Walking past room 159 in the first floor math wing, one may hear the sound of Upper School math teacher Laury Raff as she works to help students develop their math skills. Raff teaches junior and freshmen classes in Geometry and Algebra 2 Trigonometry, respectively, through incorporating various techniques developed from her previous experience as a math teacher.  

This year Parker welcomed Raff to the math department. After living and working in the Chicagoland area and hearing about Parker, Raff became interested. She knew of some people here and aspired to become a part of the community.

“I like the philosophy,” Raff said. “The students are really the center. Having some smaller class sizes would be really great.” Raff has been excited to be a part of the Parker staff, helping represent the values of the school and helping students learn mathematical processes and concepts. She is anticipating a great first year teaching at Parker.

“My first thoughts were that she has great experience and seemed to really understand Parker culture and sincerely want to join our model home,” Upper School co-chair of the math department Sven Carlsson said. “She struck me as unique in how she was so clearly driven to become a great math teacher and also keen on building great relationships with students.”

Before coming to Parker, Raff taught math at several schools, including the Manhattan Center for Math and Science, and the Roycemore school in Evanston, Illinois. Raff grew up in the suburbs of Chicago, and went to Illinois University, as well as New York University.

Raff developed a love for teaching math, especially high school math, during her time teaching math at the Chicago Center High School. “I like that it’s really an individual process for every student so you get to see them throughout their journey, and everyone approaches things differently, and you get to see how tons of different people interpret different problems,” Raff said. “I like that I get to see students develop an idea, and to see how much their learning grows.”

Raff enjoys bringing her own approach to the classroom.“Ms. Raff has a different experience and is very thoughtful about designing stimulating classes for students,” Carlsson said. “I think she will also bring a lot of value to our departmental discussions about what we are teaching and why.”

Raff has added a technological element to her teaching during classes. The smart board in her room is frequently incorporated into her lessons, where she illustrates and writes her mathematical concepts, such as graphing and types of functions, which are projected onto the big screen for all students to follow along with her lesson.

“She is very visual with her teaching style,” junior Kaitlyn Stansbury said. “In her Algebra 2 Trigonometry class, she teaches a lot of ways to memorize the functions we have learned for trigonometry.”

Freshman Claire Levin is happy to have Raff teaching her math for her first year of high school. Levin said, “The class has started learning linear functions, and have been reviewing graphing.”

Carlsson said, “My impression of her is someone who is really capable, dedicated, and excited about starting at our school.”