My name is Jawad Brown, and I currently teach 7th grade math at Boston Collegiate Charter school. I have been a teacher at BCCS for five years, and in fact, it has been my home for the majority of my career. While I did work as an intern teacher for one year prior, I feel as though my true teaching started when I became of member of BCCS. I graduated with a degree in Secondary Education with a focus on Mathematics from Florida A&M University, and I am currently in graduate school at Simmons College for am expecting to graduate with my masters of Science in Education.
I am proud to say that while working at BCCS, I have had past students come find me in the hallway to explain how a specific lesson helped them in the real world. This is the reason why I became a teacher. I want students to look at the world with a “mathematical eye.”
The part of teaching that I love the most is the discovery stage of a new mathematical concept. I am constantly trying to find new and innovative ways to push my students to get to get to that Bloom’s taxonomy level of synthesis and evaluation. This is where I see the Common Core standards truly driving my curriculum shifts. I am using the standards to inform where I should be pushing my students and how I can devise lessons that truly push them to rise and meet the expectations of the mathematical practices. I have officially taken one unit and completely redesigned my curriculum to align with the standards, but I would like to now do the same with all of the units that I teach.
While I believe my strengths lie in student engagement and diverse instruction, I am still finding room to grow in providing questions that travel up to that tier three thinking of Bloom’s Taxonomy. I think that my lessons and activities are getting there, but I am struggling to make sure my questioning pushes students to get there in their own thinking. I am hoping that continuing to focus on transferring my curriculum over to the Common Core will be a way to bolster this questioning as well as solidifying that curriculum as rigorous and aligned with best mathematical practices.
