Project M3 Team – Professional Development Team
Ann Marie Spinelli
Ann Marie Spinelli is the leader of our professional development team and will be coordinating the inservice sessions for Connecticut teachers throughout the year as well providing weekly technical support to teachers in Batchelder and Kennelly Schools in Hartford, and Charter Oak and Smith Schools in West Hartford. She presently serves as an educational consultant providing professional development and curriculum support to school administrators and in-service teachers in districts throughout Connecticut.
A former assistant professor in the Department of Mathematics at Central Connecticut State University (CCSU), Ann has experience teaching undergraduate and graduate mathematics content and methods courses for early childhood, elementary, and middle school certification candidates. She has extensive experience supervising elementary student teachers and has served as a university facilitator for CCSU’s professional development schools, providing teacher training and support for school improvement projects related to mathematics education.
Prior to her work at CCSU, Ann served as an elementary school teacher. Recently, she co-directed two Eisenhower Grants designed to enhance standard-based mathematics instruction in middle schools.
She presents regularly at local, state, and national conferences for organizations that include the National Council for Teachers of Mathematics, National Council for Supervisors of Mathematics, and Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development. Ann is a coauthor of the NCTM publication Navigating Through Geometry: Grades 3-5. In addition to providing professional development support for Project M3, Ann is presently serving as director of professional development for PIMMS Early Childhood Mathematics and Science Leadership Institute, a grant project designed to enhance mathematics and science instruction at the preschool level.
Tutita Casa
Tutita Casa will be working with Project M3 teachers at Goodwin School and Southeast School in Mansfield, Connecticut and Hockanum School in East Hartford, Connecticut. She is presently a doctoral candidate in mathematics education at the University of Connecticut. She has taught at the elementary- and middle-school levels in urban and suburban districts that included teaching groups of diverse and socio-economically challenged students.
Based on her personal experience of growing up as an Hispanic-American, being a native Spanish-speaker, and living in numerous states and countries, Tutita decided to pursue her doctorate in mathematics education to help raise the quality of teaching and learning mathematics through her teaching, service, and research. She has been the coordinator for the University of Connecticut professional development centers in the Mansfield School District, working with student teachers, master’s degree interns and school faculty.
Jane Paulin
Jane Paulin is a former elementary teacher in grades 4-6. Jane began working on grant projects to support promising math students when she herself was a promising undergraduate in math education. She was Linda Sheffield’s assistant on a six-year Young Scholars grant funded by the National Science Foundation and helped organize summer and academic year programs for middle grades students with an emphasis on math, science and engineering applications to space and aeronautics. During this time, she was invaluable in getting to know each student individually and assisting in all aspects of the program. Jane will be working with teachers at Glenn O. Swing School in Covington, Kentucky and Lincoln Elementary School in Dayton, Kentucky.
|
