Randall+Roeser+-+Mathematics

I have been teaching at Iroquois Middle School for 13 years - in the same classroom which, by the way, is 116 square feet smaller than Mrs. Farina's room, a sore point that I won't let her forget. I began my teaching career in 1992 in Arlington, VA, and came to Iroquois in 1996. Prior to that, I spent 11 years in the Foreign Service, as a project development officer for the U.S. Agency for International Development. My wife and I lived in Tegucigalpa, Honduras and Quito, Ecuador. Both were lovely places but, for a variety of reasons, we decided that the Foreign Service life was not for us. I transferred back to Washington and, over a period of several years, retooled and became a teacher. No regrets.

My goal as a middle school math teacher is to make mathematics meaningful to my students or, as we sometimes say, to teach for understanding. I was about ready to bag the teaching career idea after observing, as part of my Ed Psych class, so many lifeless classrooms filled with teachers and students going through the motions. But thanks to an inspiring cooperating teacher and the NCTM //Principles and Standards//, I glimpsed the possibility of math classrooms that are alive with discovery, questioning, and sense-making.

I strive to make my classroom like that every day but have a long way to go. State curriculum standards and mandated testing constrain what I can do. But every year I try to incorporate a new strategy to move me toward my ideal, be it cooperative learning, differentiated instruction, formative assessment, or understanding by design. I achieved National Board Certification in Early Adolescence/ Mathematics, a process that moved my teaching forward substantially. The past two years, my focus has been on literacy and critical thinking, the subject of this wiki. I firmly believe in the power of communication and discourse - oral and written - to help students clarify and deepen their understanding of mathematical concepts and skills. My team's collaboration with the Center on English Learning and Achievement (CELA) at SUNY Albany has helped me to be more intentional about providing opportunities for my students to communicate their thinking, especially in writing.

I find teaching to be an infinitely challenging and interesting endeavor. I love experimenting in the classroom (ethically and responsibly, of course!) and learning from the experience. I am constantly updating, refining, and even overhauling my pedagogy, and I am certain that I will continue to do so until I retire, many years from now (no "30, 55, and out" for this second career person).

In what spare time is left after the 60-70 hours that I devote to my teaching responsibilities each week, I am active in my church, enter an occasional 5K race to keep my wife company, serve on the board of a hospitality center for the poor and homeless in Schenectady, and slog away at learning to play the Dobro with a little band of friends affectionately know as the Front Porch Rockers.