By Dillan Combs, Staff Writer – Sentinel Echo
Teachers interning in ClearMath education — a teaching ideology developed by local educator Don White that focuses on streamlining and personalizing math education — will be receiving certificates for their efforts on Thursday, March 21 at 5:30 p.m. in the G.C. Garland Administration Building, located on 710 North Main Street in London. “This year, on the 21st, will be almost two years since our last recognition. Two years ago, we awarded three teachers with certificates. This year we’ll be awarding seven,” said White.
The teachers receiving ClearMath certificates are Tanner Channey, Vanessa Smith and Kendra Cook of Keavy Elementary; McKenzie King and Lauren Wombles of Sublimity Elementary; and Diane Allen and Lynnette Bradford from Cornerstone Christian School.
Don White is a retired teacher, having earned a Master’s Degree in math from the University of Tennessee.
“I’ve had an affinity for education all my adult life. Corbin High hired me late one Summer after one of their teachers had left. See, I thought I’d just teach for two or three more years. I ended up a teacher for ten years. In a year my kids excelled.”
White recalled that Monica Smith, the Laurel County Director of Secondary Education, noticed Corbin students were scoring higher in math than students in surrounding counties. She approached White to observe his teaching methods.
“Ms. Smith wanted me to write up lesson plans about how I teach. I don’t use lesson plans because I teach in the moment. I find out what kids need and I teach what they need,” explained White. He said that his teaching strategy involves focusing on improving students on topics with which they struggle.
“I ended up writing a book with one of the parents of my students called ‘Fragments to Mosaic: The Art of Teaching Math to Shape Critical Thinking and Problem Solving Skills,'” said White. The book was published in 2015 with contributions from John Lowder.
“So today what I’m doing is working with schools to do internships with teachers, instructing them how to teach through ClearMath. What ClearMath is, is a methodology of teaching. I label it ‘ClearMath,’ but it really applies to all forms of learning,” said White.
White described mainstream math education “outdated,” citing that students were expected to learn arithmetic by memorizing formulas and procedures.
“The way I teach, I do contextual lessons — that’s really when you teach kids how to weave all the fundamentals together,” said White. He added that ClearMath teaches students how math fundamentals such as addition and subtraction connect, as well as why those procedures were founded and what purpose they serve.
“There was a boy I tutored who scored his second perfect ACT in math and he had been accepted to Gatton Academy of Mathematics in Bowling Green and Craft Academy in Moorehead University,” White continued. “Tayna Ford brought ClearMath into Keavy when she became the principle, and all those kids want to do now is math. It’s really addicting to learn this way because you don’t just learn the ‘how.’ Now they’re learning the ‘why.'”
White compared mainstream teaching methods as an “assembly line process” where students are asked to adjust to the lesson. ClearMath, he said, adjusts the lesson to the students.
“There was a little girl I was tutoring once,” said White, “and I asked her to look at the fraction ‘four-fifths.’ A fraction is really just a division problem. I asked her to look at four-fifths as a quotient, I asked her to look at it as a product, and at that moment, she connected it all together. She realized four-fifths was four units in a fifth. Really what ClearMath is is context.”
He explained that teachers interning in ClearMath teach their classes as they always have while he monitors them. White said that he supplements each teacher’s lesson with ClearMath and gradually leaves it in the hands of those teachers pick up ClearMath basics.
“These teachers turn into super teachers, and I’ve got data to prove it. You can ask Ms. Thomas — the principal at sublimity, or Ms. Ford about their schools’ math scores,” White boasted.
During Thursday’s ClearMath teacher recognition event, teachers will be given certificates recognizing their mastery of the methodology. In addition, each teacher will be asked to explain ClearMath fundamentals, which White says is only a formality.