Copy of About Us

Cathy Fosnot
Cathy Fosnot
Cathy is Professor Emerita of Education at the City College of New York and was the founder of Mathematics in the City, a national center for professional development located at the college. She has authored over 70 books on mathematics education, including the Young Mathematicians at Work  series and the Contexts for Learning Mathematics series. In 2012 she retired from the college and established New Perspectives on Learning in order to devote her full attention to the development of new materials and supporting school change. Over the last several years she has worked to turn CFLM into a full core program with 54 units, an accompanying online professional support system and a formative assessment package for the documentation of learning.  Click to hear Cathy talking about numeracy: vimeo.com/104110508
Maarten Dolk

Maarten Dolk
For many years, Maarten was a researcher and developer of mathematics education at the Freudenthal Institute in the Netherlands, where he was involved in the development of professional development and multimedia learning environments for teachers. He has also directed a professional development project in the Netherlands for teacher educators and staff developers. Maarten coauthored 2 of the early childhood CFLM units, The Double Decker Bus: Early Addition and Subtraction and Organizing and Collecting. He is currently partnering with Cathy on the development of New Perspectives Online

Ryan Dent Cathy fosnot math
Ryan Dent
As Vice-President of Support, Implementation and Teacher Learning, Ryan brings to the team decades of work as a classroom teacher, Principal, District Math Administrator and a Regional Math Specialist. He frequently presents at national conferences such as NCTM and NCSM, and has a long history of support schools in implementing the CFLM units, the P2S2 platform and digital assessment application. Ryan's role is to support schools and districts in implementing our resources from their own starting point and traverse the journey of building communities of young mathematicians at work.
Janan Hamm

Janan Hamm 
Janan is Senior Associate of Professional Development at New Perspectives on Learning. She was previously a senior mathematics staff developer in New York City schools with Mathematics in the City and an adjunct professor at the School of Education at the City College of New York. In the fall of 2019, Janan resigned from CCNY to join Cathy full time at New Perspectives on Learning. Early in her career Janan was a microelectronics process developer for MIT Lincoln Laboratories, a mathematics and science teacher at the Murdoch Middle School, and an instructional coach in mathematics for Boston Public Schools. There she led various professional development workshops for teachers, principals and after-care providers with a particular interest in supporting struggling and special needs students and was also involved in data analysis and assessment development for the mathematics department. Janan ​is the co-author of the CFLM kindergarten unit Rhoda Red and Loretta Leghorn and she collaborated with Cathy on the NCTM publication, Models of Intervention: Re-Weaving the Tapestry.

 

Greg Bryant
Greg Bryant
Greg Bryant, MA Ed, has taught in the Los Angeles Unified School District for 29 years, where he has spent the majority of his career in underserved and Title One schools. He currently specializes in elementary constructivist math practices at Open Magnet Charter and is an Adjunct Professor at Antioch University Los Angeles in the Teacher Credentialing program. Greg began attending Cathy’s workshops and using her units in 2010. In the spring of 2019 he served as the field test teacher for the newest CFLM unit on data and measurement—an experience that culminated in the co-authoring of the unit Batteries, Cell Phones, Dalmatians, and Pumpkins: Data Representation and Analysis with Koeno Gravemeijer, Frans van Galen, Dina Williams, and Cathy Fosnot. ​
Bill Jacob
Bill Jacob
Bill is a professor of mathematics at the University of California, Santa Barbara. In addition to his mathematical research he develops and teaches courses for undergraduates preparing for teaching careers. Over the past 20 years he has designed and led numerous professional development programs for K-12 teachers. He has been a collaborator with Cathy for the past 20 years, co-authoring Young Mathematicians at Work: constructing algebra, and is the lead author and developer of several CFLM units: The California Frog-Jumping Contest: Algebra (Grade 5, Best Buys, Ratios, and Rates: Addition and Subtraction of Fractions (Grade 5), The Mystery of the Meters: Decimals (Grade 5), and the 2 grade 4 angle units The Skateboard Lane and Marcus Tilus.
Sylvia Glassco
Sylvia Glassco​
Sylvia teaches middle school math and science at Greenspring Montessori outside Baltimore, MD. She is the developer and author, together with Cathy Fosnot, of several new CFLM units, among them Tabletops, Floors, and Fields: Area, Perimeter, and Partitioning, Stairsteps and Scales: Multiplication and Division of Decimals, The Architects' Project: Area, Volume, and Nets and Surveyors and Subways: the Cartesian Coordinate System. In her classroom, Sylvia seeks to empower her students to use their mathematical understanding to explore and shape the world; she and her students have presented together on how classroom data investigations can launch advocacy for social justice. They have also co-created a body of conjecture and proof work that Sylvia has shared nationally. In addition to teaching, Sylvia heads Cathy's writing team and enjoys exploring math at home with her young children.
Jennifer Smith
Jennifer Smith

Jennifer Smith is a 4th grade teacher at the Deerfield Elementary School in Deerfield, MA.  She first encountered Cathy's work twenty years ago as a new teacher when she did graduate work at CCNY and participated in Math in the City.  Jennifer is a co-author of the unit From Sunflowers to Growth Patterns. She has a Bachelor's Degree from Brandeis University and a Master's Degree in Education from Lesley College.

sharon askew cflm math
Sharon Askew

Sharon’s teaching career includes more than 33 years at Germantown Friends School in Philadelphia. A former scientist, her teaching has spanned grades K-12, including at the high school level for 20 years, serving as head of middle and upper school math departments, and culminating as the lower school math coordinator. Sharon is a co-author of the 4th grade place value unit, Puzzle Packing Company, and is featured in several units on the New Perspectives online platform. In addition to the joy of helping to inspire in students a lasting understanding of how math lives throughout their lives, Sharon finds equally rewarding the opportunities to collaborate and support teachers in deepening their math content knowledge and approach to teaching.

Kate Checkach
Kate Chechak  
Kate Chechak was a classroom teacher for ten years before she entered the world of curriculum and math consulting, first as a 2nd/3rd grade teacher at a Project-Based Learning STEM magnet school in Newport News, Virginia and then as a founding teacher at The School at Columbia University teaching 3rd and 4th grades.  As a consultant, she has worked with various independent schools throughout Manhattan, helping them align their math curriculum and instruction across the grades through one-on-one coaching and school-wide workshops.  Currently Kate is the Mathematics Curriculum Coordinator for the elementary program at the Dalton School in Manhattan. ​
Emily Stewart
Emily Stewart
Emily Stewart is currently a math specialist for an independent school in Washington DC that serves children ages 3 through 6th grade. She has also taught 4th grade and Kindergarten and has worked as a TA for Urban Teachers (a graduate teacher education program through Johns Hopkins), assisting with math methods courses. Her particular interests include observing young children as they mathematize their world and helping to broaden their understanding of what mathematics is and what mathematicians do. She originally studied with Bill Jacob at UCSB in 2007 and now works with New Perspectives on Learning as a consultant. She earned a Masters in Teaching Mathematics K-8 from Mt. Holyoke College in 2021.
Melissa Becerray
Melissa Becerra
Melissa Becerra is a teacher  in Shaker Heights, Ohio. Throughout her 23 years of teaching, she has taught 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 5th, and 6th grades. She attended Kent State for her undergraduate degree and got her master's in administration at John Carroll University. Melissa is passionate about equal rights for children around the world.  She volunteered at Rift Valley Children's Village in Tanzania, Africa. While there, she lived in a house with 10 girls, taught preschool, and wrote the curriculum and assessments for the Pre K and Kindergarten programs.
Kate Philpott
Kate Philpott
Kate Philpott has taught in San Francisco Independent schools for over 30 years as both a classroom teacher and as a math specialist, coaching teachers. In addition, she is a lead teacher with the Monterey Mathematics Project, a non-profit providing professional development to public school teachers. Kate began attending Cathy’s workshops in 2010 and has made the CFLM units an integral part of her school’s math curriculum. Kate is interested in introducing young mathematicians to the beauty of math and providing opportunities to engage students in work that is relevant and respectfully reflects the world of the mathematician. 
Jennifer Jacobson

Jennifer Jacobson
Jennifer Jacobson is an Instructional Numeracy Coach in Waterford, CT where she works as the district’s Kindergarten through Second grade coach between three elementary schools. Jennifer has been utilizing Contexts for Learning Mathematics (CFLM) since 2016 and has co-led a number of CFLM units with Cathy Fosnot. Her passion is supporting teachers to focus on developing contexts while letting students have that "light bulb" moment that not only teaches their classmates, but also their teacher. Prior to becoming a coach, she taught Fourth grade and Kindergarten for fifteen years. She resides in Guilford, CT, with her husband and four children.

Karen Rutledge

Karen Rutledge
Karen Rutledge has a Master’s Degree in Education from Eastern University, and has been teaching kindergarten at Germantown Friends School in Philadelphia, PA since 1993. In 2018, Cathy Fosnot featured her class on the platform to demonstrate the Rhoda Red and Loretta Longhorn – Working with Fives and Tens, unit, and she is a co-author of My Favorite Collections - Measurement and Data. Karen notes that the books, mini-lessons, and games keep the children happily engaged as they develop their number sense and move through the Landscape of Learning. 

Katie Aument
Katie Aument
Katie is a second grade teacher at Germantown Friends School and has taught in public, charter, and independent schools in Philadelphia over the past 12 years.  She is a featured teacher on the New Perspectives Online platform and was a demonstration teacher for CFLM’s Mathematicians in Residence program.  She loves exploring new professional learning in collaboration with colleagues.  Katie has a bachelor’s degree from the College of William and Mary and a M.Ed. from the University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education.  She enjoys hiking with her dog and kindergartner in her free time.
Diana Gomez
Diana Gomez
Diana is a third grade teacher and teacher mentor at Germantown Friends School in Philadelphia. She is the co-author with Catherine Fosnot of the grade 4 place value unit, Puzzle Packing Companies, and a featured teacher on the New Perspectives Online platform. She has worked as a facilitator of professional development for teachers and a curriculum writer for a number of years, and she really enjoys mentoring new teachers. She has a bachelor’s degree in Economics from Fordham University and an M.Ed from Bank Street College of Education, both in New York City. Diana has 3 high school and college-age kids, and she enjoys running in her free time.
Sarah Ryan
Sarah Ryan
Sarah Ryan is an education consultant and adjunct professor at the University of Delaware.  She has a BA from Williams College and a MS in Early Childhood and Elementary Education from Bank Street College.  Sarah has been an elementary school teacher, professional developer, and teacher educator for over 20 years.  Sarah began working with Cathy and Maarten in 1995 as a teacher in the Math in the City project, where she was introduced to the landscape of learning, number strings, and how to use realistic contexts to support children’s mathematical development.  Sarah has been using what she learned in that project in her work with children and teachers ever since.  Sarah is fascinated with children’s mathematical thinking and believes that all children are capable of and deserve to develop a rich conceptual understanding of mathematics.