Joe Parthemore, a sixth-grade math teacher at Heritage Middle School, was recently featured in the August edition of Fort Worth Magazine in its annual Top Teachers feature.
Parthemore, the 2018 Region 11 Elementary Teacher of the Year and a Texas Teacher of the Year finalist, is entering his third year at Heritage Middle. He was previously a fifth-grade teacher at Cannon Elementary and Dove Elementary.
Below is an excerpt of what the magazine had to say about Parthemore. The entire Top Teachers feature can be found online here.
Joe Parthemore is no stranger to being recognized for his teaching chops. In 2018, the sixth-grade math teacher received the Region 11 Teacher of the Year award and was one of the top finalists for the state. He attributes these accolades to his teaching style, which is more applicable to real-life circumstances.
“I was always the kid asking why. Why are we doing this? Why are we learning this?” Pathermore says. “I’m more of a real-world, problem-solver type teacher. So, I enjoy making things really practical for the students, so they understand why they’re learning what they’re learning.”
Applying this method to his math class --- which includes teaching percentage, statistics, and data --- Parthemore teaches strategies for students to find out how much they should tip without using a calculator and whether Amazon reviews are truly trustworthy.