Kay Toliver

"I’m a teacher. What else would I do?" Kay Toliver asks.

Kay Toliver teaches at P.S. 72 in Spanish Harlem, where she has been instilling a love of knowledge in middle school students for more than twenty-five years. Toliver teaches on the cutting edge of mathematics, stressing thinking and application over computation, and weaving history and art through class discussions into the study of mathematics. Because many of her students come from poor, unstable backgrounds and have poor language skills, she emphasizes writing, reading, and research. Her students must always be prepared to explain their solutions orally, in complete and clear sentences. They are required to keep daily journals, in which they write about what they have learned in class, ideas about how to apply the concepts they study, or simply observations about the class or the teacher. Toliver believes that the students’ ability to express themselves in well-written English must be acquired hand-in-hand with mathematical discovery. In addition to enhancing writing skills, the journals allow the teacher to gain a glimpse of her students’ confusions in mathematics. "A teacher can stand in front of the class and think she’s giving a great lesson. But, that’s not always the truth," she explains.

Kay Toliver’s influence is spreading beyond her classroom to videos. In 1995, she was featured in a Peabody award–winning public television special, "Good Morning Miss Toliver." Also, with Jaime Escalante, Toliver contributed to "Interactions: Real Math—Real Careers," a multimedia tool that connects prealgebra math principles to real life in scenarios featuring career professionals. Along with Escalante, Toliver sees the way to future jobs through mathematics, especially for students from the inner city.

In addition to the mathematical tools, P.S. 72 children use computers. Toliver feels her students must be technologically competitive. With money she received from one of her many awards, the Presidential Award for Excellence in Science and Mathematics Teaching, she purchased software and computers for her school’s computer lab.

Toliver has seen many students who have been exposed to drugs or crime, or both. Frequently, one parent is gone, or a child may be in foster care. Too often a sibling is in jail, and the students’ peers are dealing with everyday street life in East Harlem. But having grown up in the South Bronx and East Harlem, she is well acquainted with the world of her students. As a result, discipline is not a problem in Toliver’s class. Students understand she is serious and works hard to make math interesting. "We don’t need different methods to teach so-called ‘disadvantaged children.’ We just need teachers who are dedicated and who believe their students can succeed," she says. A teacher friend, Cathy Hess Wright has said of her, "Ms. Toliver is a teachers’ teacher. She knows how to reach inside the souls of the students and make them see that the power to succeed is within each of them. In a time when many young people feel that society has labeled them as failures, Ms. Toliver’s message comes through clearly as one of hope, discipline, and motivation."

Kay Toliver hopes some of her students will share her love of teaching and become teachers themselves. Recently, after she had appeared on a television special, five students told her they wanted to become teachers. She had become a real-life role model after the television appearance. She likes being recognized for her work, but mainly she finds rewards in the changes brought to the lives of her students by mathematics.

"Becoming a teacher was the fulfillment of a childhood dream," says Ms. Toliver. "My parents always stressed that education was the key to a better life. By becoming a teacher, I hoped to inspire African-American and Hispanic youths to realize their own dreams. I wanted to give something back to the communities I grew up in."

Learn more about Kay Toliver’s approach at: http://www.nationalmathtrail.org/ktmathtrail.html.

Source: Arwen Larson, "Inspiring Young Minds: Kay Toliver," Technos Quarterly. Winter, 1993, Vol. 2, No. 4.

Visit the following web sites for more information on Kay Toliver:

Kay Toliver

http://www.dekalbstaffdev.org/2002/toliver.htm

This short biography of Kay Toliver provides up-to-date information on her career.

"You Have to Have the Passion": An Interview with Kay Toliver

http://focus.enc.org/focus/urban/document.shtm?input=FOC-002944-index

Kay Toliver discusses special needs children, the pressures of standardized testing, and more in this wide-ranging interview posted at the web site of the Eisenhower National Clearinghouse for Mathematics and Science Education.

A Conversation with Kay Toliver

http://thefutureschannel.com/conversations_archive/toliver_conversation.htm

In this interview for The Futures Channel, Kay Toliver discusses her opinions on educational technology.

Video Samples

You can download samples of some of Kay Toliver’s most famous educational videos at these web sites:

The Kay Toliver Files

http://fasenet.org/store/kay_toliver/ktf_video_sample.htm

Kay Toliver’s Math Trails

http://www.nationalmathtrail.org/videos.html

The Tinkertoy Derby

http://www.thefutureschannel.com/movie_pages/ktf_tinkertoy_derby.htm