Olivia Birdsall (WWTF ’12)
BIOGRAPHY
Olivia Birdsall is a math teacher and chair of the math department at the Lynhurst 7th & 8th Grade Center on the west side of Indianapolis where she has taught for all seven years of her career. Olivia was a 2012 Woodrow Wilson Indiana Teaching Fellow at the University of Indianapolis. Prior to her acceptance to the Woodrow Wilson Teaching Fellowship, Olivia studied studio arts and mathematics at St. Lawrence University. She worked in costume construction and design and as a photographer before starting her teaching career.
SCHOOL PROFILE
- Medium School
- Urban
- Traditional public school
- Enrolled students: 1,256
- Free/Reduced lunch eligible: 5%
- Demographics: 5% Hispanic, 33% White, 22% Black, 5.4% Multiracial, and 1% Asian
SESSION ABSTRACT
Before COVID-19, Olivia’s classroom featured mathematical discourse and inquiry. Students were encouraged to make mistakes and engage creatively with mathematics. As classes shifted to remote learning, Olivia fought to maintain inquiry-based teaching practices and resist the urge to fall back into teacher-centered pedagogical routines. In this session, Olivia will share how she leveraged Desmos, a free resource with both “customizable” and “create from scratch” math activities and how she plans to utilize this technology next year–should classes start the year in the digital setting. While primarily used with mathematics content, Desmos is also adaptable to other content areas.