Coaches

Sarah Ryan began her teaching career at P.S. 234, where she was lucky enough to be coached by Lucy West. This pivotal experience transformed Sarah’s mathematics teaching and taught her the power of collaborative coaching to engage teachers in their own learning. Sarah worked for 5 years as a math coach in District 2 and also led professional development workshops for Math in the City. She has since worked for 5 years at the University of Delaware, as a professional developer in their Math and Science Education Resource Center. There she co-led a statewide professional development project for elementary mathematics teacher leaders. Sarah is a co-author of the book, Success from the Start: Your First Years Teaching Elementary Mathematics, which was published by NCTM in April 2014.

Sarah is fascinated by the ways that children think about mathematics. She has great faith in students’ ability to both do mathematics and to find mathematics interesting. Her favorite question is, “How did you figure that out?” Sarah believes in the importance of making mathematics accessible to all students, fostering students’ mathematical discourse, developing students’ metacognition, and engaging all students in meaningful problem solving.