By most measures, Jennifer Resti is not the model student a professor would like to see walking into math class.<\/p>\n
\u201cI hate math,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
She hated math the first day she took Algebra I with John Gaspar. And then a transformation happened.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I began his class I was absolutely terrified,\u201d she said. \u201cBut the very first session we had I knew this time it would be very different.\u201d<\/p>\n
And it was. Ms. Resti became inspired, and, while she is still not a big fan of mathematics, she is a fan of John Gaspar. So much so that she wrote an essay that was accepted as one of the top 10 in the Community College Week\/National Institute for Staff and Organizational Development contest. There were more than 800 entries. She called it \u201cThe Great Gaspar.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cOn the first day of class, he said, \u2018we are going to question everything,\u2019\u201d Ms. Resti said. \u201cHe made everything simplified and he was always available to help.\u201d<\/p>\n
Professor Gaspar taught at Colonia High School for 34 years before starting full time at MCC in 2002. He says Ms. Resti\u2019s writing touched him.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m humbled by her essay,\u201d he said. \u201cI was really taken off guard. Sometimes as educators, we need a pat on the back. It really energizes you.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ms. Resti took Algebra I and Algebra II with Professor Gaspar. An education major, she plans to graduate in January of 2013 and transfer to Rutgers. She\u2019d like to get a master\u2019s degree and teach fourth and fifth graders in Perth Amboy, where she grew up.<\/p>\n
\u201cI sincerely hope I can emulate him in several ways when I become a teacher,\u201d Ms. Resti said. \u201cFirst is his \u2018question everything\u2019 philosophy. Second, I learned the importance of creating a learning environment in which there are no stupid questions.\u201d<\/p>\n
In her essay, she wrote: \u201cProfessor Gaspar motivated me to complete the course; he also provided me with a great deal of motivation to understand that math is not something I am doomed to fail. It\u2019s a lesson I will be forever grateful for learning.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By most measures, Jennifer Resti is not the model student a professor would like to see walking into math class. \u201cI hate math,\u201d she says. She hated math the first day she took Algebra I with John Gaspar. And then a transformation happened. \u201cWhen I began his class I was absolutely terrified,\u201d she said. \u201cBut […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":808,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-810","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mccdemosite1.devsiteurl.com\/mcc-publications\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/810","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mccdemosite1.devsiteurl.com\/mcc-publications\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mccdemosite1.devsiteurl.com\/mcc-publications\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mccdemosite1.devsiteurl.com\/mcc-publications\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mccdemosite1.devsiteurl.com\/mcc-publications\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=810"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mccdemosite1.devsiteurl.com\/mcc-publications\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/810\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2352,"href":"https:\/\/mccdemosite1.devsiteurl.com\/mcc-publications\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/810\/revisions\/2352"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mccdemosite1.devsiteurl.com\/mcc-publications\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/808"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mccdemosite1.devsiteurl.com\/mcc-publications\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=810"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}