MN Math Tweeter of the Month

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meganschmidt
Megan Schmidt

Mathematics Specialist, St. Francis School District

MCTM Communications Committee

Until recently, the Blake School was a puzzle to me. They were well represented at the Minnesota State tournaments, but I didn’t really know anything more about this mysterious center of learning. Enter Jonathan Osters (@callmejosters). Jonathan teaches Geometry and AP Statistics at the Blake School, a place where students are invested in their learning and do more than just accumulate points. A pedagogical shift at Blake has allowed Mr. Osters to “ramp up” an inquiry-based, student-centered approach to teaching and learning. A department with common goals and an administration with supportive practices have driven Jonathan’s students to do great things in his classroom.

osters2And speaking of great things, Jonathan, along with his colleague Chris Robinson (@Isomorphic2CRob), writes a blog called Experience First Mathematics. Here is what Jonathan had to say about his blogging experience:

“ A lot of what we blog about is questions that have intrigued us or questions we have brought before our students that have given them a lot to chew on. We also blog about our department’s philosophies regarding assessment and pedagogy. Hopefully we give other teachers some ideas they can bring into their own classrooms. The blog is mostly aimed towards problems encountered in high school, but middle and elementary teachers can enjoy as well. We even had our school paper get ahold of the blog, and wrote a very nice article about our teachers and their methods.”

osters1If you miss Jonathan out on the slopes at Lutsen this Spring, you can catch him at NCTM Annual Conference in San Francisco talking about all things inquiry. Additionally, he will be in Duluth, MN at the end of April for the MCTM conference and will round out the year leading discussion at TMC this July at Augsburg. I had the pleasure of meeting Jonathan this past Fall at a gathering of mathematical friends and then again at the NCTM regional in Minneapolis. He is an incredibly insightful and intelligent human being and I hope you’ll get a chance to catch him at one of his sessions. If not, be sure to catch him on the Twitters.