Fred Belmont
National Science Foundation
CISE – Information and Intelligent Systems (IIS)
Illinois – Grades 6-8, Mathematics
Since 1993, Fredrick A. Belmont has taught middle school math and technology in Northbrook, Illinois, a Chicago suburb. After a business career spanning more than two-and-a-half decades, first as an international banker and then as a management consultant in the new technologies arena, Fred became a 6th grade teacher. Fred brings a real-world and global perspective to the classroom. During his career he has worked with over 100 companies and government entities in more than 25 countries, including work in more than a dozen emerging markets.
When students ask, ‘Mr. Belmont, when am I ever going to use this stuff?’ he usually replies, ‘Life is a word problem!’ Then he goes on to explain – and show examples of – how the same concepts and formulas he is teaching are used by scientists, engineers and business people every day in their jobs. He often incorporates problems that he has seen in his prior work into his lessons. The one problem Fred has not been able to explain is when someone will need to know when two trains ‘ one leaving Boston at 7 o’clock and another leaving Washington two hours later ‘ will meet.
In the classroom, Fred teaches his students to ‘learn how to learn,’ knowing that most of the jobs his students will have over their lives do not exist today. He feels learning is a shared responsibility and serves as a mentor and facilitator for student learning. While he shoulders the bulk of the responsibility in the classroom, he also expects his students to learn some concepts on their own while helping their classmates learn. At times, Fred can be seen sitting in a student desk, while a student is teaching the lesson. He has found that when students take more responsibility for their learning, they are more motivated, and learn and retain more. As a teacher who believes strongly in an inclusive classroom, he incorporates differentiation into each of his lessons.
Fred uses a variety of creative techniques to engage and challenge his students. In his technology classes he develops exercises and workshops that have meaning to his students. For example, when his students are learning about databases, they work with the 7D’s Mining Company. The miners are Grumpy, Dopey, Doc and the four other dwarves, and the four quarters of production include diamonds, rubies, emeralds and sapphires. Students also develop databases around topics that are of interest to them or about their own collections.
Fred is an avid sailor and former sailboat racer often incorporating the physics of sailing and sailing ‘problems’ in his math class. He may give his class a set of facts ‘ wind speed and direction and course marks and distances. Students are then asked to use the facts to determine angles and solve rate, distance and time problems.
The culmination of a unit might have students plotting the optimum course for a 3- or 4-leg race. In keeping with the sailing analogy, Fred sees himself as a lighthouse serving as a guide for students navigating the turbulent waters of middle school.
Since becoming a teacher, Fred has been the coach at his school for a variety of local, state and national math competitions, and has been an ‘unofficial’ statistical advisor to many of the school’s science fair competitors. In 2007 Fred became a National Board Certified Teacher and has mentored many National Board candidates throughout the country.
Fred holds a B.A. in Liberal Arts from the University of Illinois, an MBA from the University of Chicago, an M.Sc. in Economics from the London School of Economics and Political Science and an MAT from National Louis University. He has been an adjunct faculty member at the University of Chicago Graduate (Booth) School of Business and Northwestern University.
Fred brought to his position as an Einstein Fellow within the CreativeIT Directorate at the National Science Foundation a strong work ethic and passion for excellence. He looks forward to being involved in research and practices that support excellence in teaching and learning in math and technology education.