Student Mentoring

Masters Thesis Advisor

(with prof. Rui Sampalo and Magda Eugénia Brandão  Costa Carvalho Teixeira Fernando) Fernando Vieira, “Emergence and Complexity in a Community of Inquiry,”  Masters Thesis, University of Azores, Portugal, defended 2022.

Mentoring Student Teachers

Student teaching supervision includes extensive individual work with student teachers to help them plan lessons, and provide feedback for improving their plans. I observe student teachers twice at each school as they deliver lessons in the classroom of their placement. After delivery of each of the two lesson lessons, I sit with the mentoring teacher and the student teacher to discuss the student teacher’s performance, and write an observation report with suggestions for improvement.

  • Spring 2022: Han Zhang, Dylan Cortes, Randy Cazales, Rachel Gunther (4 student teachers).
  • Spring 2021: Kelly Toth; Aleksandar Valjan; Silvana Quiroz; Jess Topal; Violanda Lubani (5 st. teachers)
  • Fall 2020: Jessie Coriolan and Danping Zhong (2 student teachers)
  • Fall 2019: Hanan Abuhashish (1 student teacher)
  • Fall 2019: Gary Zeng (1 student teacher)
  • Fall 2019: Yasmine Soofi (1 student teacher)
  • Spring 2019: Evelin Perez (1 student teacher)
  • Spring 2018: Armando Cosme, Abdelmajid Idha, Samuel Wang (3 student teachers)
  • Fall 2017: Loudia Martinez, Justin Meyer, Farjana Shati, Mei Zhu (4 student teachers)
  • Spring 2017: Daniela Amigon, Sanaya Brown, Marina Felamon, Jean Poyo, Irania Vazquez, Noura Yasin, Benjamin Zeng (7 student teachers)
  • Fall 2016: Daniela Amigon, Sanaya Brown, Marina Felamon, Yanira Garcia, Alan Jara, Latina Laing, Noura Yasin (7 student teachers)
  • Fall 2015: Sing Fong Chiu, Saloua Daouki, Victor Lee, Leonardo Perez, Rushdha Rafeek, Jean Poyo, Ricky Santana (7 student teachers).

Mentoring Student Research

I have mentored many students enrolled in the Emerging Scholars Program, the Honors Program, and Noyce Internship, including more than 20 students engaged in 22 different research projects (13 students engaged in 14 research projects since my last application for promotion). I also regularly mentor mathematics education students throughout their coursework and often after they graduate.

1. Taspia Jannat, Emerging Scholars Program, Spring 2022.

  • Presented the poster “Novice Peer-leader Learning during Initial Training,” at the 36th Semi-Annua Poster Session, City Tech, April 2022.

2. Silvana Quiroz, Violanda Lubani, Jess Topal, MEDU 4000: Student teaching seminar

  • Presented “Engaging Students and Informal Assessment in Participatory Virtual Environments.”  Mathematical Association of America (MAA) Metro Conference, Online, May 1, 2021.

3. Jess Topal, Silvana Quiroz, Violanda Lubani, MEDU 4000: Student teaching seminar.

  • Presented “Solving the Challenges of COVID-19: Using Participatory Virtual Environments for Teaching School Students,” City Tech’s Inaugural Student Experiential Learning Virtual Conference, April 8, 2021.

4. Yasmine Soofi, MEDU 2901: Peer-leading training in Mathematics.

  • Presented “Student Perspective on Enjoyment in Mathematics Classes.”
    at the Mathematical Association of America (MAA) Math Fest conference, Cincinnati, Ohio, August 2019.
    Awarded the MAA Award for Student Presentation.

5. Yasmine Soofi, MAT 4030: History of mathematics, Fall 2019.
Wrote an essay “The Father of Algebra,” developed as an assignment for the History of            Mathematics course, which was published in the City Tech Writer Magazine, Issue 15,              2020.

6. Samantha Cottoy, MAT 4030: History of mathematics, Fall 2019.
Wrote an essay, developed as an assignment for the History of Mathematics course                 the City Tech Writer Magazine. 

7. Yasmine Soofi & Miralia Moreau, Emerging Scholars Program, Spring 2019.

  • Presented the poster “Student Perceptions of Enjoyment in Mathematical Classes” at the 30th Semi-Annual Poster Session, Citytech, April 2019.
  • Presented the poster “Student Perceptions of Enjoyment in Mathematical   Classes,” at the Mathematical Association of America (MAA) Metropolitan New York Section Conference, City Tech, May 4th, 2019.

8. Famida Akhter, Emerging Scholars Program, Spring 2019.

  • Presented the poster “Exploration of the Lessons Learned by Students Attending a Peer-led Workshop,” at the 30th Semi-Annual Poster Session, City Tech, April 2019
  • Awarded Second place for non-STEM, individual poster.
  • Presented the poster “Exploration of the Lessons Learned by Students Attending a Peer-led Workshop” at the Mathematical Association of America (MAA) Metropolitan New York Section Conference, May 4th, 2019.

9. David Mastaletz, Emerging Scholars Program, Spring 2019.

  • Presented the poster “Students’ Perceptions of the Impact of Peer-led Workshops on their Team-working and Problem Solving Skills” at the 30th Semi-Annual Poster Session, City Tech, April 2019.
  • Presented the poster “Students’ Perceptions of the Impact of Peer-led Workshops on their Team-working and Problem Solving Skill”, at the Mathematical Association of America (MAA) Metropolitan New York Section Conference, May 4th, 2019.

10. Afolabi Ibitoye, Emerging Scholars Program, Spring 2019.

  • Presented the posted “Understanding the Impact of Peer-Led Workshops on Student Learning,” at the 30th Semi-Annual Poster Session, City Tech, April 2019

11. Ryan Chen & Bill Chinskul, Emerging Scholars Program, Spring 2019.

  • Presented the poster “Peer-Leaders’ Learning: Is there a Difference Between What New and Experienced Peer-leaders Learn from Group Facilitation?” at the 30th Semi-Annual Poster Session, City Tech, April  2019.
  • Presented the poster “Peer-Leaders’ Learning: Is there a Difference Between What New and Experienced Peer-leaders Learn from Group Facilitation?” at the Mathematical Association of America (MAA) Metropolitan New York Section Conference, May 4th, 2019.

12. Yasmine Soofi, Emerging Scholars Program, Fall 2018.

  • Presented the poster “Examination of Peer-Leaders’ Growth During a Semester of Peer-Leading Sessions” at the 29th Semi-Annual Poster Session, City Tech, November 2018.

13. Joel Morales, Emerging Scholars Program, Fall 2018.

  • Presented the poster “Exploring Student Persistence in Mathematical Problem Solving,” at the 29th Semi-Annual Poster Session, City Tech, November 2018.

14. Yasmine Soofi, NSF NOYCE Internship, Fall 2018.

  • Completed 50 hours of interviews of peer-leaders and transcribed and coded data under supervision, as part of a research project “Exploration of Novice Peer-leaders Beliefs.”

15. Danping Zhong, NSF NOYCE Internship, Spring 2018.

  • Completed 50 hours of supervised process of establishing content validity of a mathematics test for preservice mathematics teachers.

16. Loudia Martinez, NSF NOYCE Internship, Spring 2018.

  • Completed 50 hours of supervised video research study on preservice mathematics teacher knowing.

17. Jaroslav Sykora, Emerging Scholars Program, Fall 2017

  • Worked on a project “Numbers in the Bible.”

18. Irania Vazquez, NSF NOYCE Internship, Fall 2017.

  • Completed 50 hours of supervised administration and grading of diagnostic CST tests for pre-service teachers.

19. Saloua Daouki & Rushdha Rafeek, Emerging Scholars Program, Spring 2017.

  • Presented the poster “An Exploration of Urban Undergraduate Students’ Identities as Math Learners” at the Mathematical Association of America (MAA) Metropolitan New York Section Conference, City Tech, Brooklyn, May 3, 2015.

20. Saloua Daouki & Rushdha Rafeek, Emerging Scholar and Honors Program, Fall 2015.

  • Presented the poster “Connecting Mathematics Education to Social Issues: Design of Mathematical Tasks for Middle School Students,” at the 23rd Semi-Annual Poster Session, City Tech, December 2-3, 2015.

21. Saloua Daouki & Rushdha Rafeek, Emerging Scholar and Honors Program, Spring 2015.

  • Presented the poster “An Exploration of Urban Undergraduate Students’ Identities as Math Learners,” at the 22rd Semi-Annual Poster Session, City Tech, April, 2015,

22. Saloua Daouki & Rushdha Rafeek, Emerging Scholar and Honors Program, Spring 2015.

  • Presented the poster “An Exploration of Urban Undergraduate Students’ Beliefs and Attitudes Towards Mathematics” at the 22rd Semi-Annual Poster Session, City Tech, April, 2015.

Mentoring Mathematics Education Students and Graduates in Developing as Teachers

As director of the Mathematics Education program, I mentor mathematics education students from the point of their entrance into the program to their graduation and beyond. I continue to mentor program graduates whether in their job applications, applications to graduate school or their preparation for teaching certification. I give program graduates extensive feedback on the preparation of their certification edTPA portfolio, job applications, and their teaching even after they graduate and begin work as teachers.

I mentor mathematics education students throughout their coursework and often after they graduate.
Mentoring includes, but is not limited to:

    • edTPA written feedback
    • Job applications feedback
    • Interview coaching
    • Teaching advice

Training Mathematics Education Students as Coaches for a Summer Math Camps Offered to Underrepresented Minority Students

As part of the MAA Tensor SUMMA grant awarded 2020/21 and 2022, I trained mathematics education students or recent mathematics education graduates to work as coaches in the summer math camps we organized for incoming Calculus and Algebra 2 minority students. The project was a collaboration with (Prof. Ariane Masuda and mathematics education program alumnus and now teacher Armando Cosme).

Activities included:

  • Curricular materials development and training of Victor Lee, Anik Rego, Irania Vazquez, Summer 2022.
  • Curricular materials development and training of Jess Topal, Silvana Quiroz, Yasmine Soofi, Summer 2021.