Mrs. Olivia Gamboa

"Pray as though everything depended on God. Work as though everything depended on you." – St. Augustine

Bio

  • B.A. in Math from UC Berkeley
  • Clear Teaching Credential from Antioch University

Hi there! My name is Olivia Gamboa, and I’m teaching math for grades 5th through 8th. My B.A. is in math from UC Berkeley, and I hold a clear teaching credential from Antioch University. I have been working in schools for 7 years, though this will be my first time with the middle grades! I teach using the mastery learning philosophy, where students have clear learning objectives with rubrics that indicate what level of mastery is expected. I also will be encouraging students to focus on learning a math as a ‘algebraic way of thinking,’ as opposed to a set of rules or methods. While there are certainly endless algorithms that a student can memorize and use to solve a given problem, students gain a deeper understanding, and perform better with less effort, when they focus on using logical and algebraic thought to analyze the problem set before them. Further, students deepen their Catholic faith in seeing that humans share a universal logic, and universal notion of truth in math and abstract thought more broadly. I am looking forward to working with your students and encourage parents to email me with any questions or concerns.