Dee Martin

     I grew up in a sunny town in Florida called Coconut Grove and traveled to the big city to attend Barnard College.  After I received my B.A. in architecture & art history, I crossed the street to Columbia University's Graduate School of Architecture, Preservation, and Planning earning my Masters of Architecture. As a licensed architect  I opened my own architectural and construction firm. During its nearly 3 decades of existence, my company was recognized for its success as Manhattan’s Best Bet for a one-shop design & build company of high design, great value, and 100% client satisfaction.

    The events of 9/11 tapped within me a quiet desire of serving others through teaching and, shortly thereafter, I focused on the task of getting a “big ship to turn” and closed my office to pursue this personal challenge.  After receiving my Masters in Education and earning my teacher's license, I entered the classroom and have never looked back.  I have taught mathematics, architecture, civics, and fine arts to diverse populations of middle school students in my years serving in public education. 

     My classroom is specifically enhanced through a career lens as a practicing architect and my interactions with students and families are greatly informed by my most important role:  that of a parent.   In 2009 I received a NYC Blackboard award for teaching middle school mathematics.  Additionally, my teaching has recently included CCNY Graduate Dept. of Mathematics Education where I authored and taught a course titled “Enriching the Teaching of Mathematics” to middle and high school teachers. Perhaps though, of utmost significance is developing in students a deep understanding of math as a rich pattern language, an enthusiastic appreciation of its precision, and a ready facility for its usage as a tool. My effort in class in to incrementally build a genuine ownership of foundational mathematical concepts that sets a solid base for algebra and beyond.

    On a minor and concluding biographical note, to know me is to know I am an enthusiastic cyclist, a runner having completed 3 NYC marathons (PB 3:31), and an occassional squash player.  I am thrilled that my personal trek has brought me back to the Columbia University aegis and Upper Westside neighborhood as a teacher of public school students in a synergistic partnership.