Introduction

Hi everyone!

My name is Amanda Opperman, and I'm a PhD student in Math Education. I also received my undergraduate degree in Mathematics and my secondary teacher certification from MSU -- East Lansing just can't get rid of me! As a research assistant, I've worked on several projects over the years. I spent two years teaching MTH 201 and 202, which are MSU's basic content courses for undergraduate elementary education majors. I worked for one year on TEACH Math, a research project centered on preparing pre-service teachers to build on students' mathematical thinking and community knowledge. For the past year, I've held two assistantships, one as an editorial assistant on the Mathematics Teacher Educator, a journal of both the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics and the Association of Mathematics Teacher Educators, and the other as a research assistant on SEMI (Study of Elementary Math Instruction), a project focused on early career teachers' planning and networking practices. This fall, I'll be leaving the journal to begin working as a field instructor for secondary mathematics interns in the Grand Rapids area. Additionally, I am wrapping up my practicum research, which focused on pre-service mathematics teachers' conceptualizations of classroom culture, and preparing to complete my comprehensive exams this fall. For my depth paper, I am completing a literature review of research that has evaluated the success of alternative teacher preparation programs via metrics other than students' standardized test scores, such as rates of teacher retention. My main areas of research interest are the preparation of pre-service teachers and issues of social justice in education.

When I'm not working, I enjoy running, knitting, baking, singing along loudly to musical soundtracks, reading (I'm currently in the middle of Glen Weldon's The Caped Crusade: Batman and the Rise of Nerd Culture), and watching TV (current favorite: Crazy Ex-Girlfriend on the CW network). I also love spending time with my family, including my husband of 6 years, Michael. Together, we enjoy traveling, hiking, and finding new brewpubs to try out -- we recently moved to Grand Rapids, so there are a lot of those!

Since I do enjoy watching so much television, I've seen a lot of portrayals of teachers and teaching. Some of these portrayals are more realistic than others. Some are more realistic than they perhaps mean to be. I remember once watching an episode of The Simpsons where Lisa's teacher is passing the morning's tests back to students in the afternoon, and one paper has earned an "F," but looks at first as if it has a "B," because the teacher has spilled kahlua on the paper. The implication is supposed to be that this teacher is burned out and doesn't care -- "look, she's drinking over lunch!" I turned to my husband and pointed out that even this burned out, uncaring teacher just worked over her lunch break. He was taken aback to realize that this implication had slipped right by him, taken for granted as just part of what being a teacher is.

I would have to say that the portrayal of teachers and teaching that sits closest to my heart, though, was on Boy Meets World, which ran on ABC through much of my childhood in the 1990s. This show featured a history teacher named Mr. Feeny, who went on to become the school’s principal (thus allowing him to stay on the show after the main cast moved from middle school to high school). This was a show that was intended for younger viewers, and as such had a rather idealistic take on teaching. Mr. Feeny always knew how to get a lesson across to his young students, and he was always wise, kind, and generous to a fault with his time. Real-world teachers may often feel that they fall short on these fronts – I know I did when I had my own classroom.

Yet, I believe there are still ways that the real work of teaching can be connected to this portrayal. Mr. Feeny took an interest in his students as people and individuals. He knew that their experiences outside of class had an impact on their learning, and he spent time getting to know who his students were and what they had gone through. He also expressed his genuine affection for them. Mr. Feeny also held high expectations for his students. Many of the students in the main cast were shown to be struggling students who disliked studying, but Mr. Feeny frequently encouraged them to truly engage with a lesson’s content and gave them opportunities to do so by designing lessons that would connect to their interests (for example, students’ interest in baseball) or be otherwise meaningful to them. He also pushed his students to be self-reliant and to go outside their comfort zone – for instance, by applying to colleges that weren’t just “sure things.” Throughout the series, Mr. Feeny was a caring, reliable presence who made sure to help his students see the relevance of learning to their own lives and who pushed them to believe in their own knowledge and ability to learn and to contribute to the world.

All of these things reflect my own values as a teacher. I believe that effective teachers must engage their students holistically, recognizing that they are complete human beings with capabilities, interests, and experiences that they can bring to bear on the classroom. Additionally, teachers can’t learn for their students; instead, the teacher’s role is essentially to set up the context that will allow students to develop their own knowledge, then let it happen while providing support along the way. Teachers must also hold students to high standards and expect them to do their part in engaging with these learning scenarios. Each of these ideals can be seen in Mr. Feeny’s behavior, and his example was valuable to me as I frequently watched this show as a young girl. In fact, it still is.

But I can still get a laugh of recognition from watching Miss Hoover and Mrs. Krabappel from time to time.