Leadership in Mathematics Education

Transcript Hi my name is Dawoun Jyung and I am a 6th grade math teacher at MELS. I fell in love with the school as soon as I entered a building and visited some classes and crew. I think MELS effort to create a community where students from any background are working together to learn and to build a community really attracted me. When I think about teaching math at an outward-bound school, I see learning math similar to a wilderness expedition. Just like in like a wilderness trip, it's beautiful and exciting but it's also challenging for many people and many students and unfortunately in math, some students start thinking that, based on their gender, race, their language, and perceived mathematics level, that they cannot succeed. The first time I started to think about my mathematical identity was when my math teacher gave us a project where we had to research a famous mathematician and nowhere in the long list was a mathematician that looked like me. Helping students to form their mathematical identity and being able to see themselves as a mathematician, they can do so much more than they might think that they can. Being a math teacher at an outward bound school really allows me to work on creating a safe space where students feel like they are heard, seen, and valued, reinforcing that it is okay to fail and it is okay to struggle. And so, when I see my students stuck on a problem, we celebrate that. ‘I think miss Jyung is a great teacher because she's very supportive and understanding.’ ‘She teaches us to be the best we can be and we are accepted for that.’ ‘When students don't understand the skill, she pauses what she's doing and she helps the student until they understand.’ Over the years I have realized that my students have made me a better listener, a better connector, a better teacher, and a better person and so we think that as teachers we make our students better but your students will make you a better person. I'm so thankful for a group of students who made me a better person so I can be a better teacher for my students. ‘The word that best describes Ms. Jyung is wonderful.’ ‘Fun she's really fun.’ ‘Passionate.’ ‘Kind.’ ‘Humble.’ ‘Reliable because no matter what you can rely on Ms. Jyung to help you. With schoolwork or not, she’ll be there.’ Being a teacher at MELS, it's a place where I can grow and I can push myself and learn and continue to be a teacher learner. We have so many awesome teachers and leaders at MELS and so, if anything, I am just a small piece of what our teachers do every day. But they really embody changing lives and transforming schools.