0:00  
Hello and thank you for listening to the teaching math teaching podcast. The teaching math teaching podcast is sponsored by the Association of mathematics teacher educators. The hosts are a with Anheuser me, dusty Jones, and Joel Amidon. Today we're talking with Dr. Yolanda Parker. Yolanda is a professor in the mathematics department at Tarrant County College South Campus in Fort Worth, Texas, looking at her for a number of reasons. And in particular, we want to learn more about her experiences preparing mathematics teachers and others to your college. Welcome, Yolanda. Would you please tell us a bit about yourself and your background? Sure. As you said, my name is Yolanda Parker. I am a native of Fort Worth, Texas. And actually, when I was an undergrad at Texas a&m, I took classes at Tarrant County College South Campus. And so I have gone full circle. at Texas a&m. I majored in math, applied math. And I taught at Morningside Middle School in Fort Worth ISD. And at the time, there was a lot of professional development, focusing on writing across the curriculum. And at that time, I wasn't very comfortable with my writing. And so there was a reading teacher in the building who had recently gotten a Master's at Dartmouth College. And it was a focus on Liberal Studies. And so I kind of stepped out of my comfort zone, and applied to that program and graduated with a Masters of Arts in liberal studies. But while there, I decided to go on and get my doctorate in math, education. And so that's kind of how I ended up back at Tarrant County College. But I went to a few other universities before then, but TCC is home. It's great. So how did you start teaching math teachers? Well, when I was in my doctoral program, I was at Illinois State University. And all of the graduate students at ISU were teaching assistants. And actually, I shouldn't say we were teaching assistants, we all had our own classes. And so that was how I started, I did not know that that was something that I wanted to do until it was something that was kind of forced upon me late in my lap. And I just enjoyed it. Even though I had not been teaching for very long, I just enjoyed working with pre service teachers. And I think they appreciated the fact that I was so new because I shared with them all the mistakes and the backups and the trips and slips that I had made. And now I'm kind of far removed from that because I haven't been in a K 12 classroom and so long, but still, it's something that even though it was part of the program, it became a passion of mine. When I got my doctorate, I wanted to come back to Fort Worth ISD and work in administration. But I never did come back. I just caught the bug and wanted to continue to work with pre service teachers in Fort Worth ISD, just for our listeners who aren't from Texas, ISD is stands for Independent School District. And that's what most of the public school districts are here in Texas. So a lot of what's some of the best advice you received when you started? You know, when you sent that question? That is the one question that I have been thinking about. And I really don't know if anyone gave me any advice. I guess some of the things that I wish people had told me was just how kind of I'm a laid back person. And I did not realize just how high strung pre service teachers would be. And so that's something that I wish I had known. And maybe it's just the personality since I was a secondary educator. I think maybe secondary educators may be a little more laid back or just could be me. But I wish that I had been more prepared for just the anxiety and just how high strung the pre service teachers would be. So to turn that around. What advice would you give someone who is starting out in working with teachers and teaching teachers, I would suggest that they treat the classroom, their their pre service teachers the way that I do, I think of it as therapy. When we go into class, I call it math therapy. The first assignment that I give my students is a math autobiography, where I have them talk about their past experiences in math, if they were in a non traditional, what they think a traditional type of classes if they think they were in a non traditional or not, and just what they liked about their math experience, what they did not like how they think they learn math, and it's very therapeutic for them. And for the students who give horror stories about their math experiences. I tell them okay, now that you've gotten that out, let's make sure that you are not there.

5:00  
Teacher that someone is going to write about in a few years with a horror story. And so I just tried to ease that anxiety. And I think that is the high strung versus laid back comparison. Because since I was a math major, and I taught secondary, I'm comfortable with my math knowledge and math skills. And a lot of my students are anxious because of their math experiences, and their lack of confidence in math. And so I just, I just try to help them to get more comfortable with their math identity, so that they don't carry that anxiety over into their future classrooms. I have a question for you. So like that math anxiety, or that, you know, not being comfortable with their relationship with mathematics. And so you know, talking about, you know, getting them comfortable with their math identity, but then also to like, what are some things that you might suggest for a pre service teacher in developing their relationship with mathematics? What do you do you point them to certain things, you point them to certain resources, you suggest they do certain things, just thinking about some of the other folks out there who are just entering to the world of teaching math teachers, and like, they're going to have that same issue. And like, I'm just curious what, what you do, I think one of the things that helps is that I am a strong advocate of manipulatives. And just having them have more of a concrete experience with that. I don't know how common it is for for universities versus two year colleges, but I have a lot of students who are returning to school, after a long break, I don't have very many who are lessons and don't have very many, compared to a four year university, though I have more students who are not fresh out of high school, right. And so one of the things to because some students may feel a little embarrassed that they don't know these things that are supposed to be elementary math. And so I kind of bring a comfort level, well, well, how would you explain this to your child or your little brother or your little sister and not, not put it on them? Like you don't know this, but let's, let's think about explaining it to a child. That's one thing that I do, focusing on the manipulatives. And then there are so many resources that are out there, like Khan Academy, and then as a teacher Nearpod, I recommend for them to create a Nearpod account, not so that they can use it with future teacher with their future students, but for them to get access to some of the resources that are there. So I found out about a lot of different resources that are for teachers, and just encourage them to use that as a refresher for themselves. I like that you made that connection, too, with the manipulatives. And things. I mean, I think, as kids for some reason, like I see it with my own children, sometimes where they're, they're being rushed away in elementary classrooms away from those concrete representations of things versus like, that's where the sense making and so like even to return to that as these pre service teachers just say, like, no, let's use these base 10 blocks, let's use these counter tips, like how would we model this in this situation versus like, you know, rushing to the symbols, you know, and so just then that's a good thing for them and their own method entity, but a good thing for them to take another classroom. That's I love that you pointed that out? I think I agree with a lot of things you say. And I feel like I'm doing a lot of the same things. And I teach even I teach at a university, our student body is somewhat similar to community college in that we have a lot of returning working students. In my case, I feel that some of the anxiety comes from the fact that there isn't a joint understanding of what mathematics is. So my students come in with this vision of math that is dislike set of arbitrary rules that don't meet to memorize, and they have to know when to use which one. And often they not only have not made sense of the mathematics, but don't know that one could make sense of the mathematics. And so I feel like I do a similar thing where I call my class math therapy. But also I think we're trying to figure out that, hey, you can actually make sense of these things. And let's make sense of one or two things. And that shifts kind of the discourse a little bit from Hey, you don't notice to boy, we really don't focus on sensemaking at all. Let's do that. I agree. What I like is that the classes that I teach have a focus on problem solving. And when we're doing the problem solving, I just tried to validate them. A lot of the students have such great ideas.

10:00  
But because they have been conditioned to think that math is just a set of rules. And if they come up with a strategy that may not necessarily have used a rule, they think they're wrong. And so I try to encourage them to just tell me, tell me what you were thinking. And I always say, I can't read your mind. If I could read your mind, I would be somewhere in Vegas making more money than I am now. So come on, tell me what's going on in your mind. And that, you know, makes them laugh. And then they, they, they're, oh, she's such a goofy person, let me talk to her, but just validating their problem solving skills. And since making that it doesn't have to be this rigid set of rules, just when we're initially thinking through and I remind them that they are going to be teaching, for instance, future kindergarteners, and I say a kindergartener doesn't know algebra. They may have some algebraic reasoning skills, they may understand patterns, but a kindergartener doesn't know algebra. So you do not have to use algebra. To solve this problem. Let's just talk through it. And that that usually helps them open up on the when I was I was doing a little Google search on you to try to your email address earlier. And I found out this web page and saw that you named a few years ago in 2017, one of the one of 10 of Dallas's Hidden Figures, by the DFW chapter of the National Society of Black Engineers, can you tell us a little bit about that? Yes, that was very exciting, and a very humbling experience. So the National Society of Black Engineers and nesby organization, after the movie Hidden Figures was released, they wanted to do something to recognize other Hidden Figures, because the women who were featured in the book were women who the author knew just from the community, from church or from different things. And once she dug into the different stories about them, and just found out how phenomenal they were, she knew she had to write that book. And so that prompted so many other people that I know who wanted to find other people doing great things in the community. And so nesby put out a call for people to nominate Hidden Figures in the different areas of science, technology, engineering, and math. And I was one of the first ones that they selected, and they don't call it Hidden Figures anymore. But that did prompt an annual recognition, just people around us who are doing things in the STEM fields. I will add that, like I said, that prompted other people to do similar projects. And I have a friend named Dr. Shirley Jones, in Connecticut who wrote a book women who count and she featured African American women mathematicians. And she featured the first black female to get a patron of the second first and second black female and get a PhD. And she also featured Christine Darden, who was a hidden figure, who was featured in the book, she wasn't featured in the movie, but she was featured in the book. And so I'm just honored to be in the same book with someone and she's still alive. Because the women who were in the in the book have passed away. But just to be a month such a wonderful living legend has been really exciting. Definitely. That is exciting. I was excited to know somebody.

13:37  
Book. So that's really great. When you're teaching at the campus, can you give me a reference point? Like how many? How many classes do you typically have a semester? Or maybe we could be specific like this semester? What are you teaching? What how many classes are those classes of the students who place into developmental math, we need to offer a certain percentage of classes where they can take credit level classes at the same time. In other words, we don't really want students to take just developmental math classes and in the the mic math pipeline for a long time, and so they take the developmental and the credit level class at the same time. Sorry, I'm kind of bunching up this explanation. They're called co requisite classes. And I'm saying all that to say that I'm teaching two co requisite classes. One is a college algebra one, where the students are taking college algebra, along with like a two hour lab of developmental supplemental class, and I'm teaching a co requisite statistics class,

14:45  
as well as statistics arreglar statistics, a regular college algebra, and then my math for teachers class. I have it as an eight week combo. So the first eight weeks

15:00  
The students took math 1350 and the last eight weeks, starting this week they are in the second math for teachers class math 1351. Some teaching a lot of classes, that's the bottom line. Yeah, that's, you're busy.

15:15  
But in but with teaching the CO requisites, at least, with like with the college algebra one, it's five hours and the statistics one, that's four hours. So it's one class, but it's counting for two. So that's helping my load, helping to lighten my load a little bit. So as we're thinking about what you're doing this semester, what is something that makes a good day? Can you give us a specific example of hopefully telling you maybe you've had a good day?

15:43  
Tell us about that? Yeah. So pre COVID. A Good Day, would be students coming to class, having a positive attitude, being attentive, engaging in discussion, and not just my math for teachers, classes, like all of my classes, that's a good day, just for them to be engaged in for me to not just be the sage on stage, post COVID. A Good Day is for students to show up.

16:10  
If they're, if they log on, then I'm happy. And I say that partially in jest. But

16:18  
a lot of my students who are the education majors are teachers aides, they're actually in the classroom, or they are stay at home moms, and don't have anyone to help them with their young children. So they're not able to log on last. In this first eight weeks, I had, I had 23 students enrolled in the class. And a good day was when I had five to log on. from other classes, I have a really good number of students who log on. And so then, having that engagement in and talking with me, whether it's chatting or unmuting, and being engaged, I just don't like to just pour the information into their minds. I mentioned that teach the CO requisite class, I feel like some of the students may have deficiencies in math, just because it's they're just regurgitating things that they don't understand. And so that's why I really want them to be engaged and try to get a better understanding so that they can successfully make it out of developmental math. So good day is is having engaged students. So for those students who don't log in, is there something else that you have to do, like, asynchronously, I guess, to try to help to help them know what you need them to meet your objectives for the day? I do, all of the lectures are recorded. And I'm really pleased with my education students, I think all but maybe one or two, logged on after the fact and view the recordings, some of them multiple times. And most of my co requisite students would view the recordings. So they have been engaged in that. And I have recordings where I work through homework problems and explain the lessons and have some pre recorded lectures. And so I'm able to track and see who's doing that. And so there is a way for them to get the content. But that engagement piece, I just, I wish there were a way to make that up. Which is Yeah, I just finished teaching a couple of classes. And one of them I'm the only person in the room and I've 20 plus students on with their cameras off, which I'm okay with. But it just makes my wait time when I ask a question. I just have no idea how long I need to wait for something to pop up on. Or somebody to say something on there. It's a it's a new world there. Yes, it is. Mm hmm. Yeah, I just realized, I mean, like, I'm doing the same thing and thinking about engagement. And Nick, what is that? Like? How's that that engagement from when, you know, if you're in face to face class, and switching over to a zoom experience? And, you know, you can see faces, but are they necessarily? They might look engaged? Are they engaged in what you're actually doing? Or are they you know, and just trying to think like, What does engagement look like? Is it logging on? Or is it about interaction with a document or, you know, like just trying to come up with other ways, you know, where it's like this evolving definition here that, you know, everyone's kind of dealing with, and whatever their context is. And so just glad that you're sharing your experience, Yolanda, thank you. And the question is actually getting me thinking, I'm just like, oh, how are they? I have some discussion boards, but students kind of just do the discussion board because it's an obligation. There's not much discussing going on but and I shouldn't be so cynical, because there have been some really good discussions where students are asking questions and answering each other's questions and giving them some suggestions on resources and where to go or I have a prompt and they will post their response and then again, as question

20:00  
say, Oh, I agree with with that strategy. I did it that same way, or I did it a little different, I think I got a different answer. So there has been some, but it's just not the same as if we're all in the same room and get a chance to dissect a problem in real time. So speaking of resources, you were saying that your students might give each other suggestions? what suggestions do you have out? People are looking to go on and find resources to help them to teach their classes? Where do you go? What are your go to places? I really don't have too many. That was another question. I feel bad that I don't have very many resources. But the place I always start is nctm. There's so much there with the the illuminations site, and even reading the articles and going to the tape to the references, and just exploring what's given there. And I mentioned Nearpod earlier, I really like that tool. Because with me, with me working with the pre service teachers, they can be exposed to star information in the spring, the company made a lot of lessons available for free to teachers, even if you didn't have the paid account, they made those things free. And so I really like that for my students, because I know that they haven't looked at sixth grade math since they were in the sixth grade. And so that's a way for them to kind of see what the students are learning and to see ways to assess them. So that's been my my main go to, unfortunately, I don't have very many. And then Khan Academy was what I'm like tried and true resources. But nctm is an excellent place to start. And I really don't like information overload. That's another thing. And since I'm a fan of manipulatives, the National Library of Virtual Manipulatives, I love that site. I've been using that site for for several years. And it's just, I really, really liked that site. So any Virtual Manipulatives site that I can find, I use that but that's my steady go to great. What do you do for fun? Or how do you balance things out when you're not teaching? Well, I have a two and a half year old son, and he is my son time. Anything that will make him laugh is just, uh, it just does something to me. Just hearing his laugh and his giggle and his him trying to talk trying to communicate, and I have no idea what he's saying most of the time, and but just trying to figure it out. He that's my whole world right now. That's great. You see them talking and learning and you're like, you know, I can see why PJ did these experiments like, like just trying to figure out what's going on? What's going on? Where are they? Are they making sense of the world? You know? Exactly. And I'll say to my husband, do you know, he said he's I'm

23:00  
figured out?

23:02  
Yolanda? Is there thing going on that you'd like to promote? I mean, we've you've mentioned the women who count book, and we'll include that along with links to some of these other resources like Nearpod and nctm illuminations Khan Academy, National Library, Virtual Manipulatives. But is there anything else that you going on in your life? Want to say, hey, check this out. I've been following my friend Lou Matthews on Facebook. He has a program on Wednesday nights called pod before dinner. And I usually send and I'm sure that the three of you can relate to this where you have friends who are now math teachers, homeschool math teachers, and they I don't know about you, but I get panic emails from texts from my friends saying, Okay, my baby is doing this problem. What is the answer? I don't know it. And so his show before then that's where I send some of my friends if there are some things that I can't answer, or if I just want them to dive deeper into this new world of parent, being their child's homeschool math teacher. And Lou has some really good guest speakers and some really good ideas that he shares every week. And so that's on Facebook pie, like the irrational number pie, the

24:24  
pie before dinner, and it's every Wednesday night at 630, central 730. Eastern, where he is great. And he has other topics, but those have been the sorry, Lou, if you're listening to this, those have been the ones that that have mainly listened to just you know, helping parents with their children at home. Well, thanks so much, Yolanda for joining us today. This has been a really great conversation and I'm excited to hear I just like you so I'm excited to talk with you again today. But that we need to learn more about your experiences and we just really appreciate you being on the show today.

25:00  
Thank you for the invitation. I appreciate it. And thanks to you the listener for listening to the teaching math teaching podcast. Be sure to subscribe to the podcast and we're Hope you're able to implement something that you just heard and take an opportunity to interact with other math teacher educators. Just one more thing before we close out the 2021 AMT annual conference will take place virtually this year with synchronous presentations and asynchronous poster sessions, please say February 11 through the 13th and February 18, through the 20th for the 2021 virtual AMT annual conference. If you've never attended before, this just might be your opportunity to do so. The meeting will feature shorter days and we would normally program for an in person convenient, with schedules designed to accommodate multiple time zones. For more information, check out the AMT website at AMT IE dotnet