Meet the Teacher

Background

I, Sharon Bellak, taught middle school math for 41 years very successfully.  My experience is from Ohio, Gulf Middle School, and Seven Springs Middle School.  My love for teaching math extended to voluntarily coaching math teams for MATHCOUNTS, which is a national competition, as well as coaching teams for the annual Pasco County Algebra contest. As a result, I have a room full of awards and trophies, which are a sign of my success.

Due to the poor economy, my teaching contract (DROP extension) was not renewed.  But my love for teaching the fundamentals of mathematics did not end.  Therefore, I tutor individually, teach 2 Elementary Algebra classes at Pasco-Hernando Community College, and am starting this venture.

Strengths and Competencies

• As a mathematics major at Capital University in Columbus. Ohio,  I received an excellent education, especially in math.
• I have taken advantage of in-service trainings in Pasco County, in order to keep updating my teaching certificate.
• I have taught students and also trained interns who have since become math teachers in the county.
• I have served on various county-wide committees, including curriculum.  In fact, I was on the committee which had the responsibility of deciding when to teach geometry in the sequence of courses.  I was the only one to want Geometry offered between Algebra 1 and Algebra 2.  My two reasons were that Algebra 2 has review of Algebra 1 in the beginning of the course, and college entrance exams which students start taking in 10th grade have a lot of geometry on them.  So students need a broad background of both Algebra and Geometry  by 10th grade.  The committee voted my way, and it has remained that way  ever since.
• I have volunteered to coach a national competition team for 26 years, after school. MATHCOUNTS  is sponsored by NASA and several engineering firms, and has regional contests every February.  I have been the only teacher in the Pasco County Public School System to coach teams for this national competition. We practiced  the entire school year, twice a week, even until 5:00 ---and the students loved it.  When we won at regionals in Tampa, we went on to Orlando for state level competition.  I had a student qualify as one of the top 4 individuals in the state of Florida 3 times.  I took them to Washington, D. C. for nationals.  One student even placed 6th in the nation!  I also had one entire team of four students win at state, qualifying me to be the coach for the entire state of Florida.  I took the top 4 Florida students to Washington, D.C. and we placed 10th out of 50 states.  The level of mathematics involved in Mathcounts is much higher than regular curriculum, and so has increased my mathematical expertise.
• Pasco County has an annual mathematics competition, also.  I have coached the Algebra 1 team for 25 years, voluntarily, after school.  My team has placed in the top 3 positions for 23 of those years, and has taken 1st place 17 out of the 25 years.  I have been called the Algebra Queen by administrators in Pasco County. This last year, my team won by an overwhelming margin.
• I LOVE to teach, and I have a positive impact on the learning of my students.  I am a  hard-working, dedicated professional who has won recognition for expertise in teaching math.