Bridges Blog Archive for Profile

Enjoy the following story from Shelly Scheafer's first grade classroom in Bend, Oregon, then sit in on a little Q & A session with this incredible Bridges teacher...

Looking for a little summer reading? I've been enjoying David Moursund and Robert Albrecht's new ebook, Using Math Games and Word Problems to Increase the Math Maturity of K-8 Students. (Follow link to view Table of Contents and Sample Chapter.)

So what do TVs, golden retrievers, and good wine have to do with being a contributing author to the Bridges in Mathematics series? Let's start with the TV. I was in 6th grade and all I wanted was my own TV. I had two brothers and a baby sister and we had to agree on what to watch during our "TV hour" each day. My parents worked hard to provide for four children and TVs were not in their budget.

The following message from Raven Deerwater, one of the co-authors of  Bridges grade 4 and 5, is excerpted from his original application letter. At the time, his own daughter was in 4th grade.

Dear Bridges teachers,

Cynthia wrote to us a little while back and said that teachers are curious to know more about the Bridges authors. They wonder, for instance, just who this Allyn Fisher is. So first, we'll deal with the big issues:

Dear Readers and Mathematicians!

Hello Math Friends, 

I'm Donna Burk, co-author of Bridges in Mathematics, K-2. I live in San Jose, California with my husband, Gary, and Baxter, our 18-month-old Golden Retriever. We have three married sons and five terrific grandchildren. I started my teaching career with 37 fifth graders and loved the three years I taught that grade level. After a maternity leave, I co-taught a gifted and talented sixth grade and one period of eighth grade math. As that was ending, a principal friend called and asked me to teach a kindergarten class. That was a huge time of learning as they showed me how little I knew about meeting all children's needs. I then taught first, second and third grades where my quest for knowledge, especially in how all children could learn math, kept me looking for more answers.