Interview with Brittany Murphy New STEM course to be offered next

Issue 4
December &
January 2009
Interview with Brittany Murphy
1).What is your name and
what are your job responsibilities?
Brittney Murphy, Secondary
Math Specialist
My job responsibilities include creating assessments,
aligning curriculum, facilitating math teaching, analyzing
data, developing math professional development.
2)What innovations have
you helped to bring to your
district's teachers?
We have tried to tightly align
curriculum and assessments
to measure student success.
We have tried to push for
more rigorous and relevant
instruction on a daily basis.
3)What professional development activities have you participated in?
I have been a part of the implementation of Gear-UP Math
Waco as a teacher and as leader
in the professional development;
I was a presenter at Project
P.R.I.M.E. (Promoting Rigorous
Instruction in Mathematics Education). I have attended and
presented and the National
Council of Teachers of Mathematics regional and national conferences, and at the Central
Texas Council of Teachers of
Mathematics regional conference. I have been a participant of
MSTAR (Middle School Students in Texas: Algebra Ready)
and will bring this back to my
district in the near future. I attended the International Center
for Leadership in Education’s
Rigor and Relevance training
and lead our secondary math
district professional development over the topic.
4)What progress have you
seen for teachers learning and
using STEM PBL?
STEM PBLs help teachers and
students see the value in what
they are learning and teaching.
These learning experiences are
the definition of rigor and relevance. When students are working together in these productive
learning environments they are
engaged and become more re-
New STEM course to be offered next fall!
The department of Teaching,
Learning and Culture at
Texas A&M University is
offering a new course titled
Research on SREM Teaching
and Learning starting Fall
2010. Dr. Robert Capraro,
AGGIE-STEM co-project
director, will be teaching this
course. Here is the course
description as described by
Dr. Capraro: “This course is
offered by the Department of
Teaching, Learning, and CulPage 1
ture as an elective integrated and
multi-disciplinary research
course for masters’ and doctoral
level students. The purpose of
the course is to build interdisciplinary bridges among
pockets of research that can be
isolated yet share many similar
ideas. Therefore, this course
melds socio-cultural and cognitive factors influencing STEM
education with across K-16 levels. Special attention will be
given to factors influencing un-
derrepresented groups bridging
best practices with socio-cultural
realities. In this course, students
will be cautious consumers of
various paradigms and traditions
of research as they analyze and
synthesize the published literature, Requests for Proposals, and
books about Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) teaching and
learning.”
sponsible for their
own learning. This
allows teachers to become facilitators of
instruction and better
assess what students
understand and what
misconceptions they
might have. Students
work at a much more
rigorous level and it is
relevant to their lives.
Continued on page 3
Teacher Profile: Nancy Price & Sara Scott
"Good
teaching is
UNIVERSITY HIGH
out how it was used at the zoo.
SCHOOL GEOMETRY PBL The students were very creative.
They took pictures of the aquariums to show volume of the
The Geometry classes at University High School just comtanks, took pictures of the zoo
pleted their first Project Based employees to discuss salaries,
Learning for the year. Two of took many pictures that reprethe Geometry teachers, Nancy sented vocabulary from geometry
Price and Sarah Scott planned (i.e. parallel lines, slope, etc), and
an extensive Project for their
even the wing span of birds to
students to incorporate differ- exhibit how much area was
needed for the birds in the cages.
ent disciplines of math.
The project began with a trip to The following week, students
planned and designed Power
the Waco Zoo. The students
were given a map of the zoo,
Points. They incorporated what
they thought were their best picand instructions to use what
tures into the Power Points and
they had learned this year in
geometry and in the years past explained why they had taken
them. The groups then explained
about other math and to find
why they had taken them.
The groups then presented
to the class. One group
from each class was chosen
to represent University High
School Geometry classes and
went on to present to the
Waco ISD Asst Superintendent, the University High
Principal, a Waco ISD school
board member, and a Baylor
faculty member.
The students worked hard on
this project and came out
with a real understanding of
how math can be used on an
everyday basis, not only in
the zoo, but also in their own
lives.
more a giving
of right
questions than
a giving of
right answers."
~ Josef Albers
What is going on at AGGIE—STEM ?
Recent WORKSHOPS
On Tuesday November 10th ,
Dr. Luciana Baroso presented
a workshop at Texas A&M for
the Hearne High School science
teachers. The workshop was
titled “PBL assessment”.
was about different kinds of
assessment and was presented
to the science teachers in the
morning and the math teachers
in the afternoon.
ing session was
spent discussing
different types of
questioning while
the afternoon session was devoted to
preparing a PBL for
the next six weeks.
On Saturday Decemebr 5th,
Dr, Jim Morgam, Dr. Robert
On Monday November 16th,
Capraro and Dr.Mary Margret
Dr. Robert Capraro and Dr.
Capraro held a whole day work- On Monday December 7th,
Mary Margret Capraro preshop for the Waco ISD science Sencer Corlu held the morning
sented a workshop the Waco
I.S.D. Teachers. The workshop and math teachers. The morn- session in advanced PBL for
January Professional Developments and Conferences
Monday January 4: Waco ISD
.
Page 2
Monday January 25: Hearne
High School
Happy Holidays
the Hearne High School
teachers at the AGGIESTEM center. In the afternoon, Dr. R. Capraro helped
the teachers finish writing
their first PBL.
Interview with Brittany Murphy...continued
5)What have been your biggest challenges for you in
supporting teachers to implement STEM PBL?
The large number of math
teachers in our district. It is
difficult to be active in implementing everyone’s PBLs.
There are many teachers and
many PBLs occurring each 6
weeks and only one of me! It is
difficult to give feedback and
have the time for everyone’s
projects.
6)How do you support teachers to meet the teaching ex-
Page 3
pectations of STEM PBL
and District Scope and Sequence?
I meet with teachers individually or as a group during their
PLC time to plan and align their
projects to our District Scope
and Sequence. I attend their
PBLs and assist as a leader or
monitor if needed and give
feedback before, during and
after. I spend time in their
classrooms to know their students and their personalities to
know what fits them and what
does not.
7)What is the most exciting
part of your job?
Helping teachers help students
learn! Impacting students lives
on a large scale.
8)What do you wish all teachers knew that would make
your jobs easier?
That I’m always an email or
phone call away. All I want to
do is help in any and every way
possible and never hesitate to
call and let me know what
needs to be done.
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