Know Your Pelicans

Many adults see math as cold and sterile and formulaic. I think a lot about how to help my students find the joy, beauty, and creativity in math. 

I hope to teach students persistence, inventiveness, skepticism, that failures are part of the process, how to answer their own questions, learn from mistakes, and work together.

I don’t think that there are many schools where the students and parents know the members of the Operations Staff as well as they do at Packer. Those relationships are very rewarding.

Building a happy classroom community in which we can laugh, share our struggles, and enjoy each other’s successes is paramount.

My favorite thing about Packer is our diversity. People sense it when they enter the building. We encourage and respect each other for our differences as well as our similarities.

One of my favorite things to do at Packer is learn about the lives of all of our students. I love talking to them about things that are not related to school. We don't talk politics; we talk about everything else—and that fills me with energy.

My students never cease to amaze me — the way they look at a problem or find a solution in a way that I could never have anticipated. Their creativity drives me.

I hope my students come to appreciate the value of learning in a caring, supportive, and mutually challenging community.