AMS Early Career Profile: Joseph Abueg

Joseph Abueg Undergraduate Institution: University of California, Davis Position: Substitute Teacher Employers:   Vallejo City Unified School District   Napa Valley Unified School District   Benicia Unified School District   Fairfield-Suisun Unified School District   St. Helena Unified School District Industry Sector: Education

What he does:

• Joseph Abueg is currently a substitute teacher, looking into getting a teaching credential in elementary education. He has been doing this for about 2 years and will go back to school to get a credential in the coming winter. In order to be a substitute, he needed to receive a Bachelor's degree, as well as pass the CBEST (California Basic Education Skills Test). Before he gets his credential, he will need to go to school for another year and also have passed another two exams: CSET (California Subject Examination for Teachers) and RICA (Reading Instruction Competence Assessment).

Math on the job:

• The teaching field requires a lot of critical thinking and organizational skills. It requires a significant amount of planning for a teacher to achieve the most productive and effective school day and year possible working with a given set of standards. A teacher (even a substitute) needs to be creative, while remaining within the guidelines of these standards, in order to be able to keep up with a number of students at any given time and to make sure that each student receives and achieves the optimum performance possible. This is perhaps one area where mathematical concepts are used in teaching: how to do problem solving using a given set of standards and a logical thinking pattern.

Joseph's education:

• Joseph received his degree in June 2004, with a major in mathematics and a minor in statistics. As an elementary teacher, one must be very well versed with arithmetic, and some pre-algebra concepts may be very useful. But in general, the elementary teacher needs to have as much basic or even intermediate level knowledge as possible in math, language arts, science, and social studies. This is where general education requirements can be very helpful. But mainly, courses in education are very useful.

Advice for students:

• For any students who are considering taking mathematics, Joseph recommends that they evaluate carefully how much interest they have in math. Other than that, he recommends that they understand and research the various math applications that are present in everyday life, in order to increase their appreciation for the subject.