Jason Kamras on Achievement

Kamras was a math teacher at John Philip Sousa Middle School in Washington, D.C., when he was named 2005 National Teacher of the Year. He’s a Teach For America alumnus and has a master’s in education from Harvard. Among the accomplishments of his eight-year career: a redesigned math curriculum that boosted standardized test scores; and establishment of the EXPOSE Program, in which kids use digital cameras to document their lives. Here are his answers to reader questions asked on our Web site. (Note: This is an expanded online version of the column that appeared in the print magazine.)

Can you describe how your innovative curriculum and instructional methods work together to engage students while enabling them to learn mandated math skills?

A concrete example might be useful. One of my techniques is to teach mathematics through photography. For example, “zooming” a lens (from a tight shot to a wide one, or vice versa) is really just changing its angle of view. When you “zoom out” a lens, you’re increasing its angle of view (from 60 to 120 degrees, for example). This is a great way to start a conversation about geometry because the students can literally see the...