Math teacher counted among the few in nation to test skills in Virginia

By Yesenia Amaro
Moscow Pullman Daily News staff writer
July 13, 2010

Pullman School District elementary teacher Lisa Cartwright will soon head to Virginia to develop math lessons for teachers across the country to use in their classrooms.

Cartwright, one of six teachers chosen from a group of 99 throughout the country, will spend two weeks in Virginia with all expenses paid by the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics.

The council's mission is to support teachers and ensure the highest quality of math learning for all students through vision, leadership, professional development and research, according to its website.

As part of the two-week professional development program, teachers will make revisions to a math lesson they submitted as part of their application process, and develop three additional lessons. Cartwright said each teacher will receive a $1,000 personal stipend after their math lessons are approved by the NCTM editorial board. Lessons will then be posted on Illuminations, a website operated by the NCTM that provides resources for math teachers across the country.

Cartwright said the lessons will revolve around problem-solving with real life application. The lessons must be set up step by step to be able to guide other teachers.

"Those are the kind of exercises that they are having us think about," she said. To get "the kids to apply math on a real-life setting."

Cartwright said she feels this is one area she can improve in, and working closely with the other teachers will be beneficial to her growth.

"Working with these people is going to enrich me," she said.

The two-week professional development program is timely for Cartwright, who will spend the 2010-11 school year as a math professional development facilitator in the district.

Cartwright, who has trained teachers in the past, will teach fourth-graders at Franklin Elementary School part-time and spend the rest of her time providing math training for teachers in the district. She said she will share the lessons she develops as well as helpful information from her professional development with the teachers she will train.

"If what I can learn can help other teachers too, the more students it will impact," she said.

Cartwright said she also will use the new lessons with her students.

"I like keeping things new and different," she said. "It's good to infuse new things to keep yourself fresh."