Giving up summer break to learn, and teach at UNT Dallas
0 Ratings / 0 Comments
DALLAS – Paula Cartmel teaches calculus at Duncanville High School. She is senior class sponsor and director of the school’s National Honor Society chapter. She’s also a mother of two. So why would she give up two months of her summer break to teach a Texas Prefreshman Engineering class at the University of North Texas at Dallas? “Because it’s that important to me,” Cartmel says. “It’s real important to me that kids understand that you don’t just sit around and do nothing for those two [summer] months.”
Cartmel has taught math and science classes in summertime for 20 years, but this is her first year with the TexPREP program. She has given up her summers to teach because “sports and music go down to the sixth-grade level and capture the kids’ attention.” Math, science and engineering, however, don’t usually don’t get much attention until high school when, oftentimes, it’s too late.
Cartmel says she admires her students who give up their summer break and have been through tough times. “These students aren’t just driven in this; they are driven in every area. They’re actually looking deeper and harder into how they’re going to succeed. Kids that come from hard times work harder to achieve.”
Isaiah Johnson, 14, of Lancaster, has a big personality, and bigger dreams. The freshman at Townview Science and Engineering Magnet High School hopes to be the first in his family to go to college. The oldest grandchild in his family, Johnson says it is very important for him to set a good example for his younger siblings and cousins.
“I don’t want to see them going through the same struggles I see the average person going through. And I don’t want to see them on the streets or behind bars or anything. I want them to have a better life. I’m really setting a good example for all of them so that they can follow my footsteps, and not be just like me but be better than me.”
Cartmel challenges her budding science and math students to become lifelong learners, and apparently she’s succeeding. Johnson says Cartmel has already become one of his favorite teachers. “I’ve already learned so much from her, and it’s only been one week,” he says.
Another student, Jose Chavez, 15, of Dallas is much quieter than Johnson but also smart and driven. A mechanic’s helper at a garage in Garland, he plans to go into computer programming. His mother is from Honduras and his father is from El Salvador, and he has four sisters. His older sister attends DeVry University. He has between 20 and 30 cousins, and he wants to be the first in his family to earn a four-year college degree.
Chavez, a second-string linebacker at Skyline High School, wants to play football for the Oklahoma Sooners. He is very supportive of his mother, and he is trying to teach her to speak English. His mother is very supportive of him as well, he says, pushing him to “keep looking ahead.” One of his teachers encouraged him to apply for the TexPREP program.
This is the first year UNT Dallas has hosted TexPREP. Students attend classes for seven weeks each summer break for four years. The courses emphasize mathematical logic and reasoning as a basis for problem solving. Guest speakers, hands-on projects, field trips and special events help students develop critical thinking, abstract reasoning and systematic analysis. The campus hosts the Year 2 program June 15-July 31.
The 12 students attending TexPREP classes at UNT Dallas enjoyed a special field trip to the Frontiers of Flight Museum June 25. On July 23, the group will tour Peterbilt Manufacturing. The Mean Green Chemistry Demo Team from UNT will give a special presentation at 9 a.m. July 2.
