I have now taught mathematics at Park Hill High School for three years, teaching mainly College Algebra and Calculus. My schedule definitely has its challenges, but I wouldn't trade the content I teach for anything. Without my M.S. in Mathematics, dual credit would not be an option for me as a teacher, so for that reason, I am so grateful the UMKC Department of Mathematics and Statistics staff encouraged me to pursue my Master's. Without their confidence in my abilities and the immense amount of time they invested in my education, I would have begun working at the high school level immediately after my student teaching, and probably never would have received my Master's in Mathematics, making my career path vastly different.
This is my second year coaching Girls Cross Country at Park Hill. As a former cross country runner myself, I love helping young girls discover the joy of competitive running. It's wonderful, and I will most likely continue until my husband and I begin a family.
As far as my teaching, I have grown so much in the last five years. I am extremely blessed to have wonderful mentors, both at UMKC and at Park Hill. It truly takes a village, but I finally feel like I know who I am as a professional and that I'm a quality teacher. I used to wonder how having a Master's degree in math made me more qualified to teach someone Algebra, or even Calculus I, but I cannot tell you how many times I've drawn upon my theoretical knowledge of math for what I do in the classroom. I truthfully do use what I learned in graduate school, and it makes me a better teacher.
I am also quite fortunate that my ties to the UMKC Department of Mathematics and Statistics have given me opportunities to do some additional work for UMKC. For the past three years now, I have been the Quantitative Reasoning/Perceptual Ability course instructor for the DAT prep course offered by CE Webinar in conjunction with the UMKC School of Dentistry. Basically, I teach a review course on the mathematics prospective dental school students need to know in order to take the DAT (like the MCAT for dental school). This past summer, I began teaching the Quatitative Reasoning course for the UMKC School of Dentistry's Admission Enhancement Program (AEP). The AEP was designed to help increase dental school enrollment of underrepresented populations. I never dreamed I would do so much work with the dental school, but it has been great to see what parts of mathematics are required in that field of study.
To conclude, my professional career was largely shaped by my time studying in Department of Mathematics and Statistics at UMKC. I will be forever grateful to those who guided me so well.
[While at UMKC, in May 2006, Samantha won one of two first place awards in the annual HOMSIGMAA (History of Mathematics Special Interest Group of the Mathematical Association of America) contest for papers written in History of Mathematics courses across the country, for her paper titled "Maria Gaetana Agnesi: Female Mathematician and Brilliant Expositor of the Eighteenth Century." This paper was also published earlier in Fall 2005 in the UMKC English Department undergraduate Sosland Journal. Samantha taught for us Math 110 College Algebra and Math 120 Precalculus, and on April 22, 2008, she won a 2007-2008 Graduate Teaching Assistant Superior Teaching Award at the School of Graduate Studies 18th Annual Awards Convocation.]
Samantha McCaffrey (formerly Reynolds)