Karen Wootton, President
Many teachers go into the profession because they want to help. They want to make a difference in people’s lives. Teaching is a noble profession, and teachers make a difference in students’ lives.
I am a teacher at heart who is currently not in the classroom, and at this time of year, my heart sinks a little as everyone else is going back to school. I laugh at the jokes, teachers dreading that first bell when the routine begins, and I tease my teaching friends that I will still be sleeping in to 6:30 each day, the time many are rolling onto campus. But when I started teaching in 1984 I had planned to still be in the classroom in 2034. That was my dream career. I wanted to be the staple at the school, the teacher that had been there forever. I wanted my students’ children to be in my classes, enthusiastically telling me “My Mom had you for geometry!” on the first day of school.
My plans were thwarted when life happened. My slow move from one coast to the other sent my plans of being that long time teacher spinning. While I could not always find a school that used CPM, I was able to keep my fingers in CPM work. When my children were little, I wrote assessment materials. When they got a bit older, I traveled to do workshops, and then coaching. Over the years my position changed: Teacher Leader, Regional Coordinator, Director of Assessment, Director of Curriculum and Assessment, and now President.
I miss the classroom, but CPM’s vision and mission are statements I believe in and therefore are worth working for. At CPM, we believe that all students (and parents and teachers and …) can understand and enjoy learning mathematics. Everyone working at CPM and all the teachers teaching CPM’s curriculum are part of a movement, the movement for More Math for More People. We are changing people’s lives, whether it is a classroom of 32 students who just completed Newton’s Revenge, enjoying every minute while they learned powerful mathematics, or 32 teachers new to the profession participating in CPM’s Academy of Best Practices in Seattle, Washington.
Every component of CPM, from curriculum development to professional development is working towards that one goal: More Math for More People. We do this work because we know how important understanding mathematics is for people. Not only do people need number sense, they also need to be critical thinkers and problem solvers. We know we help people reach this goal, so we keep working. We believe we can change math instruction in every classroom in the United States. We will worry about classrooms around the world later.