Photograph by Kathy De La Torre
Saratoga High School alumna Sandie Gilliam (center), winner of the 2000 Presidential Award for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching, reviews math problems with students Jeannine Bray and Justin Brock at San Lorenzo Valley High School in Felton.
Saratoga native wins national award for teaching mathematics
By Rebecca Ray
Teacher Sandie Gilliam had never won a teaching award--until this past year, when she won two.
On March 8, Gilliam received the 2000 Presidential Award for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching--the nation's highest honor for K-12 math and science teachers--in Washington, D.C. She grew up in Saratoga and now teaches math at San Lorenzo Valley High School in Felton
In November, the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards certified Gilliam as meeting rigorous teaching standards, making her the only high school teacher in Santa Cruz County to be board-certified.
"Both of these things in one year were amazing to me," Gilliam said.
President George Bush chose Gilliam and 215 other teachers from more than 600 finalists to receive the Presidential Award. Gilliam was the only high school teacher from California to receive the award this year.
The award included a free trip to the ceremony and a $7,500 grant from the National Science Foundation to promote math and science education at the award recipient's school. Gilliam said she planned to spend the money on a liquid crystal display projector for classroom Powerpoint presentations and on a digital camera. She will use the camera to photograph her students learning and display the photos on the Internet.
Seven years ago, Gilliam helped introduce and develop the controversial Interactive Mathematics Program at San Lorenzo Valley, where she has taught for 19 years. The program integrates elements of algebra, calculus, functions, geometry, probability, statistics and trigonometry into a succession of courses that build upon each other.
Instead of receiving equations to memorize and then being asked to apply them to word problems, students are given word problems that take six to eight weeks to solve. Rather than working on problems alone, students work together to solve them.
"I get so excited because you actually see their brains working," Gilliam said.
Some San Lorenzo Valley parents have criticized the program, saying that it makes it harder for students to get accepted at top colleges. But supporters counter that the program helps prepare students for today's economy and job market, and that students learn to apply mathematical concepts to solve real problems.
When Gilliam was a sixth-grader at Argonaut Elementary School, she fell in love with the "new math" of the 1960s, School Mathematics Study Group, another method that emphasized meaning and concept over rote memorization. In fact, it was this method that first sparked her interest in math.
Gilliam, whose maiden name is Steinacker, said that when she learned the new math approach as a sixth-, seventh- and eighth-grader at Argonaut--an K-8 school back then--it took her places she'd never thought of going before. She added that teaching the Interactive Mathematics Program at San Lorenzo Valley has given her a similar experience. Her students are always leading her down many unexpected side streets with their questions and feedback. "It's kind of like deja vu," she said.
If it was the School Mathematics Study Group as a program that sparked her interest in math, it was Henry Rogalsky who also strongly contributed to this interest. Rogalsky was Gilliam's math teacher when she was a junior at Saratoga High School, from which she graduated in the top 10 percent of her class in 1969. Rogalsky, who is now retired and tutoring math in Kingsburg, Calif., encouraged Gilliam to tutor younger students in algebra and hired her to help type and edit a math book he was writing.
Rogalsky said that when he heard that Gilliam had won the Presidential Award, "I was not surprised, but just totally proud of her. I think that is just a major achievement and shows what kind of student she was. She's one of those few people you remember all your life."
Saratoga, California Since 1955
