Dr.

Shelly Wismath
Dean, School of Liberal Education,
Professor, Mathematics & Liberal Education,
University of Lethbridge
Lethbridge , AB. T1K-3M4

January 2, 2018

LETTER OF REFERENCE FOR ALANA MILLARD

Alana Millard is a mathematics education major, completing her final year of a combined
B.Sc/B.Ed. degree at the University of Lethbridge. I have known Alana since January
2016, as her instructor in one course, her supervisor for another Independent Study
course, and as her supervisor on a teaching-based project.

In the Spring 2016 semester Alana was a student in my second-year Liberal Education
course called Problems and Puzzles, a course designed to develop and provide practice in
problem solving skills to students from a variety of disciplinary backgrounds. Lecture
time in this course is minimal, and students spend most of the class time working on
puzzles and problems to build up their skills. In general I get to know students more
deeply than usual, as I watch them grapple with puzzles in the course and also read their
reflective writings in weekly assignments. Alana was one of the top students in the
course, with a strong mathematics background coupled with an ability to think clearly
and logically about most problems. She was always hard-working and fully engaged in
the material, and collaborated well with others in the class.
This course focused on building metacognitive awareness as well as problem solving
skills, as students were asked to relate the academic topics they were learning about
(metacognition, problem types and strategies, creativity, etc.) to their own academic
studies and their lives. As an education major, Alana excelled at this work, and was able
to reflect not only on her own learning but also on the teaching of such skills. Students
were allowed to pick their own topic for a l0-page essay in the course, and Alana chose
the topic of teaching mathematical problem solving. On this topic, closely aligned to her
own career interests, Alana produced an excellent paper, filled with both resources and
ideas for developing problem solving skills at the K-12 level but also with an impressive
depth of reflection on her own skills development and her ability to teach such skills to
others.

In mid-2017 my colleague Dr. Richelle Marynowksi. from the Faculty of Education and I
designed a project based on the Problems and Puzzles course in conjunction with the
Holy Spirit Catholic School Division in Lethbridge. Using an existing Collaborative Peer
Mentorship structure for teachers, we offered six 3 hour workshops over a three month
period starting in September 2017. The project included about 20 teachers from the
School Division, covering a range from Kindergarten to Grade 12 teachers, and offered
puzzle workshops with mini-lectures on using them to explore mathematical ideas with
students. As Richelle and I started planning this project, we agreed that it would be useful
to hire a math-education student to act as a combined teaching and research assistant on
the project, and Alana was the person we each independently thought of as perfect for this
role. Alana attended and helped out with all the workshops, set up and collected survey-
based research data, and provided additional resources and puzzles for the sessions. Some
of this work was done as an Independent Study course, for which Alana designed a
syllabus and project requirement. Her project involved setting up an on-line data-base of
resources for teaching mathematics from a problem-solving approach. She did an
outstanding job on this project, and earned an A+ grade in the Independent Study course.
Her data-base is a very valuable asset, for the teachers in the group, for me in my ongoing
research around teaching and learning of problem solving skills, and for Alana as she
moves forward in her teaching career.

Throughout this School Board project and the Independent Study course, I have been
increasingly impressed by Alana’s professionalism and skill. She was a very useful helper
in our workshops, working carefully and professionally with the teachers in the group;
she provided lots of ideas to me to increase the usefulness of my workshops; and her
comments and reflections on each session were notable for their careful observations and
suggestions about multiple ways to communicate complex ideas. As someone about to
start her third Practicum Teaching semester, she already showed the maturity and skill of
a practising teacher, and I soon began treating her more as a colleague than as a student
or teaching assistant.

In addition to this rich skill-set, Alana stands out for me as someone passionate about
both mathematics and eduction, always eager to share her passion with colleagues and
students. I have no doubt that she will make an amazing teacher, dedicated to student
learning.

Sincerely,

Dr. Shelly Wismath

Dean, School of Liberal Education
Professor, Mathematics & Liberal Education
University of Lethbridge