. 

"Mathematics is a challenging subject to teach and to learn," Shay said.  "I know the importance of personal support during a teacher's early years in the classroom.  As a mentor, I can provide guidance and insight to help new teachers develop successful approaches for improved mathematics instruction."  

Shay teaches mathematics at Canyon Crest Academy in Carmel Valley.  He is the recipient of numerous awards including the 2009 Greater San Diego Mathematics Council Outstanding High School Math Teacher award.

 

Shay was one of 16 people awarded the 2008 Fulbright-Hays scholarship where he spent five weeks in India studying its culture, education structure and mathematics curriculum. In 2010, he was appointed by Governor Schwarzenegger to serve on the Academic Content Standards Commission where he was an integral part of crafting California's new standards based on the Common Core State Standards. Shay was asked to join the California Teacher Advisory Council, the teacher arm of the California Council on Science and Technology. He currently serves as Vice-Chair of the Teacher Advisory Council, where he advises industry and the state legislature about STEM education.  

Shay holds two MA degrees from the University of California, Davis in Mathematics (2000) and in Mathematics Teaching (2002). He graduated summa cum laude with a BA degree and MA degree in Mathematics in 1998 from State University of New York (SUNY) Potsdam. He holds the distinct honor of becoming the first student in the school's history to graduate with a BA and MA in Mathematics in three years. He is a member of the Phi Kappa Phi Honor Society and Pi Mu Epsilon Math Honor Society at SUNY Potsdam and was selected as a Potsdam Presidential Scholar. 

        

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2011 MfA SD Noyce Fellows (left to right): Kathleen Barry (UCSD), Robin Dobashi (UCSD), Brynn Hewitt  (UCSD), Frances Henderson (SDSU), Leslee Howe (CSUSM) and Lauren Brown-Cornell (UCSD).

Six outstanding women have been selected for the 2011 MfA SD Noyce Fellowship. The future high school mathematics teachers are pursuing their single subject teaching credential and will be placed in San Diego high school classrooms this fall.
 

"Each new fellow has a strong passion for teaching and a determination to advance mathematics understanding in high school students, especially those in underserved schools and districts," said MfA SD executive director Barbara Edwards. "These new fellows recognize the critical importance of equipping students with the mathematics knowledge necessary for college and beyond."
 

MfA SD Fellows obtain their teaching credential from one of the program's partnership universities - California State University San Marcos, San Diego State University or the University of California, San Diego. Upon completion of the university credential program, MfA SD Fellows receive job placement assistance from partner school districts and commit to four years of teaching in a high need secondary school in San Diego County.

"4M" Professional Development Program Now Underway at SDUSD High Schools     

Mathematics teachers from San Diego Unified School District's Morse High School and Mira Mesa High School are learning new ways to teach and learn mathematics through a program offered by Math for America San Diego. The "Math at Morse and Mira Mesa" (4M) professional development series offers research-based teaching practices with a focus on Common Core State Standards instruction.      

"The Common Core State Standards framework outline a set of core practices, concepts and skills that mathematics teachers are expected to incorporate into their teaching practice," said Dr. Guershon Harel, professor of mathematics at the University of California San Diego, and director of the professional development project. "We are introducing teachers to effective ways to encourage quantitative reasoning among students." 

Program participants meet for monthly, on-site department seminars that conclude with a one-week summer workshop in August 2012.  MfA SD leadership provide classroom observations and debriefings, and lesson planning consultations.  Participants can observe exemplary teachers demonstrating the program methods.

"We're pleased the San Diego Unified School District provided us with the opportunity to work with these two mathematics departments.  We believe collaboration among whole departments can lead to a dynamic change in mathematics instruction and student understanding,"  Harel said.  "We hope this model of professional development will be adopted by other interested schools and districts."

A panel of Master Teaching Fellows provided a lively and informative discussion on the impact of MfA SD's professional development on students at the January 18, 2012 MfA SD Advisory Council Meeting at UC San Diego's Faculty Club. Guests included partner district superintendents, university faculty and administration, and community advisory council members. Barbara Edwards, MfA SD executive director, introduced the new fellows in attendance and presented highlights from the 2011 annual report.

The panel discussion centered on the fellowship's professional development work, specifically the use of DNR (Duality, Necessity and Repeated Reasoning), a teaching approach developed by Dr. Guershon Harel, professor of mathematics at UC San Diego and principal investigator for the NSF Noyce Master Teaching Fellowship program.  

Master Teaching Fellows panelists were Gregory Guayante, El Camino High School; Michelle Hammack, Orange Glen High School; Jannelle Olivier, Olympian High School; and Cheryl Tyler, Helix Charter High School. Chris Reising, San Diego County Office of Education's Director of Teacher Recruitment and Support, served as facilitator.  

Panelists discussed how newly acquired teaching practices have enhanced their knowledge of mathematics, and influenced their teaching and interaction with students and colleagues:  

"MfA SD's professional development has drastically changed the way I think about my teaching and my students. I learned math as lots of procedures, but was never taught how to be a problem-solver. This program has opened my eyes and has made me go back and re-learn math as a problem-solver. It allows for more freedom, more depth of understanding."
- Michelle Hammack 

"I tried polynomial long division the way Guershon taught it to us. I taught it in my first period until the students understood it, and that was hard.  So second period I went back to old ways. When I tested both classes, the kids in first period were more successful on the test." - Cheryl Tyler 

"DNR puts you in students' seats and that is an important context.  It has really challenged me." - Gregory Guayante 

Fellows work with DNR at the 2011 MfA SD Summer Institute

"I spent two days on teaching triangle inequality, and my students did better on benchmark assessments because they really understood it and  were able to break down the problem. That was something they were doing because of my instruction.  I can tell it works when the kids can tell you what they're doing, and why they are doing it." - Jannelle Olivier 

BE WiSE Alumnae Attend MfA SD "Math Party!"

MfA SD's BE WiSE "Math Party!" November 2011

MfA SD fellows present annual workshops for BE WiSE as part of their  first-year fellowship activities. The workshops are designed to spark interest and passion for mathematics among alumnae participants of  San Diego Science Alliance's BE WiSE program (Better Education for Women in Science & Engineering).  BE WiSE was founded to support young women interested in the study of science and engineering.  

MfA SD Fellows Earn Community Partnership Award

MfA SD's 2010 Fellows with SDSA 's 2011 Community Partnership Award

Math for America San Diego 2010 Fellows received the San Diego Science Alliance 2011 Community Partnership Award for developing a series of outstanding workshops for the BE WiSE alumnae program. The workshops featured "The Vision of Maria Agnesi," an overview of the history of women in math and science, and "Real World Math," a morning of entertaining and educational hands-on activities incorporating probability, statistics, weighted averages, scale and proportion concepts and logic puzzles.  

In the News

Recent news articles for Math for America San Diego 

The San Diego Union Tribune announces Brian Shay as Mentor Fellow in its Feb. 20, 2012  School Notes column.  

Barbara Bry and Neil Senturia's column "I'm There for You, Baby" in the San Diego Union Tribune's Feb. 14, 2012 edition features MfA SD and the importance of  mathematics education in business.  

The San Diego Union Tribune profiles MfA SD Noyce Master Teaching Fellow Cheryl Tyler in its Jan. 26, 2012  Teacher Spotlight column.

San Diego Unified School District Jan. 13, 2012  Friday Notes announces MfA SD Noyce Master Teaching Fellows Suzanne Fore, Frederick Griesbach and Trang Vu.

North County Times Dec. 6, 2011 columnist Paul Pfingsten interviews MfA SD executive director Barbara Edwards about Kathleen Barry's selection as a 2011 MfA SD Noyce Fellow.

CSU San Marcos E-Newsletter Dec. 6, 2011 posts Leslee Howe's announcement as a 2011 MfA SD Noyce Fellow.

Sweetwater Union High School District News Dec. 5, 2011 features Jannelle Olivier's MfA SD Noyce Master Teaching Fellowship award.

The Scripps College Alumnae e-newsletter Tenth & Columbia profiles 2011 MfA SD Fellow Robin Dobashi in its December 2011 Names from the Wall Q&A column.

San Diego State University NewsCenter Nov. 29, 2011 announces the selection of Francesca Henderson as a 2011 MfA SD Noyce Fellow.

La Jolla Light Nov. 24, 2011 announces Trang Vu as a MfA SD Noyce Master Teaching Fellow.

Coast News Nov. 23, 2011 interviews MfA SD Noyce Master Teaching Fellow Gregory Guayante and Professor Guershon Harel.

Columbia University's Nov. 18, 2011 Columbia College Today  e-news announces Kathleen Barry's selection as a 2011 MfA SD Noyce Fellow.

Point Loma Nazarene University's PLNU Forward  Nov. 17, 2011 e-news announces Leslee Howe's selection as a 2011 MfA SD Noyce Fellow.

La Mesa Patch  Nov. 9, 2011 posts announcement of Cheryl Tyler as a 2011 Noyce Master Teaching Fellow.