Easy as Pi -- Award-winning math teacher seeks better ways to teach

By GAIL SCHONTZLER, Chronicle Staff Writer

Math teacher Anne Keith likes math to be messy.

TIM KUPSICK/CHRONICLE Bozeman teacher Anne Keith, posing on her hammock with an oversized calculator, has been working this summer to train teachers from Browning to St. Regis on better ways to teach math. She recently won two awards for her efforts to improve math instruction. Instead of handing her students formulas to memorize, the Chief Joseph Middle School teacher hands them string,to figure out the idea of circumference and Pi, or rice to visualize volume in a cone. She likes to get kids asking questions and discussing math.

“I think it's fabulous,” especially for middle-school kids, who like to learn by being active, said Keith, 41. If math homework gets messy and class gets “a little loud,” that's just fine.

Keith's dedication and success in finding better ways to teach math have won her two recent honors.

She is one of five teachers in Montana named as finalists for the Presidential Awards for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching. All five will be honored by the governor and one, to be chosen by the National Science Foundation, will represent Montana, attend dinner at the White House and receive $10,000.

Keith also won the Bozeman School District's 2006 Cashman-Rinker Award, a $2,000 scholarship given to one teacher each year. She finally got to use the money this summer to attend a nationally known workshop in Portland, Ore. It taught teachers how to use testing to actually help kids learn better, rather than to label kids as “B” or “C” students.

Chief Joseph Principal Diane Cashell told the School Board that Keith is “one of the finest teachers I've ever had the privilege of working with.” She said Keith has volunteered to work with struggling students and is seeking national teacher certification. She also brainstormed with colleagues to win a $300,000 state grant that has Gallatin County teachers training Browning-area teachers to use hands-on, “connected math” in hopes of raising test scores, especially among poor, American Indian students.

How to teach math better is one of the great puzzles facing U.S. schools. Math and reading test scores are crucial gauges of a school's success or failure under the federal No Child Left Behind law. In Bozeman, math scores are above state averages but are significantly below Bozeman's reading scores. Keith was one of several teachers who worked on Bozeman's new math curriculum to turn that around.

One idea she took home from the Portland conference was that teachers should “stop assuming all students would learn at the same rate if they just wanted to.”

In traditional schools, time was constant - the teacher would teach at a certain pace, and students varied in how much they would learn.

Now, because of No Child Left Behind, every child must learn the same amount. What varies is the time it takes for different students to learn.

Keith will share what she's learned with other Bozeman teachers in October.

She seems to have been born to teach. As a child, she taught school to her dolls in the basement. But when she graduated from Helena High as valedictorian, everyone said, “Don't become a teacher, you'll never make any money.” After studying economics and working for a corporation, however, she couldn't shake a desire to teach. Finally she took night classes to realize her dream.

“I'm not rich,” she said, “but I'm happy.”

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