Meet the Teacher
Mr. Boyle could find a job as a bike mechanic, but a bicycle has never made him laugh. He has taken the stage with a guitar or violin at a few notable locations, but recently he’s most often heard with a pint-sized chorus. He has been camping as far east as Arkansas and as far west as California. Cookbook collector and recipe archivist, he has been a carpenter’s apprentice and traveled through Guatemala and Honduras when working for the non-profit company Pueblo to People in the 90’s. He easily shifts from the pragmatic to the artist and then spins back into a news hound. He spent the entire day of March 14, 1987 in the March for Mandela in London. He protested against human and civil rights abuses often at the Chinese Consulate in Houston. A job that requires energy, open-mindedness and optimism, vocation, enthusiasm, and results is a perfect fit. Experience outside the classroom makes a difference in a teacher.
Teaching math and science makes sense when combined with teaching literacy. When we bring objects from the garage, closet or kitchen to teach math or science there is plenty the children want to say. We turn that discussion into writing by thinking about what we know. We read back what we wrote, and we keep a record. Bringing the outside adult world to the classroom makes learning ambitious, for the kids too. For Mr. Boyle it makes teaching a joy.
“We would have no science without the math to measure it, and we would have no science without the language to describe it.”
“If an idea really works, we don’t forget it, no matter how old it is. But that only works if you’re always looking for something better”
My specialty is teaching math, science and problem-solving strategies.
First grade students can independently invent ideas for experiments before the end of a school year if they have lots of clear examples. This fundamental comparison between case A and case B is convincing and it clarifies how a fact can be useful. This thinking makes logic and reason easier and familiar when a student sets to learn anything else since it can clarify their thinking about the world. The proof of learning comes when they can understand how to prove something.
