Morgan, Finch partner to open Calculating Minds Math Center

Long-time school teachers Dee Morgan, left, and Amy Finch will open Calculating Minds Math Achievement Center in November
Long-time local math teachers Dee Morgan and Amy Finch are partnering to open Calculating Minds Math Achievement Center at 11115 Kingston Pike, next to Premier Eyecare in Premier Center, Farragut.

“We hope to open in late November,” Finch said.

Morgan, who has been teaching for 35 years, currently is a math teacher at North Middle School in Loudon County while Finch, who also was a NMS teacher and has been teaching for 23 years, resigned from her position to open Calculating Minds, where they will be providing remediation and enrichment for math students from pre-kindergarten through sixth grade.

“But, we are looking to expand that in the future,” Finch said.

“One of the things Amy and I are firm believers in is, in the classroom, curriculum needs to be student-driven, so our business will be student-driven,” Morgan said. “If we see high school students need some help, then we’ll expand it to that.”

“We’ve been teachers together for the last nine years,” she said. “We’ve seen common struggles and frustrations that students have.

“Since we’re both math teachers, we’re both very familiar with the misconceptions kids have with math (and) the lack of confidence that they have, so we felt, by opening a center, we could address some of those needs,” she said. “We also know that math teachers, in general, just don’t have time in the classroom to be able to teach and do all the enrichment or remediation that they need.

“Teachers can’t provide the hands-on activities because of time,” Morgan said. “So, we felt like Calculating Minds would really fill a niche in helping kids to understand and enjoy math.

“We’re just very passionate about mathematics in general,” she added. “We feel like math can be a lot of fun, but many students feel like it’s their least favorite subject … we want to change that perception. We think everybody can be a math person.”

From the Tennessee Value-Added Assessment System, which scores teachers based on students’ test scores, both teachers rank in the top 10 percent of all math teachers in the state, she said.

“One of the things I address in math class is not just the skill set, it’s the math confidence,” Morgan said. “We know what we’re doing. We are certified math teachers.”

At Calculating Minds, Morgan and Finch will be offering a curriculum called Singapore Math and other enhancements.

“Students in Singapore Math outperform, worldwide, other students, in the same grade level, or same area, Morgan said. “One of the reasons is it goes from the concrete to the pictorial to the abstract.”

For more information, call 865-386-9295 or visit www.calculatingminds.com