Rethinking the ABCs about 1-2-3

Deirdre Newman

Math students all over the world are benefiting from the creative

curriculum development and instructional techniques of a Newport

Beach resident.

As a K-8 math consultant, Marcy Cook roams the globe sharing her

“live” classroom techniques with teachers. Her methods for learning

math are fun, challenging and designed to engage all students.

“She has changed the way teachers look at mathematics since she

started because she looks at math as a life skill,” said Shirley

Rogers, a consultant with the Newport-Mesa Unified School District.

“It’s not ‘you’re good or bad [at math],’ it’s a must-succeed and

math surrounds you.”

Ever since she can remember, Cook loved math and excelled at it.

While attending college at UC Santa Barbara to become a teacher, a

professor inspired her to look within and find her distinct teaching

style.

“[This professor] had nothing to do with math, but he made you

think about what kind of person you wanted to be,” Cook said. “I

think he was responsible for me being a creative, innovative teacher

as opposed to teaching from the textbook.”

Early on in her elementary teaching career, Cook was forced to

choose between teaching math/science and language arts. She chose the

former because of her affinity for both subjects.

It wasn’t until a few years later when she was teaching in Greece

and attended a conference in Iran that the math muses got ahold of

her for good. At the conference, she served as a workshop leader and

was instructed to return to her classroom to try something different.

She went back to her seventh- and eighth-grade math classes with a

passionate focus for teaching math with a hands-on approach.

“I try to put fun into it so it’s not just rote and regurgitative,

but it’s still challenging,” Cook said.

After teaching for more than a decade, she opted to be a

consultant rather than an administrator to be able to stay focused on

curriculum. One of her most significant contributions to curriculum,

Tiling Task Card Packets, was created spontaneously while teaching a

class for teachers at UC Irvine.

At the beginning of each class, Cook would bring in something with

absolutely no math significance, like shoelaces, and ask her students

to brainstorm how to use them for math. She would then encourage her

students to dig around their own environments for materials.

One student, who had just finished retiling her bathroom, brought

in some extra tiles with the idea of using them for adding and

subtracting. Cook took the idea further by printing the digits 1

through 9 on the tiles and creating myriad math challenges with them.

The card packets are designed for students to work independently

at their own level and for teachers to be able to quickly assess

students.

“Everything I do is focused on the idea that you need to engage

each and every student,” Cook said. “In too many classrooms,

[teachers] let a few hand-raisers answer all the questions, so

[teachers] are not assessing every student.”

Since beginning consulting, Cook has journeyed to Asia, Africa and

South America, disseminating her techniques mostly to teachers at

international schools that use American curriculum. She demonstrates

a sample math class with a math menu that she has devised. The

appetizer is a starter problem that gets students thinking

mathematically. Then there is some mental math, then a stumper

problem -- a challenge of the day that usually has more than one

right answer. Then it’s time for the day’s lesson, a follow-up

assignment and on to independent time.

“The two things I care about are developing math competence and

confidence,” Cook said.

And she succeeds on both fronts, Rogers said.

“I think she grabs girls who think they can’t be good at math and

she dispels that,” Rogers said. “If you’re willing to work hard and

persevere, you can get the answer. One of the blessings she’s done is

that it’s not the kids that answer first, but can explain how they

got the answer [that matters].”

For the future, Cook said she will continue developing math

curriculum that reflects current trends.

“I’m always doing whatever is ‘in,’” Cook said. “Right now,

algebraic thinking is very large. I also love logic and reasoning. I

feel there’s a dearth of quality materials [in this area].”

* DEIRDRE NEWMAN covers education. She may be reached at (949)

574-4221 or by e-mail at [email protected].