Benjamin Molberger

Louisville, KY | 7-12, Mathematics, 2021

What motivates you to contribute to excellence in STEM teaching?

As a child, I was often tasked with tutoring my younger sister when she would be crying over her homework. She was always capable, but she needed personalized support that she wasn't getting at school. I know that every student can be a successful mathematician, we just have to find the right supports for each one. I am motivated to make sure that we do everything we can to learn about each student and find those right supports so that nobody else needs to spend time crying over their homework.

What has been the most transformative moment that affirmed your impact on STEM education?

I have always credited my students for their successes and blamed myself for their failures. I constantly try to learn about new ideas to help more students, but it never feels like enough. When my principal nominated me for PAEMST, I really couldn't understand why. Working with my mentor on my application, I realized that even though I didn't think about them all consciously anymore, I was regularly using a wide variety of strategies to help reach students with all different learning needs. I'm still not perfect, and I still try to learn more every chance I get, but this nudge from my principal and the confirmation from a past PAEMST awardee affirmed that I do make a difference for students, even when I won't take credit for it.

Using your platform as a Presidential Awardee, how do you hope to advance our nation in STEM?

As an instructional coach, it is my job to help STEM educators improve their practice. My journey as an educator has been filled with at least as many ideas that didn't work out in practice as those that did. I also know that what worked for me won't work for everyone because they are just ideas, not answers. I hope that being a Presidential Awardee adds weight to my words so that when I am coaching STEM teachers they are encouraged to find new ideas to try, even if the ideas aren't mine.

Biography

Benjamin Molberger joined Jefferson County Public Schools in 2011. He is currently the Academic Instructional Coach at Newburg Middle School. Benjamin previously spent a year as the Intervention Teacher at duPont Manual High School, which followed 13 years teaching mathematics at Jeffersontown, Atherton, and Doss high schools. In that time, he taught students in grades 9-12 in Geometry, Precalculus, AP Calculus AB, and IB Analysis and Approaches Higher Level. In his classroom, Benjamin utilized inquiry- and problem-based approaches to teaching mathematics and embraced discussions and writing to help students improve their ability to communicate mathematics clearly. He currently promotes these approaches in his role as an instructional coach, while also supporting literacy and numeracy across the curriculum. As a teacher leader, Benjamin works to remove barriers so that all students can have access to, and be successful in, advanced mathematics courses. He also presents at conferences promoting the use of proficiency scales as standards-based rubrics for scoring student work and providing feedback. Benjamin also works with Teach Kentucky, the organization that recruited him to education after a brief career in information technology, to support new teachers. He has led sessions on content-specific instructional approaches, as well as general practices in areas such as classroom management and questioning techniques. Benjamin earned a B.A. in mathematics from Middlebury College, and an M.A.T. and M.Ed. from the University of Louisville, where he is currently pursuing an Ed.S. in educational administration. He is certified to teach mathematics for grades 5-12 and holds endorsements in teacher leadership and instructional technology.

High-resolution version of the teacher profile photograph

The views expressed in awardee profiles are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of NSF or the PAEMST program.