All the President’s Math
By Jessica Rae Patton, Associate Editor

For some of Skip's favorite math activities to use in your own classroom click here. PDF 88KB

The skies were threatening on the morning we visited Cranberry Station Elementary School in Westminster, MD. It had been raining nearly nonstop for two weeks and today didn't look like an exception. Hopeful for a change in forecast, the kids all arrived at school dressed in their gym clothes and ready to participate in the school-wide Fun Run, a fundraiser for the PE program. The skies didn't cooperate, though, and the Fun Run was postponed for the second time. Happily, there was another special activity in store for some of the children: a visit with Dr. Fennell.

Cranberry Station school principal Judy Walker (left) with Teaching K-8's Jessica Rae Patton (center) and Pat Broderick (right).

Old hat. Though not a teacher at Cranberry Station, Dr. Francis "Skip" Fennell is no stranger around these parts – at least not to his several students from McDaniel College in Westminster who are now themselves teachers at this K-5 school 40 miles outside Baltimore. Cranberry Station is a professional development school for McDaniel's undergraduate teacher education program, within which Skip teaches mathematics and mathematics education courses. And he is certainly not a stranger to elementary schools, having spent the first 10 years of his career in the public school system, first as a teacher and later as a principal and supervisor. He has been a faculty member at McDaniel since 1976, twice serving as department chair and acting dean of graduate studies. He'll take a leave of absence to fulfill his two-year commitment as president of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM), which begins April 2006.

Math teachers are stereotyped, as Skip puts it, as "geeks and nerds who can't relate to students" – an image he clearly defies.

Skip strode into the third grade classroom of Kate Breakey, a McDaniel graduate, and took the floor as equal parts instructor and entertainer. He had let us in on his ice-breaker idea for the day: a bag full of silly hats. The kids cheered at his Baltimore Orioles cap, then giggled as he donned a top hat with mouse ears, then a fishing hat with fake hair tufting out the bottom. He would repeat this routine in the fourth and first grade classrooms we'd later visit, tailoring it slightly for each. His familiarity with elementary-aged kids, well beyond which math games would best suit them, was apparent.

He then pulled from his bag what looked like a carnival prize – a fuzzy, bright yellow cube emblazoned with red numbers. Skip laid out the rules of a game: When a number is rolled, write it in one of the boxes of the six-box grid on one's paper (three columns of two representing hundreds, tens and ones). Once the number is written it can't be moved. The object is to see who can come up with the largest sum. When Skip asked for volunteers to roll the die, the students clamored for the rare opportunity to be allowed to throw something in the classroom. Totals began flying as well, Skip volleying back corrections, praise and further questions. The rules shifted, the new goal being the lowest sum. Then Ms. Breakey took it in another direction as Skip packed up his hats and took his act to Kirsten Webb's fourth grade classroom.

The professional development connection. "So many of the students who are now student teaching have worked in this building since their very first education course, so they have a connection to the school and to their mentor teacher that's pretty strong," Skip told us. This connection between these teachers and the administration was evident, too, as principal Judy Walker accompanied us from class to class, clearly a supportive and engaged presence throughout the school – herself a former K-1 teacher. She also happens to like math, and is an NCTM member.

Math teachers are stereotyped, as Skip puts it, as "geeks and nerds who can't relate to students" – an image he clearly defies.

Regarding his experience preparing teachers for the classroom over the years, Skip said, "I ask myself: Do they have the content depth and understanding to do this? They sometimes struggle, frankly, with all three aspects of this: Do you know this math well enough to teach it; do you have a sense of pedagogy and do you have a sense of who you are and where you are in a classroom? I don't think anybody has it initially, but you sort of figure that stuff out."

Kirsten Webb certainly hit these three marks when teaming with Skip to guide her students through a vigorously paced probability lesson. Using two-color chips and then four-color spinners, students tracked their findings on a "pictorial representation of data" – a double-bar graph – and then on tree diagrams. The next day they would learn to make fractions from their probabilities. Skip later noted with satisfaction that Ms. Webb had gauged the mixed ability levels within the class well and was really spending the time necessary for the lesson to take hold.

All in the family. This led to a conversation about one of his wishes for NCTM – to expand partnerships with parents and caregivers, promoting ways to have kids get engaged with math outside of the classroom and in an informal way. He recommended the recent NCTM publication A Family's Guide: Fostering Your Child's Success in School Mathematics, edited by Amy Mirra (a former student of his), which offers tips on how family members might discuss and do math together during everyday activities. (To learn more, go to www.nctm.org and enter "A Family's Guide" in the Search box.)

Kirsten Webb illustrates tree diagramming for her fourth grade class (left); her students use this to diagram their probability results, which they'll then define as fractions.

One way to involve parents is to host a Family Math Night, such as the event Cranberry Station plans at which families partake in activities related to what the students are currently studying. This helps a caregiver understand not only the math games their child may be playing, but also the math behind the game. This fun can be continued, and the concepts reinforced, at home.

Math and special education. A real point of passion for Skip is how to best understand and apply the teaching of mathematics with special education students. He is currently editing the forthcoming Special Education and Mathematics for NCTM, a follow-up to the NCTM publication Windows of Opportunity: Special Education and Mathematics (1994), for which he served on the editorial panel and coauthored a chapter. "Not only because of No Child Left Behind, but certainly in part because of that legislation, there's a real need for people who are special educators to figure out what math is appropriate," Skip said. "And there's a need for regular classroom teachers who have special education kids in their rooms. We have this huge box for those students diagnosed as 'learning disabled' and these disabilities vary significantly. Teachers really need regular aid to deal with the range of assistance needed for these students."

In the upcoming book, he and his colleagues look at major areas of the curriculum – numbers and operations, geometry, measurement and data analysis -- and qualify them as the core ideas. And one of the things he is working on now at NCTM is developing focal points, most-important topics for teachers to address. "They will be for K-8 in general, then of course with kids who have special needs, whatever those needs are, you're either going to expand beyond those or spend more time with them," he told us. "It's an overwhelming challenge. And then, because of what No Child Left Behind says, we've got to get those kids to the same level -- it's a tough issue, a huge issue. Why do we call it special education? It has to be special."

Skip, his former student Kate Breakey and one of her third graders doing the math.

The course ahead. The last stop of our visit was Brandi Tignall's first grade classroom. The children gathered on the floor around Skip's rocking chair. He looked for all the world like the grandfather he is, teaching his addition/subtraction lesson leaning forward, thoroughly en- gaged in the bright-eyed learning among the six-year-olds. His affection for his former students was apparent, too, as he and Brandi bantered, and we were again impressed with the skill and ease with which he conversed with and actively listened to people spanning several generations – an invaluable trait in any leadership position.

As we parted, Skip revealed his own "fun run" plans – the Baltimore half-marathon the next day. This would lead up to him running the Philadelphia Marathon on November 20, his seventh marathon to date – all of which leave him in good stead to set the course for NCTM.

Dr. Fennell guides an attentive fourth grader through a probability problem.

For some of Skip's favorite math activities to use in your own classroom click here. PDF 88KB