“A classroom isn’t four walls. It’s where we can think about our students’ home lives, their culture, what they are passionate about and what hurdles are in their way. When we figure this out, it often creates a ripple effect, because the classroom becomes the place where we can have a positive impact for our students. Students can then feel good about their learning, help their families, or decide to stay in our county and help us build a strong community. One ripple goes a long, long way.”
When you walk into Christina Rary’s math classroom, the first thing you may notice is that it doesn’t look like a math classroom. The space is set up to encourage collaboration and to eliminate the rigid, stressful environment of many traditional learning spaces.
Christina begins every semester by asking her students to complete a profile. She learns about each student’s interests, career goals and learning style. This allows her not only to group students together based on interests and goals, but to also shape her entire curriculum to interest the students.
For example, Christina knows that all students won’t be excited to learn about math at the beginning of the school year—BUT many teens are excited when they think about buying their first car.
Using that personalized knowledge about her students and their goals, Christina plans a visit to a car dealership into their curriculum. The students learn about interest rates and how credit works, along with the pros and cons to consider when buying a car. She turns something that many students may struggle with into an adventure they can use in their real lives! For her students who are interested in healthcare, she’s made the connection between linear functions and hospitals. The list goes on.
As a first generation college graduate, Christina often reflects on what she wishes she had learned in school—and then incorporates that into her classes, too. She talks about how her experience can have a positive impact for Renewal students, saying:
“My family moved to the United States when I was a young child, and education was the pathway to success. However, I wasn’t taught about the wide array of careers out there. For me, part of what we can offer students is teaching them about all the opportunities out there for them, how they can succeed in so many different ways.”
Christina thinks of teaching as an art, and mentions that teaching is a great avenue to advocate for her passion as an agent of change. For Christina, knowing she can not only teach math, but equally important, show her students that you can succeed, no matter what your background, is what it’s all about.
