Drawing connections
Oconee's Teacher of The Year asks students to look at bigger picture
Story Photos
Monira Al-Haroun Silk/Staff
Monira Al-Haroun Silk/Staff
Count North Oconee High School math teacher Janet Tomlinson among those who honestly believe knowing something about geometry is helpful after graduating high school and entering the real world.
"My loves are geometry and trigonometry," said Tomlinson, a nine-year classroom veteran who has taught at North Oconee since the day it opened in 2004. "I didn't like geometry in high school, but once I decided I wanted to be a math teacher, I took geometry classes in college and realized the things I had missed before.
"Geometry is very hands-on, very touchable. I fuss at my students and remind them that when they get older and go to buy carpet for their homes, it will help them to know the difference between square feet and square yards."
Based in part on her affinity for mathematics and her students, Tomlinson was named Teacher of the Year for the Oconee County School System in October. She's now eligible for statewide honors, which will be announced in mid-2006. The state's top 10 candidates will be announced in January.
"It's very humbling," said Tomlinson. "Every day I walk into my classroom and ask myself if I'm living up to my own expectations for Teacher of the Year - I expect so much from myself. There are so many wonderful teachers in this county and I respect them all. This is such an honor; I hope that respect I had for other teachers is the same respect they have for me."
A native of Sumter, S.C., Tomlinson moved to the Athens area when her husband Eddie enrolled at the University of Georgia's College of Veterinary Medicine (he now works as a large animal vet throughout Northeast Georgia). She earned undergraduate and master's degrees in mathematics education and began teaching eight-grade math, algebra and reading at Russell Middle School in Barrow County in 1990.
The next year, however, Tomlinson left the classroom to coordinate a six-year-long math education project at UGA.
"That was a tough decision," she said. "But I got a great opportunity to work with teachers from kindergarten to 12th grade in implementing technology in mathematics classrooms. It was right about the time of the state lottery, so schools all over the state were the recipients of technology they didn't previously have. It was a fascinating process to help teachers use computers in their classrooms. Even though I wasn't in the classroom every day, I believe it made me a better teacher."
In 1998, Tomlinson returned to the traditional classroom, teaching at South Gwinnett in Snellville. During her four-year tenure there (where she taught everything from technical math to honors geometry and algebra II), Tomlinson was named the Gwinnett school system's Teacher of the Year.
But a growing family (the Tomlinsons have three sons - Dwight, 19, a student at UGA; Joshua, 14, a ninth-grader at North Oconee; and Daniel, 9, a third-grader at Rocky Branch Elementary) and the long daily drive to Snellville convinced Tomlinson to set up shop a little closer to home. She began teaching at Oconee County High School in 2002 and came to North Oconee when it opened last fall.
"I loved South Gwinnett and it was a hard decision to leave, but I wanted to be closer to the boys," she said. "And I really wanted to come to North Oconee because I knew my middle son would be coming here."
"Janet is a phenomenal teacher," said North Oconee Principal John Osborne. "She's the chair of our math department, and the thing that impresses me the most is a department chair calls all the shots and can teach any class they want. She elects to teach all levels of students, and I think that's what makes her stand out - and that's what makes her a great candidate for Georgia Teacher of the Year."
"My basic philosophy is that it's important to be involved with kids at all levels," said Tomlinson. "Teaching at the lower level is challenging and the last thing I'd want to do is make an inexperienced teacher do it or make only one teacher do it. So we share. It's my expectation that we need to be able to teach everything from the low levels to the highest level. I want us to be flexible and value each other enough that we're not overburdening anyone schedule-wise."
Tomlinson said she felt tackling the curriculum as a team was not only beneficial to the students but also to her department.
"I like the team approach," she said. "Our students deserve the highest level of our attention. And this is a really wonderful department. We'll have three student teachers here next semester and I want them to work with all of our teachers at some point. We like to collaborate and share ideas; I feel it's important to build that camaraderie."
While some may look at math education as teaching the exact formulas to reach the correct conclusions, Tomlinson sees a different, larger image.
"I've taught geometry almost every year for the past four or five years and I still don't teach it the same way," she said. "Different classes are interested in different things. We all end up with the same plan but how we get there is different - the 'whys' are always different. Math isn't always so cut and dried.
"I want students to make the big connection and see the big picture. It's probable that most of them won't use the quadratic formula after they leave high school, but they will have learned a skill and an ability to know how to use it. To me, that's the big picture."
Published in the Athens Banner-Herald on 010406