Sharon Collins, a dedicated teacher at New Heights Academy Charter School, engages her Advanced Placement Calculus AB students with innovative teaching methods, including collaborative problem-solving at whiteboards. With 27 years of teaching experience, she adapts her instruction to support Spanish-speaking students through bilingual resources. Her efforts earned her a Presidential Award for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching in 2023. However, the initiative behind the award has been threatened by budget cuts from the Trump administration, which could mean fewer opportunities for teachers like Collins in the future.
Collins has been teaching for 27 years and constantly incorporates new approaches, such as having her students do problems standing at white boards, a method learned from Peter Liljedahl's 'Building Thinking Classrooms' model.
Collins sets high expectations for her students and meets them by supporting her Spanish-speaking students through bilingual vocabulary guides and alternative assessments like roundtables.
Collins' energy, enthusiasm, and dedication have not gone unnoticed; she was selected for the 2023 Presidential Award for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching.
The initiative for the Presidential Award, created in 1983, has been cut by the Trump administration, raising concerns that Collins and others may be the last winners.
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