Math teacher makes it all add up for students
By Lea Kahn, Staff Writer
In mathematics, it is said that the shortest distance between two points is a straight line — but that’s not always the way it works in real life, especially when it comes to pinning down a career. Just ask George Regan.
The veteran Slackwood Elementary School mathematics teacher, who has been named the Lawrence Township Teacher of the Year for 2009, certainly took a circuitous route to his career — from sales manager to teacher.
Mr. Regan, 49, earned a bachelor’s degree in business from Temple University in Philadelphia. He spent the first few years of his adult life in sales in the fashion industry in New York City, eventually rising to become the national sales manager for a jewelry company.
“It was a very dynamic career,” Mr. Regan said. “It was very educational in itself. I loved it all when I did it, but it didn’t mean anything. I would get to the end of my day and think, ‘Wow, it’s just not real.’”
“I quit work one day and spent six months contemplating what to do. I couldn’t think of anything else that would bring me the fulfillment that I thought it would, so I sold all that I owned and went back to graduate school,” he said.
Mr. Regan enrolled at The College of New Jersey and earned his state teacher certification. He spent several months at the Slackwood Elementary School as a student-teacher, and then came back to the school to work as an academic support instruction math teacher.
“My father was a high school English teacher, so I imagine genetics played a part in it. But of course, you never want to do what your parents tell you to do,” Mr. Regan said with a laugh.
But the 12 years that he has spent as a teacher has been “by far the most meaningful thing” he has ever done in his life, he said. Working with young children to help them to unlock the knowledge they need is most rewarding — especially when they get that “a-ha” moment, which means they have grasped what he has been trying to get across, he said.
A teacher strives for the student to be successful on the first attempt at learning something new, Mr. Regan said. But if it doesn’t happen, he said, he spends the rest of his evening attempting to find another way to deliver the same skill or strategy so the child “gets it.”
It is that personal approach — meeting a child where he or she is, educationally — that has worked very well for him, Mr. Regan said. It’s much easier to walk with a child than to walk ahead of the child, he said.
Mr. Regan acknowledged that for many children, mastering a mathematical concept is not easy. That’s why he tries to help them realize that these are concepts they will use throughout their lives. They become more focused on learning the concept when they know it has a purpose, he said.
For example, children learn the importance of subtraction because they know they will need that skill when a store clerk gives them change for their purchase, Mr. Regan said. It is something they will need for the rest of their lives, he said.
Mr. Regan also teaches his students to identify patterns and how to use them. If they know that 7 plus 3 equals 10, then they realize that 17 plus 3 equals 20 and that 27 plus 3 equals 30, he said. They can take something that they know and expand on it in a patterned way, he added.
“When you let children play with learning, it’s amazing what you can learn from them,” he said. “They see a pattern that is not part of your experience. It means you have brought them to a place where they can do it on their own. You have taught a child to be an independent learner who can solve things.”
“You supply them with skills so that, like a parent, they won’t need you,” Mr. Regan said. “Luckily, as a teacher, you get 75 more children in the primary school wing who are coming to you. There is a fresh group of faces that show up in September.”
Mr. Regan said he is “pretty quick” to assess each new group of students. He knows from experience that it takes time for the children to develop the knowledge and skills they need. It’s not something that one can teach in a 45-minute-long class and expect the students to have mastered, he said.
So what makes a good teacher?
It’s a combination of flexibility and a thorough knowledge of the material, Mr. Regan said. A good teacher is a nurturing person who can “read” children, he said. When there appears to be defiance or a lack of focus on a child’s part, there is a reason for it, he said.
“It may have nothing to do with you,” he said. “It may be the child’s home life, his school life or his social life. These are very valid emotions for a child. If there is no safe place for a child to express those emotions, the whole lesson is awash if you can’t address them.”
“A child will tell you what happened and they will get it out and you can put it on a shelf. You can talk about a solution and then they are totally with you. It takes a minute, but you will have them ‘more’ because you took the time with them,” he said.
It is important for the child to know that he or she can trust the teacher, Mr. Regan said. And it is equally important for a teacher to understand how a child thinks because without it, teaching can be a difficult job, he said.
“(Teaching) is a balancing act,” Mr. Regan said. “It’s not something that is written in a textbook. When it’s ‘show time’ the next day, you never know what is going to happen, which for me makes it more fun. Teaching is the best thing you could possibly do, if you have it in you.”