The Hechinger Report – Talia Milgrom-Elcott
“As a first-year teacher at Antheil Elementary School in Ewing, New Jersey, one of Linda Hoffman’s favorite moments is when her third grade students have an “aha” moment. Even at a young age, Linda’s students relish the thrill of solving a math or science problem and coming to a creative, exciting solution. For Linda, the “aha” moment is familiar — she herself experienced it last year when she was a student at Rider University’s TEACH first class program. After a career in market research, Hoffman heard the calling to teach after volunteering in her own children’s school. She says Rider’s program — which trains people from unconventional backgrounds for teaching science, technology, engineering, and math — taught her a lot more than how to teach math. I learned how to teach thinking,” she says. Just as Linda and her students have their “aha” moments in learning math and science, America needs to have a collective “aha” moment for figuring out how to get more qualified teachers in science, technology, engineering and math into our classrooms.”(more)