And I'll say we're just, this program is just
kind of getting started. So it's sort of, sort
of still a little of each. I wouldn't say
that I only learned content from the Math Department.
I definitely learned content in the School of Education courses
that were offered by the Mathematics Education professors there as
well. I had this one course on probability and
statistics that was in the School of Education almost was
taught by Mathematics education professor that was very informative and
really changed my thinking about, mm not just teaching
probability and statistics, but my own understanding of how we
come to understand it really changed, and I got a presentation
out of that. So it was really useful.
Um, but I would say overall if I was
thinking about the entire School of Education and the entire
Math Department, I'd say that's really the benefit is
having strong contact focus, very strong content focus and
then broad education focus. And then we have these
seminars that kind of bridged the two. We're putting them together.
Could you describe your interaction with the faculty
during your time at Virginia Tech? Yeah, sure.
I think that umm, I'm trying to imagine if I
could have had a better interaction with faculty. I,
my relationship with my advisors, when I did my
masters degree, I did my Masters degree in Applied
Mathematics. It wasn't in Mathematics Education and my advisor was
just great. She would meet with me whenever I
wanted, very flexible with time, very quick with
the emails, very supportive as I was working through
my thesis and very giving in advice and just, just um,
you know? It was a very, very personal
relationship I think. And, now that I'm in Mathematics Education, I
would say that that's even more so with my advisor
for my PhD. Um, so I mean,
you know, we, we, I would consider
him a friend, not just a, not just
an advisor. He's definitely supportive through the entire process
because when you're in a PhD program, you have,
there's gonna be ups and downs, you know,
and I still have a little time yet,
so I'm not, I'm not that close to being
finished. I have at least another year, so
I am fully aware there's probably gonna be more ups
and downs, but I feel like the faculty is
there to support me, they don't view me as being
like a burden or like part of their job. It's
almost like I'm part of the group I'm part of,
I work with the faculty, we write papers
together. It's not something that there, I think
it's, it's come to, it's at a point,
at least for me at Virginia Tech, and
I would say this is true for, if I could
speak for the other students, I would say that
our relationship with faculty is definitely one where it's a
give and take. We're both learning from one another. You
know, it's not something where they're, they're just
telling you or just imparting knowledge to you. It's something
where your work, really working together and they really
value what you bring to the, to the community
as well. I really feel valued as somebody who
has had teaching experience and has had different experiences with
mathematics and education and that the Mathematics Education community really
values that in me. And I think from my experience and I won't
name names, but I have seen in other departments,
maybe that isn't as much the case where they
don't value their students as much as they do at
the, in the Mathematics Education at Virginia Tech. What do you
hope to do once you finish your degree? When I
finish? Well really, I I I think it
was about maybe six months ago where I just I've
really become, I don't know if I'd say I've
become obsessed with understanding fractions, how students come to
understand fractions and what we can do to help and
what we can learn about their understanding that might help
inform teaching and curriculum. I can't imagine doing anything
else right now, as soon as I'm finished with
my degree, I'm going to try to find position
at a university that will allow me to continue to
research that area. And it's just one of those
things where my, I think it was just being
in the community and being involved in the research that
we were allowed to be involved in so early
on, I sort of caught the bug. Where now
that's all I can think about and my my my
focus is going to be finding a position in the
university where I can continue to do the research that
that I'm doing, extending that research in trying to
help make make it better for students assembling fractions and
better for teachers. If a prospective student came to,
you was able to choose between Virginia Tech and
some other schools, similar programs. What would you
say to that? Um Well, I mean,
I guess part of it would depend on their interests
and their what the other schools they were considering,
but I would I would question whether there would be
a better placement for them because I really feel as
Virginia Tech, you know, I think no matter
what type of Mathematics Education they were interested in researching,
they could find a place here in Virginia.
There's just a wide variety of interests in the faculty
and the fact that we have the Mathematics Department relationship
with the School of Education just opens the door for
the types of research that one might do an undergraduate
Mathematics Education or in, you know, I think
that, I think I would say this is a
great place to be the, you know, what
is it that these other schools might offer Virginia tech
doesn't, I don't think you can come up with
many things. Um I think that Virginia tech is
really a, a great place to be the study
Mathematics Education and it's just growing, we're just,
we're increasing too, increasing the program each year and
that the types of outputs and production are increasing cheer,
the publications that are, professors are, are
putting out our top notch. We're on, you
know, the cutting edge and say Virginia texts.
I think I try to recruit to come, I
think what more do you want? You know,
you got very good access to your advisors, You
get to be treated like a colleague, not,
you know, as just as a student and you
have a variety of possibilities for things that you can
study. So um, and c come on in
the question. Good thing. Yeah, it was
going to hand down, um, you say I
can order this, but one of the things that
I think the program Virginia tech really allows that maybe
is a little bit less. Maybe it isn't as
it's likely to happen in other places is because it
really, our focus is trying to encourage students who
love man who are great and want have a desire
to try to help make the world a better place
with Yes and part of, part of um,
part of what's nice about our program here is that
we're trying to make it so that students who really
enjoy mathematics enjoy doing mathematics course work at the graduate
level beyond research in Mathematics, have access to mathematics
education to try to inform teaching and learning to help
others and try to help that that's one of the
things that the field of Mathematics Education really needs is
they need, they need, there needs to be
more of a relationship between the mathematics and the mathematics
education in Virginia Tech really allows when we're trying to
recruit students to come into the field of Mathematics Education
as an entity. I think that the stronger relationship
between the mathematics and Mathematics Education in the community at
that university the better because we're trying to get students
that love mathematics to be in our, in our
field and people that enjoy it and have a talent
for it and really, really care about trying to
make it, trying to, trying to increase the
field. That's not the right word, trying what
are increased knowledge in the field. Um, so
I think that's one thing that Virginia Tech that you
really have an opportunity for that is the fact that
that you really have an opportunity to have students.
They're really interested in math studying math education. Thank
you very much. So what happens from here?
Do you edit all this and make it