St. Charles North teacher says math is about questions

Day after day Justin Brennan spent hours watching people die. It was the same people. Over and over, they plummeted from the World Trade Center towers.

But he wasn't watching them so much as the buildings themselves. As a structural engineer, he was trying to determine if one tower collapsing caused any of the surrounding structures to also fall.

Nearly seven years after the terrorist attacks, insurance companies were still trying to determine who was responsible for the payouts. In answering those questions, Brennan was answering some of his own.

"It was extremely depressing work," Brennan said. "I always kind of had teaching in the background. I had great opportunities as an engineer. But I was ready for a different challenge."

After getting laid off and taking another engineering job he wasn't totally satisfied with, Brennan decided it was time to act on that background voice. He spent the next two-and-a-half years working part-time toward his teaching certificate. On the hardest days, his drive to work past Plainfield North and Plainfield East high schools kept his teaching goal in sight.

With eight years of professional engineering experience under his belt, and a new teaching certificate from the University of Illinois at Springfield in his hand, Brennan applied for jobs as a math teacher. One of his applications, to a middle school came back with a confirmation email notifying him he was one of 365 applicants.

"That was incredibly disheartening; just to try and stand out seemed impossible," Brennan said.

Today, Brennan stands out as a geometry and algebra teacher at St. Charles North High School. He arrives every work day at 5:30 a.m., extra large cup of Dunkin' Donuts coffee in hand, to try and get freshmen and sophomores excited about quadratic equations and expected value at 7:20 a.m.

On the Monday after Halloween, Brennan has a special lure for his students. It's called a Money Duck. The duck-shaped bar of soap contains a single piece of currency worth up to $50. In a short video, Brennan shows someone with dreams of riches and clean hands eagerly purchasing six of the ducks online.

When they arrive in the mail, five of the ducks contain a disappointing $1 bill. The sixth contains $50. Jackpot. Students are told there is also a chance the ducks may contain a $5 or $10 bill. They aren't told how much the ducks cost. That's the problem to solve for the day.

Sitting in groups of four students, the guesses and comments start flying. Are the ducks a real product? Yes, and Brennan has brought one to class. Can the students smell the duck? Yes, at the end of class. Is the guy in the video Brennan? No, but those are his words in the video's voice-over.

With the excitement and smiles in place, Brennan steers the class toward the covert lesson of expected value. How much would you pay for this Money Duck? What's the most you would pay? What's the least you think the company could afford to sell them at?

As Brennan questions the guesses, the students offer more logical thoughts. But at this early stage, Brennan isn't looking for the right answers.

"First they have to see why they want to do it," Brennan said. "Then they are more open to the learning. Here's the hook, this Money Duck, and then they figure out where the gaps are in their existing knowledge. And that tells them they need to learn something."

The call for guesses instead of the definitive answer is about getting students of all learning levels to buy into the discussion.

"Anybody can guess," Brennan said. "A struggling student, they can still guess, and now they are at least interested in the process in some little way. A lot of those kids probably, normally, wouldn't say anything.

So to see them say stuff and be involved is really rewarding."

Little teaching tricks like this - the videos and the Money Duck - are one of Brennan's specialties. He teaches his peers how to adopt them and inject more excitement about learning into their own classes.

"It looks, at times, when we do an activity like that, that it's really chaotic, but it's all really planned," Brennan said. "I know, pretty much, what questions they are going to ask. So I just steer the ship in the right way. When I can't silence them about the math, that's when you know you've really hit the sweet spot.

"Are they going to remember a quadratic equation lesson? No. You can teach expected value, and the book has some interesting stuff, but will they remember it? They are going to remember the Money Duck."

By the end of class, Brennan has not told them how much the duck costs. That's the bait for tomorrow's class.

But Brennan has already succeeded in teaching the class what he believes is the most important part of math. It's not about the answers. It's about the questions and knowing how to solve them.

"I don't think kids have an appreciation of what kind of problems you can solve in the real world where not everything is given to you," Brennan said.

"You have to be able to justify if you're on the right track to the answers. It's about how you can start with a problem and use what you know to come up with a good solution."

These days, the solutions Brennan seeks aren't about whether water or wind caused a house to disintegrate during Hurricane Katrina, or how to keep Frank Lloyd Wright's Fallingwater home from becoming just a home that fell into the water.

These days, he's trying to solve how the problem of making math exciting and relevant to his students.

Top teacher Justin Brennan

Curriculum vitae

<b>Education</b>• University of Illinois at Springfield: Illinois Teacher Certification Program; Mathematics (grades 6-12), 2010

• Pennsylvania State University: MS, BS with Honors in Civil and Environmental Engineering, 2003

<b>Work experience</b>• Eight years as a professional structural and civil engineer (2004-2012)

• Preclinical and clinical teacher at Heritage Grove Middle School in Plainfield (2012)

• Algebra and geometry teacher at St. Charles North High School (2012 to present); Algebra PLC Leader; Instructor for 3-Acts and Technology for CUSD303 Professional Development Training; Instructor for Designing Effective Math Instruction for CUSD303 Professional Development Training; Presenter for Math Smuggling: Sneaking Problem Solving Activities into Curriculums at 2014 Illinois Council of Teachers of Mathematics (ICTM) Annual Conference; Facilitator for Standard Based Grading Professional Development Sessions for D303 School Improvement Days; Facilitator for Technology 101 Professional Development Sessions for D303 School Improvement Days; Pioneered use of Standards Based Grading into Secondary Mathematics in CUSD; Peer Leadership Advisor; Freshman Football Coach and Defensive Coordinator, 2013 and 2014 seasons; Co-Taught Geometry Instructor

Teaching tip

• Engagement is the most important aspect to learning in the math classroom. Statistically speaking, most of the students that are in my standard-level classes will not go into employment fields relying heavily on mathematics. Therefore, the engagement piece is that much more difficult. However, if students are curious enough about something, they'll learn it without much resistance. So much of what I do is to reduce the barrier to entry in learning by making in as interesting and engaging as possible. I'll also solicit guesses and do other activities that do not require significant skill to get involved to start. Essentially, I just try to "bait the hook" each day.