1. I NTRODUCTION By Berricia Baptiste

2. P ERSONAL I NFORMATION My name is Berricia Baptiste. I am 37 years old. I am married and I have 4 children. I was born on the Caribbean island of Grenada. Now live and work in St. Thomas, US Virgin Islands. I hold a Bachelor of Science degree in Mathematics from the University of the Virgin Islands.

3. P ROFESSIONAL I NFORMATION I’ve been a Mathematics teacher for 13 years. I started off teaching in a large public high school. I taught Algebra 1 for 5 years. At that school the Block System was in place and each class session was 90 minutes long. I was in a Math department that was about 18 - 20 teachers strong. It was a great learning experience.

4. P ROFESSIONAL I NFORMATION C ONT ’ D Eight years ago I started teaching at my local K – 12 church school. (Huge Change!) From almost 2,000 students to just over 100 From Block Scheduling to Regular (45 minutes) From several other Math teachers to just 1 other It was a big transition but a smooth one.

5. P ROFESSIONAL I NFORMATION C ONT ’ D For the first seven years I taught grade levels 7, 8, 9 & 10 Last school year our new principal asked me to teach Math to grades 4, 5 & 6. Wow!!! How do I teach elementary students? I did my research and tried my best. My assignment remains the same this school year. This year surely will be better than the last. Oh! And we are incorporating the Common Core State Standards this school year. Another Wow!!!

6. M Y E XPERIENCE IN S CHOOL My Geography teacher in High School was favorite teacher ever. Why??? Field Trips!!! Ms. Thomas took us on a field trip for just about every topic we encountered. She made it real for us. I appreciated that.

7. M Y I NTERESTS Going to the beach Hiking Doing logic puzzles Exercising

8. I N THE F UTURE I would like to be a Specialist in Curriculum Development and in Mathematics Instruction A Master’s Degree will help me towards my goal by providing me with the insights and training needed to be adequately prepared for this role.

9. Q UOTE A quote that I like a whole lot is “Success is a journey, not a destination. The doing is often more important than the outcome.” ~ Arthur Ashe