Allison Finch, a 6th-grade teacher at Jamestown Middle School in Guilford County Public Schools (NC), has been named the Open Up Resources 6–8 Math Teacher of the Month for September. Finch is being recognized for her outstanding work in her classroom and ongoing support of teachers across the country as a member of the Open Up Resources National Professional Learning Community.

Finch’s work with Open Up Resources 6–8 Math makes her one of the most innovative teachers in the country. The Open Up Resources 6–8 Math curriculum inspires a new way of teaching math by transforming classrooms into hives of activity focusing on discussion, questioning, debate, and the deeper conceptual learning of mathematics that follows. 

Colleague, Ramona Flint, shared how diligently Finch works to make math interesting for students during both in-person and remote learning. “If the lesson is about running a race, she makes a video of herself running to help students understand that, in race times, the lower the number the better,” she explained. “Allison is just a wonderful and dynamic teacher,” she went on to say.

The work Finch does to make the curriculum come alive for students has certainly not gone unnoticed by students or parents. “I know the curriculum is successful not because of a test score but because of the smiles on my students’ faces when they come into class with a story about how they saw math in the real world. They have gone as far as to teach their parents our unit rate lesson from class so they can save money at the grocery store—how awesome is that?” she shared.

Finch was also happy to explain how much she loves the community of teachers that are a part of the curriculum. She shared, “Open Up comes with so much more than building and district level support. It is a network of coaches, professional learning webinars, and teachers helping teachers. It is so much more than a curriculum.”

Open Up Resources is a non-profit on a mission to increase equity in education by making excellent, top-rated curricula freely available to districts. You can learn more at www.openupresources.org. Learn more about our National Professional Learning Communities here.