I think it is fair to describe my mentor situation as rather unique.  As Katie mentioned in her blog, my fellow fellows and I were very nervous once we heard that our mentor, Barbara Bissell, was retiring from her post as section chief of the Math department at DPI.  Even after we found out that Barbara would continue to mentor us despite her retirement, I was still nervous about my fellowship experience.  I had been looking forward to learning the day-to-day workings of DPI and was worried that my mentor’s new status of “retiree” would keep me from the experience I had been anticipating.

I soon found out that I had nothing to be anxious about.  While my fellowship experience did turn out very differently than I had anticipated, I still did learn a lot about how DPI works and even ended up making contacts in many departments at DPI.  Also, we found out that just because Barbara wasn’t going in to DPI every morning any more didn’t mean that she didn’t have her finger on the pulse of what was happening math education in North Carolina.  Through Barbara’s expertise in mathematical knowledge for teaching, research-based instructional practices, and the creation of professional development we have been able to create a Kenan project that will help teachers to help their students develop a foundational understanding of number concepts.