MATHEMATICAL
ASSOCIATION OF AMERICA
NEW JERSEY SECTION
Award for Distinguished College or
University Teaching of Mathematics
Spring Meeting
Saturday, April 13, 2002
Monmouth University
West Long Branch, New Jersey
In 1991 the Mathematical
Association of America instituted Awards for Distinguished College or
University Teaching of Mathematics in order to honor college or university
teachers who have been widely recognized as extraordinarily successful and
whose teaching effectiveness has been shown to have had influence beyond their
own institutions.
Citation
Dr. Evan M. Maletsky
The New Jersey Section of
the Mathematical Association of America is pleased to present its 2002
sectional award for Distinguished College or University Teaching of Mathematics
to Dr. Evan M. Maletsky of Montclair State University.
Dr. Maletsky is a gifted and
master teacher of mathematics who continues to have profound positive influence
on his students, many of whom have become mathematics educators
themselves. Through his many books and
invited presentations and workshops at national and international conferences,
he continues to inspire mathematics educators throughout the United States and
the international community. A prolific
writer and very productive as a researcher, he is the lead author or co-author
of at least 30 books and has authored over 18 articles.
Dr. Maletsky received his B.A. and M.A. in
mathematics from Montclair State University in 1953 and 1954 respectively, and
his Ph.D. in mathematics education from New York University in 1961. He began teaching in 1956 at Pascack Valley
Regional High School in Hillsdale, New Jersey.
In 1957 he joined the faculty of Montclair State University’s
Mathematics Department and has been there since that date.
Dr. Maletsky is a frequent speaker at national,
regional, state and local meetings, and international conferences for
mathematics teachers. He is a leader in
in-service workshops for teachers at the elementary, junior, and senior high
school levels. He has been invited to
speak at many of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM)
conferences, the Northwest Mathematics Conferences, state mathematics
conferences in 28 states, and international conferences for science and
mathematics in American Samoa, Austria, British Columbia, England, Germany, and
Lebanon. He has been a principal instructor at various NSF Summer Institute
held at MSU, Femi National Accelerator Laboratory, and Princeton Plasma Physics
Laboratory.
Dr. Maletsky is the co-author of the popular book Teaching
Mathematics–A Sourcebook of Aids, Activities and Strategies, co-author of
the Springer-Verlag books Fractals for the Classroom–Strategic Activities
(Volumes 1,2,3), and senior author of the leading series Harcourt
Math (Grades 3,4,5,6), and Math Advantage (Middle School I, II, III). He has served as the editor of New Jersey
Mathematics Teacher (of the Association of Mathematics Teachers of NJ), the
Activities Edition of the Mathematics Teacher (NCTM), Student Math
Notes (NCTM), Activities from the Mathematics Teacher (NCTM), and Teaching
with Student Math Notes Volume 1 and 2 (NCTM).
Dr. Maletsky’s outstanding teaching has been
recognized over the years. He received
the Outstanding Faculty Award from the MSU Alumni Association (1984), the First
Margaret and Herman Sokol Faculty Fellow Award at MSU (1991) for excellence as
a teacher and researcher, the Outstanding Mathematics Educator Award from the
Association of Mathematics Teacher of New Jersey (1991), the Distinguished
Teacher Award from MSU (1993), and the Teachers in Excellence Award, given by
the Student Government Association of MSU (1998).
Dr. Maletsky is truly a gifted, talented, and
dedicated educator. Over the years, he has ignited excitement for mathematics
in his students and a desire in many teachers-in-training to emulate the master
teacher who taught them, to share with their students the “magic” that Dr.
Maletsky creates. His students at every
level, and participants of his workshops, attest to the motivation and
enthusiasm he brings to his classes and presentations. One of his students wrote: “He infected our
minds with a desire to learn, to see and to understand, not only the subject
matter, but also the world around us. … He is the rare kind of teacher that
only comes along every so often and changes the way you learn forever.”
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Dr. Maletsky was nominated for the MAA-NJ Distinguished Teaching Award by Dr. Kenneth Wolff and Dr. Helen Roberts of the Department of Mathematical Sciences, Montclair State University.
Response from
Professor Maletsky
It is certainly both an honor and a privilege to
receive this distinguished teaching award.
Little did I know when I began college teaching as an instructor many
years ago at Montclair State University that I would someday be its senior
faculty member and full professor in the very same department that I entered
more than fifty years ago as an undergraduate major in mathematics. Nor would I have expected then that teaching
could have remained so vibrant and exciting, so challenging and rewarding, and
so satisfying and enjoyable throughout all those years. But it has.
Having
given so much of your life to college teaching, you would expect to master some
of the necessary skills, yet there always seem to be new things to learn, new
methods to try, new ideas to pursue, new material to write. They are what fed and still feed my interest
and enthusiasm for the profession, and what a wonderful profession it is. For me, the thrill of teaching still
remains, whether it be undergraduate majors or general education courses,
middle school students or their teachers, doctoral candidates or third graders. I have taught them all this semester, loved
every moment, and learned from each one.
For
all our collected years of teaching experience, there remains much to be
learned. Many great challenges still
exist in the teaching of mathematics.
We must become even more visual and dynamic in our teaching, more
animated and appealing, and provoke not only more student interest but more
student curiosity as well. We must get
our students to see, reach, and stretch beyond the obvious. Oliver Wendell Holmes expressed it so well
when he said, “A mind stretched by a new idea never goes back to its original
dimension.” As for me, I’ve always
believed that mathematics must tickle the senses as well as stretch the
mind. It is through handling, seeing,
and thinking experiences that one can sense the excitement, appreciate the
beauty, and share in the creativity of the subject.
RECIPIENTS OF MAA-NJ DISTINGUISHED
TEACHING AWARD
| Sr. M. Stephanie Sloyan, Georgian Court College | 1992 |
| Eileen Polani, St. Peter’s Colleg | 1993 |
| Richard Bronson, Fairleigh Dickinson University | 1994 |
| Siegfred Haenisch, The College of New Jersey | 1995 |
| Andrew Demetropoulos, Montclair State University | 1996 |
| Roger Pinkham, Stevens Institute of Technology | 1997 |
| Virginia Lee, Brookdale Community College | 1998 |
| Amy Cohen, Rutgers University-New Brunswick | 1999 |
| Janet H. Caldwell, Rowan University | 2000 |
| Evan Maletsky, Montclair State University | 2002 |
MEMBERS OF THE SELECTION COMMITTEE
Janet H. Caldwell, Rowan University
Amy Cohen, Rutgers University-New Brunswick
Andrew Demetropoulos, Montclair State University
Virginia Lee, Brookdale Community College
Roger Pinkham, Stevens Institute of Technology