At King Middle, math teacher Deborah Miele uses personal failure to inspire students

BRADENTON -- In high school, Deborah Miele couldn't pass algebra II.

She thought she had dashed her lifelong dream of becoming a teacher, since passing the class was necessary to advance into college. But she returned to junior college after working in a law firm, and Miele found a teacher who turned on the light for her.

Miele is now a teacher at King Middle School, teaching math "the way that worked for me," she said -- showing students that math doesn't have to be quite as scary as some students think. She uses her own life story to help students overcome their own math challenges.

Applying her real-life experience is part of what makes Miele a contender for the Manatee County School District's top teacher title. She's one of four teacher finalists for the district's excellence in education awards.

Miele, who turns 45 this month, has taught math at King Middle for the past 16 years. It was her first job out of college when she graduated in 2000 -- 11 years after she graduated high school in Orlando. Miele vividly remembers being a child and playing teacher. She had a chalkboard at home, and the end of the school year, she'd ask teachers for their used teacher edition books to add to her collection.

"I always wanted to be the teacher," she said.

In her classroom, students are welcomed with bellwork, which may be the most difficult problems from the previous night's homework. As Miele checks to make sure homework has been completed, the students work on the problems, posted on the SmartBoard. Miele, who is barely taller than some of her tallest seventh-grade students, uses a little microphone clipped to her

clothing to make sure the students can hear her at all times.

Toward the end of a lesson, when students are learning about the different types of triangles -- equilateral, isosoleces and scalene -- she has the students get up and move to a different corner of the room to answer a question. Miele wants to know whether a triangle that has all equal sides will be always, sometimes or never considered an acute triangle.

The majority of the students move toward the door, signifying an equilateral triangle is always acute, but a few students head toward Miele, signaling they think an equilateral triangle will sometimes be acute. Miele calls upon the students in the back of the room to explain their stance, and allows students in other locations to move if they want.

Ultimately, all the students end up at the door.

Not an easy path

Teaching may seem easy to Miele now, but it wasn't always that way. After high school, she originally went to work for a law firm, got married and had two children, but didn't feel fully satisfied. A friend convinced her to go back to school. Miele enrolled at Valencia Community College, where she found the professor that made math make sense.

Miele now aims to be that teacher.

And that involves a lot of extra time, Principal Michele Romeo said. Every morning, Miele is offering her students tutoring, she hosts her own parent night, she's the co-sponsor of the school's National Junior Honor Society, and she takes on technology in a vastly different way than most teachers by using a web-based application called Edmodo. Miele's also helped out at the district level, as a member of the textbook adoption committee. She helped write curriculum maps -- which help teachers identify what they should be teaching and when in the school year -- and create lessons and maps that align with new state standards.

"She really takes the time. Her students all make gains," Romeo said. "They don't have to seek her out. She's available."

This is the second time Miele has been a finalist for the award, Romeo points out.

The Edmodo app allows students to chat, post photos and work out homework problems in groups. Miele monitors the app every evening -- she works with more than 120 students in six classes each year -- to make sure the students are able to point each other in the right direction. If there's a problem that repeatedly shows up, and the students aren't able to help each other, Miele can chime in with hints and clues herself.

"It brings me into their home," Miele said, which is helpful since middle school is about the time most parents are no longer able to help their children with math. "I'm pouring myself into them all the time."

Miele has also brought the positive behavior intervention system to life in her classroom. Students are rewarded for various activities, like completing their homework, chiming in a certain number of times on the Edmodo app, or for earning certain grade levels.

The students then pick from a variety of prizes Miele buys. If the students pool their tickets, they can invite up to three friends to have a Danny's Pizzeria pizza for lunch in Miele's classroom. Miele recently had to raise the bar for that one, she said with a laugh.

Miele said it's a tactic she used with her own children, 22-year-old Jonathan, a student at University of South Florida, and 19-year-old Lauren, a student at Florida State University. Both her children graduated from Manatee High, and while they were in school, Miele paid them for bringing home good grades.

Explaining the payments, Miele said: "To me, that was their job."

Meghin Delaney, education reporter, can be reached at 941-745-7081. Follow her on Twitter @MeghinDelaney.

This story was originally published February 6, 2016 at 10:54 PM with the headline "At King Middle, math teacher Deborah Miele uses personal failure to inspire students ."