Professionally,
I go by "Sybilla Beckmann"

Sybilla BeckmannDepartment of MathematicBoyd Graduate Studies BuildingUniversity of GeorgiaAthens, GA 30602Office: 501 Boyd Graduate Studies Building
Phone: (706) 542-2548
E-mail: sybilla at math dot uga dot edu
I'm a Professor of Mathematics
at the University of Georgia
My research interests are in the Mathematical
Education of Teachers, Arithmetic Geometry/Algebraic Number Theory, and
Mathematics Education from PreK to the graduate level.
Short biography: Sybilla Beckmann is Professor of Mathematics at the University of
Georgia. She has a PhD in mathematics from the University of Pennsylvania and
taught at Yale University as a J. W. Gibbs Instructor of Mathematics. Beckmann
has done research in Arithmetic Geometry, but her current main interests are
the mathematical education of teachers and mathematics content for students at
all levels, but especially for PreK through the middle grades. Beckmann
developed three mathematics content courses for prospective elementary school
teachers at the University of Georgia and wrote a book for such courses, Mathematics
for Elementary Teachers, published by Addison-Wesley, now in a second
edition. She is especially interested in helping college faculty learn to teach
mathematics content courses for elementary and middle grades teachers and she
works with graduate students and postdoctoral fellows toward that end. As part
of this effort, Beckmann directs the Mathematicians Educating Future
Teachers (MEFT) component of the University
of Georgia Mathematics Department’s VIGRE II grant. Beckmann was a member of
the writing team of NCTM’s Curriculum Focal Points for Prekindergarten through
Grade 8 Mathematics, is a member of Committee on Early Childhood Mathematics of
the National Research Council, and has worked on the development of several
state mathematics standards. Recently, Beckmann taught an average 6th grade
mathematics class every day at a local public school in order to better
understand school mathematics teaching. Beckmann has won several teaching
awards, including the General Sandy Beaver Teaching Professorship awarded by
the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Georgia.
Teaching:
MATH 5030 Spring 09
(geometry for middle grades teachers), EMAT 9700 Spring 09 (an
observation course to prepare teachers of future teachers). Webpages of current
and past courses
Some recent books, projects, papers, and
presentations:
Math for elementary teachers:
Mathematics
for Elementary Teachers, 2nd
edition, published by Addison-Wesley, 2008. See also the companion
website for the book
Description of the math
program for elementary teachers at UGA which was the only program in a June
2008 study by the National Council on Teacher Quality, No Common Denominator, to receive an “exemplary” rating. UGA Columns article.
webpages for courses for elementary and middle grades
teachers taught by Beckmann at the University of Georgia
Mathematics for
Elementary Teachers: Making Sense by "Explaining Why", in
Proceedings of the Second International Conference on the Teaching of
Mathematics at the Undergraduate Level, J. Wiley & Sons, Inc., (2002).
Preparing teachers of teachers:
VIGRE MEFT:
Mathematicians Educating Future Teachers
Beckmann’s section of EMAT 9700, an observation
course to prepare teachers of future teachers
What mathematicians should know about teaching math
for elementary teachers. Mathematicians
and Education Reform Newsletter,
Spring 2004. Volume 16, number 2. Scroll down to find the link to previous
issues. Or retrieve the issue here.
Math for students in school, PreK to grade 12:
National Research Council Committee
on Early Childhood Mathematics. Beckmann is a member of this committee.
With Karen Fuson. Focal Points: Grades 5 and 6. Teaching Children Mathematics. May 2008. Volume 14, issue 9, pages 508 – 517.
Curriculum
Focal Points for Prekindergarten through Grade 8 Mathematics, published by
the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, 2006. Beckmann was a member of
the writing team.
Solving Algebra and Other Story Problems with Simple
Diagrams: a Method Demonstrated in Grade 4 - 6 Texts Used in Singapore, The Mathematics
Educator, 14, (1), pp. 42 - 46
(2004).
Some recent presentations:
Presentations on the
Focal Points at the Georgia and South Carolina Council of Teachers of
Mathematics Conferences, October 2007. Hint
on the triangle area problem. Hint 1 on the
angle problem. Hint 2 on the angle problem.
Presentation on
Key Ideas of Elementary Mathematics at the Lesson Study Conference,
Chicago, May 2007.
I am a member of the Teacher
Education Group in the Department of Mathematics at the University of
Georgia.
My husband,
Will Kazez, is also a Professor of Mathematics at the University of
Georgia. Here are websites of many of my Kazez
relatives.