College Professor Shatters Barriers for Non-math Majors
This article is a student submission from Journalism 122 in the fall of 2021.
Ellyce Bruer
Dec. 13, 2021
Professor Dawn Peterson works in the math department at Illinois Central College (ICC). She has served this school for more than a decade and says she loves what she does. Prof Peterson teaches courses 080, 110, 111, 094, 098, 099, and 115.
She loves being able to work with students from all sorts of backgrounds. Whether they are mothers coming back to get an education, traditional students, or first-generation, she loves meeting them where they are and seeing where they are going.
“I think for me, because I teach a lot of the math classes for non-math majors, that I can hopefully impact their fears or belief that they can’t do math, that they aren’t good at math, they are never gonna be good at math and that there is no use for this. If I can take you one step up the scale of this is sucky, to not quite so sucky, then I feel like I’ve done my job”.
Professor Peterson stated when asked what the greatest benefit of teaching at a community college is.
With many years of teaching experience comes many ways of instructing your classes. Prof. Peterson used to be a teacher who would send her students home to figure out the big picture of the unit – letting them struggle through it. But due to the pandemic and forced learning style that came with it – Prof. Peterson had to make a shift. During the pandemic, she created videos of her class notes, and upon returning to campus in Fall 2021, she decided she would use them to her advantage.
Her classes now consist of the student going home and watching through 20 minutes of notes, trying the homework, and then coming to class the next day with questions. “Take what you heard and process like we processed it together, so we were kind of doing the heavy lifting together as opposed to you getting this big idea, then you have to go home and figure it out.” This change in her teaching style has led her to interact more with her students. Whether group projects or activities to learn the material, she understands that not everyone digests something the same way, so she explains how to do something multiple ways, “I want things to be accessible to everybody.”
Not only is Prof. Peterson a math teacher at ICC, but she is a mother and a student herself. She is currently enrolled at Bradley University in Peoria, Ill., working toward a Doctoral degree in leadership and higher education. Professor Peterson says that balancing life with school and work can be very tough. She is an extensive list maker and finds that it helps with her time management, even though it is “in hyperdrive.” She believes taking care of yourself is extremely important when juggling so much stuff, and the pandemic taught her how to take time for herself.
In closing, I asked her to share a quote that has stuck with her. She said that there are all kinds of them, but her favorite is, “I believe real success comes from knowing that you have done your best to reach your fullest potential in what you have chosen to do ”, that is the key to Prof. Peterson.