Simmons Middle math teacher honored at school board meeting

Kent Haines, an eighth-grade math teacher at Simmons Middle School, was recently recognized at a Hoover school board meeting for being one of 11 teachers nationwide to be named a Heinemann Fellow. 

Jason Gaston, the district coordinator of media/public relations for Hoover City Schools, presented Haines with a certificate of appreciation from the school district.

More than 130 applications were submitted for the Heinemann Fellowship’s two-year program. 

The program is for classroom teachers who are interested in doing research within their own classrooms and using the Heinemann platform to share their results. 

The group will meet twice a year in person to share their developing research plans and brainstorm the next steps. Participants will have a conference call every six weeks to check on progress. 

Haines will also be writing four blog posts for the Heinemann site for each year of his fellowship.

Haines’ particular interest is in researching how kids can develop a deeper understanding of algebraic expressions and equations. 

“I think a lot of kids can read expressions such as 4(3x-7) in the same way that I can read a Spanish newspaper,” Haines said. “We both read phonetically, meaning that they can pronounce ‘four times 3x minus seven,’ but can’t tell you what that means or what the expression could represent. So I am trying some new tasks and activities that I hope give kids a deeper way to ‘read’ expressions and equations.”

Heinemann is an educational publishing company that develops new ways to teach literacy and math. Haines’ favorite math book, “Extending Children’s Mathematics,” is about fractions and is published by Heinemann. 

Because he has been a longtime fan of Heinemann, he decided to apply for the program.

– Submitted by Michelle Berg.