Marh 2025 | Vol. 34 Iss. 3
FREE
factory seconds blowout!
See Inside...
Riverton only $
DRIVE BY PICK UP AVAILABLE
20
50 count box!
Prohibiting cell phones?
Riverton awards
People and businesses recognized by city
Page 4
High school student group calls for more education Page 22
or 3
American Heritage School 11100 S. Redwood Rd., S. Jordan
for
50
$
Saturday, April 19 • 9am -2pm
Presidential Award-winning teacher NATIONAL DENTAL MONTH solves the problems with math FEBRUARY WAS
Take advantage of this last chance for a discount!
By Jet Burnham | j.burnham@mycityjournals.com Math is innovative and fun when taught by a nationally recognized expert.
MENTION THIS AD AND
SAVE $20
T
he math teacher who has the loudest classroom and whose students are constantly out of their seats has been awarded the Presidential Award for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching. Riverton High School teacher Melissa Brown was one of six Utah educators to be awarded the prestigious award after being named a semifinalist two years ago. “I want students to do math, not sit and watch me do math and copy it down,” Brown said. “So, as much as I can, I try to limit the amount of talking I’m doing and have students do more of the talking.” Carolyn Gough, Jordan District Administrator of Teaching and Learning, is impressed with the creative and personalized methods Brown uses to make math visible and tangible. “Sometimes you see kids writing on desks with dry erase markers and sometimes you see them handling manipulatives and doing something that makes sense visually, because so many students really need to see it,” she said. “She’s not opposed to using words, having them write out their thinking. That is huge. I can’t even tell you how big of a deal that is in terms of helping students learn. Writing out thinking really matters when you’re trying to help kids be thoughtful about their approach to math.” Brown also has fun with her classes. She’ll challenge students to solve problems to find puzzle pieces in the room to complete a
Thank You
to our Community Sponsors for supporting City Journals
On A Full Cleaning Cannot be combined with other discounts. Expires 3/31/25.
Students are up and engaging with each other in Presidential Teaching Award Winner Melissa Brown’s math classes. (Photo courtesy of Melissa Brown)
puzzle or to earn facial features to turn a potato into a Mr. Potato Head character. Calculus students apply their understanding of the concepts of minimizing and maximizing to design efficient and cost effective packaging for a product. Statistics students gather data at grocery stores. Melinda Van Komen, who teaches across the hall from Brown, said her own children,
who took Brown’s classes, still remember class-specific inside jokes. “She’s just a genius at creating a classroom culture,” Van Komen said. “Melissa just understands how important that feeling of a culture for a classroom is and she just would allow it to happen organically. But I know that behind the scenes, she’s got a method to her madness. It’s not just about being silly, it’s
about making kids feel really good when they walk in her room.” Jonathan Haag, who co-teaches a math class with Brown, said connecting with and having fun with students is the key to fostering an openness to learning. “If they’re in a good mood and they’re involved and engaged in it, then we know we can get them to understand the concepts,” he said. “The problem is can we get them to try? If they’re not trying, then we need to do something different to get the effort there, because we know we can get it. They’ve just got to be engaged and sometimes it needs a different method.” GAP teacher Amy Goodrich, who helps students recover credits, said she used to hear a lot of students complain about math—“I can’t do math, I don’t understand, I don’t get it, I’m bad at it.” Several years ago, Brown worked with Goodrich to develop a curriculum for specific credit recovery classes so students could qualify for graduation. It created some good experiences and wins for students in math and the negative comments stopped. Continued page 6