Meet our new Math Teacher in Residence, Lia!

This summer we had the pleasure of growing our NumWorks family by adding an additional Math Teacher in Residence, Lia!

How long have you been a teacher?

I taught high school math for 10 years in Los Angeles, California before joining NumWorks. For four years I also co-coached our school’s Academic Decathlon team. I’ve taught everything from Pre-Algebra to AP Precalculus, with some Calculus sprinkled in for Decathlon.

Which subject is your favorite?

That’s a tough decision to make. I think my favorite is when I can follow my students. It’s rare, but I had a group of students who I taught Algebra 1, Algebra 2 and Precalculus! Seeing them grow both as people and as students of mathematics was amazing. If I have to choose one subject, it’s Precalculus. It’s when all of the math they’ve learned in their traditional path courses finally gets blended in a cohesive way.

Why did you choose to join the NumWorks team?

I discovered the NumWorks calculator at an AP Summer Institute for Precalculus. I hadn’t picked up a graphing calculator in many years and was really struggling with using the one provided to me by my school. I downloaded the free NumWorks app mentioned by our instructor and knew right away this was the calculator for me and my students. I had a great classroom experience with NumWorks so when the opportunity came to join their team, I knew it was the next step in my educational journey.

What is your favorite NumWorks app?

The Regression app - it is amazing! When I realized how much statistics would be incorporated into AP Precalculus, I was worried because I had only taught one-variable statistics. Even for Decathlon, I usually had the AP Stats teacher step in to help with any topic not usually seen in Algebra. The Regression app made life so easy, especially with how accessible the residual plot was. Teaching these lessons in AP Precalculus was no longer daunting; it was fun!

What is your favorite feature of the calculator?

My favorite features of the calculator are the visuals and the vocabulary. I taught at Title 1 schools, so many of my students were English learners or English was not their first language. Pairing the math symbols with the vocabulary is so beneficial for language acquisition, especially when it’s connected to easily accessible visuals. The Statistics and Grapher apps are particularly impressive for this.

What do you hope to accomplish in your first year at NumWorks?

I want to work with as many teachers and schools as possible. A lot of the best updates and features are based on user feedback and I am excited to be part of that. Additionally, I would love to contribute to a “Tips and Tricks” section of our tutorials to help teachers with implementation in the classroom.

What has been your favorite part of working at NumWorks?

My favorite part of working at NumWorks is the collaborative atmosphere. We all want to make the best calculator possible for students and teachers. Bouncing ideas around with my colleagues and talking with teachers around the country about what matters to them has been amazing so far.

What do you want to tell teachers?

Learning something new can be scary, but it can also be exciting. The discovery process helped me see the content I was teaching through a new lens - that of a student experiencing it for the first time. Thankfully the NumWorks calculator is very intuitive and doesn’t require “training days”. I invested time in my implementation of NumWorks calculators, and in turn their intuitive nature saved me much more time in the classroom. In my AP classes, the conversation changed from how to use a calculator to when and why to use a calculator. Not only do I encourage you to try NumWorks for yourself, but I encourage you to introduce students to the free emulator or phone app to see the device from their perspective!