Irene Eizen, Assistant Professor, Temple University

My name is Irene Eizen. I currently teach at Temple University, mathematics education for elementary school teachers, undergraduate and graduate. Both are similar courses teaching elementary school mathematics, pre-K to four. My week involves a great deal of preparation regardless of how long I've taught, every year is new and fresh and I kind of start over. Not so much with the content as with trying to keep up with the changes in teaching and the changes in technology and you know, giving my students the best that I can for today's society. The syllabus is redone every semester. Now that we have a new course management system I have to learn that canvas, so I have to set up a new canvas course every semester. Professional readings, I look for new articles I want my students to read. I even have the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, I call them every semester, so they send me sample copies of their journals so I can distribute them to my students to teach them about professional development and the importance of staying current and focused and learning beyond what you're going to have in the textbook. And the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, I've been a member for close to 50 years and I go to their conferences. I used to speak at their conferences. I don't do that anymore, but I did. It's very important to keep up with technological changes as well as changes in the profession. There's always new ways of teaching, better ways of teaching. One of the first assignments I have my students do is to write a math autobiography so I get to know them really well. And this enables me to tailor my course to address some of their concerns. My classes are very non-routine. We still do all the content that we have to do, but we do it in more of an inquiry-based, non-routine fashion. And students see to very much enjoy and most of all develop confidence in their ability to do mathematics, which is one of my ultimate goals.