A short blurb about me (Brad Ballinger) and my teaching philosophy:

I grew up on a miniature farm in Sacramento. We raised goats, chickens, rabbits, zucchini, and such. My dad was a math teacher; my mom was more of a "this is how you do things" teacher. I went to UC Davis for college, and liked it so much I stayed for grad school. I've enjoyed math for as long as I can remember. I love that feeling--the one that says, "I don't know the answer yet, but in a little while I can figure it out." To me, the entire point of math is being able to figure things out: to start with something you don't understand and, through the power of your own brain, reach understanding. This understanding is never complete, either--and that's part of the fun. Take, for example, graphing a line. When do we first learn how to do that? Certainly no later than Algebra 1. I was probably in 6th or 7th grade when I first saw the connection between the equation for a line, and its graph. When I was in 20th grade (they don't call it that, but that's what it was), my math research caused me to look at lines in a new way--and as a result, I now have a clearer understanding of how to graph them. It felt great to learn something new about a topic I thought I had in the bag. I finished my Ph.D. in 2003, taught at UC Davis for a while, and then turned my attention to K-12 schools. See, I kept getting students at UC Davis who struggled because of their weak math backgrounds. And UC Davis gets a lot of great students! I want to know how it happens that good students can be weak in math--and I want to do something about it. To get some first-hand experience, I taught at Harper Jr. High in 2005-06. In 2006-07, I switched to DSIS and joined the Project IMPACT credential program, which I completed in 2008. I have a few professional goals. The big one is to work with teachers (new and seasoned), and help them get excited about math. I want them, and their students, to experience the fun side of math--which makes all the hard work worthwhile. I also want to learn more about how people use math and other problem-solving skills in different walks of life. This might require me to do a stint as an engineer, actuary, cryptographer, or sailor. I know it isn't feasible to do everything in just one life, but at least I can be curious. Some other things on my to-do list: solve a famously hard math problem; bake a great loaf of bread; learn how to snowboard decently; reduce my carbon footprint; write something that stays on-topic. With that last item in mind... I'm afraid that too many people (including many teachers, parents, students, and others) think that math is a piece of static information to be placed in the brain. It isn't. It's an active process; it's a language; it's a game. I want to help students make the leap from the "memorize and retrieve" style of math, to the far more interesting and useful "think and question" style. If you have ideas on how to do that, or if you are a student trying to make that leap, I'd like to talk with you.

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