I called her my Guardian Angel. Antoinette Rizz, a math professor of the American University and an Attorney by day. I passed out in the ladies room at American University during my Finite math class. I hit my head against the door, which put a big knot on my forehead. On my way back to class I started having sharp pains in my chest and difficulties with my breathing. I didn’t want to interrupt the class, so I was going to wait until class was over to leave. I don’t know what I was thinking. I tried to hide my knot and of course the pale color in my skin alerted the teacher. She immediately dismissed the class and called the ambulance. We were very scared. I thought I was dying. She insisted on accompanying me to the hospital until I was released. The doctors thought I was having a heart attack because of the pain in my chest so that they keep me under observation for eight hours. After many tests it was discovered that I had an esophagus attack as a result of stress. I looked at the teacher and said, “FINITE MATH.” We smiled, caressed one another and thanked God. Without her support, I don’t know what I would have done without her genuine compassion. Ms. Rizz saved my life. She went beyond the call of duty as a teacher.
As an adult returning back to school after 20 years of not attending school, the idea of a math class scared the hell out of me. You can properly say that my mathematical intelligence was average. When I enrolled at American University, I was informed that my previous math credits were not compatible with the AU’s requirements. It was recommended that students take a refresher course in Algebra to prepare for this “FINITE MATH” class. The finite math course descriptions entailed several theories; algebra, geometry, trigonometry and physics, ALL summed up in one class. I felt the stress building as the teacher handed out the syllabus and explained how we were to learn the subject. Simultaneously, most of the class orally expressed the words, “Oh s…it.” The teacher laughed and immediately reassured us that the bite was not as big as it looked and that she was going to make our learning fun.
Ms. Rizz made the most memorable difference in my life because of her unconditional love for human beings. I can truly speak for all the students that we became a learning family and today we all remain friends. Ms. Rizz’s compassion for teaching math made the long haul fun and less stressful. Ms. Rizz main focus was to ensure that every student understood and comprehend the basic concepts and rules for attacking the various math problems. Her effective teaching methods were outstanding and the use of wait time allowed different levels of achievements. The three techniques that come to mind are deep teaching, differentiated instruction and a learning community.
The concept of deep teaching was emphasized throughout the class duration. As we know, with deep teaching, the teacher organizes their content around a limited set of key principles and powerful ideas by engaging students in discussion of the concepts. After the first class and at the beginning of each class, we were quizzed on what we learned in the previous class and were given the next week math rules to study. With so many rules in math and an overwhelming of memory stored in one’s brain the quizzes helped us to decipher the many rules as we built on our critical thinking of how to approach the various theories.
Ms. Rizz’s differentiated instruction helped the students to combat their fears. With differentiated instruction, the teacher carefully considers each student’s needs, learning style, life experience, and readiness to learn. She understood that we all needed to take the class and knew it would be overwhelming since most of the students had not had math since high school. She became aware of each student’s learning style and for those who had the most difficulty in understanding the concepts, she conducted on her own time two study classes a week to tutoring. This way the advanced students didn’t get frustrated and we stayed on track with the syllabus. I remember one time during class a student kept asking questions about a concept he could not understand and she tried to answer him without taking up to much class time. For some reason the explanation was not getting across to the student. I turned around to the student and put it in layman terms and immediately a bell went off in the student’s head and he shouted, “Oh I got it.” Ms. Rizz said, “Great”, and Tondalaya whatever you did keep up the good work.” After class she thanked me and said, “every little bit helps.” She was not intimidated and afterwards allowed me to assist her when needed. This process was the beginning of a learning community.
In the tutored class, we were placed in small groups, which helped us to bond. This class allowed students the opportunity to ask many questions before moving on. Ms. Rizz served as a facilitator as WE taught each other. It was set up like an acting class where we rehearsed the rules and problems until each person achieved understanding. Our learning community was based on student’s effort and not on individual competition because we all helped each other. This was a process that I had never experienced in learning and believed that if teaching were taught like this during my early schooling I would have been a better student.
“The one real object of education is to have a man in the condition of continually asking questions”, quoted by Bishop Mandell Creighton. Ms. Rizz encouraged us to ask questions even if we thought they were stupid. We probably should have been admitted to the Guineas World Record Book for asking the most questions in one subject. Who cared? Ted Sizer, an educational reformer stated, “Less is more,” in order to provide effective instruction you must limit the amount of content introduce by assessing the various learning styles and organizing the information to ensure that each student gain in-depth understanding of the subject matter.” Ms. Rizz accomplished this by introducing each theory and it’s rules in small portions, creating group work, and developing learning activities that recognized the different learning difficulties. As a result of her effective teaching and the call beyond duty, we all passed the university’s math test with As and Bs. That was a proud moment for all. Ms. Rizz was the pillar of a most difficult subject that required a person’s to retrieve mathematical concepts and rules that most likely will not be used in everyday life. I end this paper with a quote by Carl Jung that represents Ms. Rizz as one of the most memorable brilliant teachers.
“One looks back with appreciation to the brilliant teachers, but with gratitude to those who touched our human feelings. The curriculum is so much necessary raw material, but warmth is the vital element for the growing plant and for the soul of the child.”
-- Tondalaya Hamilton, American University