Noyce Scholar Profile
Ryan Dean
Undergraduate major or graduate field of study: B.S., Mathematics
Subject area(s) and grade level teaching focus: Mathematics, grades 7-12
Category of stipend/stipend/fellowship:
Undergraduate Noyce scholar (junior and/or senior year)
Name of Institution:
University of Texas at Arlington UTeach
Current academic or teaching status:
Senior
School and school district:
N/A
Background:
The most important part of my life is my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. He is the reason behind everything good in my life. I actively attend and serve at Crossroads Christian Church with my fiancée. We lead a connect group of junior high students. Some other things that I enjoy doing are playing sports, playing Xbox, and maintaining my lawn and landscaping. I currently own and run a lawn care business and enjoy doing so.
Why do you want to teach:
I want to teach because I want to leave a positive impact in the lives of students. In the world that we live in today, there needs to be more urgency in reaching young teenagers for Jesus Christ. My main goal is to share the love of Jesus in the classroom. My second goal is to teach students how to think critically inside and outside of the classroom so that they have tools that they can use in the future.
Describe a memorable teaching experience:
The most memorable teaching experience that sticks out in my mind was a lesson that used color counters for addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division for sixth grade students. There were lots of questions asked, which was a good thing, and there was also a lot of discussion going on between the students. After doing an assessment at the end of the lesson, it was clear that all of the students had learned the new concept by using the manipulatives.
What does the Noyce program mean to you:
The Noyce program means opportunity to me. Opportunity because of the funding that allows students to get out of school with little to no debt. It also provides many opportunities for students to get preservice training before they start teaching (because of the scholarship requirements).
