Teacher Spotlight September 2019

This month’s teacher spotlight is RoChelle McGowan! RoChelle currently teaches in

the Murray school district, and has been teaching for 15 years. Her nominator expressed that she “is an amazing teacher who is not only loved by all of her students, but finds ways to improve their understanding of math and get them excited about learning. She is excellent at writing curriculum and tasks and utilizing new ideas in her classroom”.

RoChelle knew she wanted to be a math teacher when she was in 10th grade. She was

not learning much from her math teacher at the time...so she decided to teach herself. Then she went on to help teach her fellow classmates and thought that was so much fun!

“The most important thing about teaching math to kids is teaching them the value of a productive struggle and "stick-to-it-iveness". I think it's so important for kids to see that everyone gets confused, everyone makes mistakes, and the process of working through the confusion and mistakes MAKES YOU BRILLIANT! When kids meet this expectation, it is a beautiful thing”.

—RoChelle

When she is not helping her students become brilliant mathematicians, RoChelle can be found reading, playing the piano, knitting, hiking, watching movies with her family, and snuggling her dog.

It is our great pleasure to feature RoChelle this month, and on behalf of the Utah State Board of Education, we would like to thank her for her outstanding contributions to mathematics education.