This month’s teacher spotlight is Shannon Proctor! Shannon is in her 6th year of teaching. Shannon fondly recalls drawing on the family chalkboard as a little girl and teaching her imaginary friends. Even before she started school she loved to sit with her sisters while they did their homework and draw pictures of couch potatoes.
Shannon had wonderful middle school and high school mathematics teachers that helped instill her love of math. She now loves that she can teach mathematics to her middle school students and help show them the beauty of math. She enjoys seeing her students have epiphanies “so big, the light bulb doesn’t just turn on, it explodes in their minds”.—Shannon
When she isn’t teaching, Shannon enjoys camping, running in long distance races, sewing, reading, and listening to podcasts.
“... the most important thing about teaching math to kids is to help them understand that math isn’t just numbers; math is patterns! Humans have an innate curiosity to seek out patterns, so math can be really instinctive. Somewhere along the lines, students lose the instinct in mathematics and think it is just a bunch of algorithms. I try to help students find comfort in abandoning the algorithm and identifying patterns and to make their own conclusions. I think its important to give our students hands-on experiences like manipulating equations with algebra tiles to make connections”.—Shannon
On behalf of the Utah State Board of Education, we would like to thank Shannon Proctor for her contribution to student epiphanies in mathematics. Thank you for your outstanding contributions as an educator!