AmandaThank you for inviting me to your Geometry class.

You met 5 th period (never an

easy time slot) and the class was composed of twelve students. Your room contained 6
tableseach seating two (but could squeeze in a third)positioned with the students
facing front.
The lesson started with an article. You had the students read a one-page article on
women and STEM careers. As everyone read, it dawned on them (us) that the article
applauded the unequal position of and opportunities for women in STEM fields. You
revealed that it was satire and then asked the students to discuss with their table mates
instances of satire they were familiar with. The reason satire was a topic in a Geometry
lesson then became clear: Flatland. The students are part-way through this novel and had
clearly been undone by the apparent misogyny among the 2-D characters towards the 1D. Fortunately, the background you gave on Edwin Abbott, the author, clarified things.
He was using shapes to express his distaste for the unequal treatment of women. They
seemed relieved and ready to finish the book. This, too, is a satire.
The core mathematical part of the lesson was a presentation on circles and the
various line segments that intersect with them (diagonals, radii, tangents, secants,
chords). You reviewed their various properties and let the students walk you through
some related problems. Twice, you gave them sheets with problems to work out with
others. The second time was in a format that you called a boat race. Herein, each person
in a group had to know and understand the answer to the problemsuch that you could
call on any of them for an explanationin order to earn a point for their group and thus
moving forward one of the paper boats which appeared in race position on your
whiteboard. The bell rang soon after this.
Among the many strong aspects of the classes were the following.

You have terrific energy. You are in charge while remaining approachable and
supporting. As a result the atmosphere of your classroom is friendly and comfortable
for your students.
The lesson was clearly organized and efficiently run. Your students were productively
engaged for the full period.
You used a variety of instructional formatsreading, large group discussion, small
group, games, etc.which you comfortably switched among throughout the lessons.
This variety is good for engagement and respects the variety of student learning
styles.
I appreciated the creative way you began the class (the article). Regardless of how
well something like that works, trying such a thing matters.
Related, as a stand alone piece, the article was very useful in getting students not only
to think about the STEM career landscape but also about equity issues connected to it.
My favorite part of the lesson was the group aspect of the boat race. The idea of
having each individual master a concept puts pressure on each learner to be locked in
and on each teammate to get them there.

In fact, that points to what I thought was the strongest element of the instruction: your
providing the time and space for kids to talk about math problems on their own.

Here are some additional reflections which I hope provide you with some ideas
for your continued growth as an educator and math teacher:

While I enjoyed the creativity starting the lesson with an article, it felt like there
was one too many layer. That is, Flatland is a literary metaphor which allows
Geometry students to better appreciate shape and dimension. Rather than
providing a lens into math concepts, the article you began with provided a lens for
the literary device itself. It seemed one step removed, if you know what I mean.
Handouts. I was surprised by the handouts, which I see much less often in
classrooms these days. Is there a waythrough Canvas, their notebookfor them
to work on practice problems without the need for photocopies?
This particular lesson had a bit of a balance problem. I thought you spent so much
time on the early material that there wasnt enough of an opportunity for you to
slow down during the problem calculation part to make sure that everything was
understood. For example, the boat race element probably deserved more time.

There were so many good things about this lesson, Amanda. Congratulations! You
are an effective, approachable and compassionate teacher who is well on her way to being
an excellent educator. I am so thankful that you are my colleague and I look forward to
your continued growth as a teacher and your enduring influence on our students in and
out of the classroom.

Richard DiBianca
Upper School Principal
February 2015