Don S. Balka, a former middle school and high school mathematics teacher, is professor emeritus in the Mathematics Department at Saint Mary’s College, Notre Dame, Indiana. During his career as an educator, Balka has presented over 2,000 workshops on the use of manipulatives with elementary and secondary students at national and regional conferences of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, state mathematics conferences, and at inservice training for school districts throughout the United States. In addition, he has taught classes in schools throughout the world, including Ireland, Scotland, England, Saudi Arabia, Italy, Greece, Japan, and the Mariana Islands in the South Pacific. In addition, Balka has written over 20 books on the use of manipulatives for teaching K-12 mathematics and is a coauthor of the Macmillan K-5 elementary mathematics series, Math Connects. Balka has served as director for the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, the National Council of Supervisors of Mathematics, and School Science and Mathematics Association.
Ruth Harbin Miles coaches rural, suburban, and innercity school mathematics teachers. Her professional experience includes coordinating the K-12 Mathematics Teaching and Learning Program for the Olathe, Kansas Public Schools for over 25 years; teaching mathematics methods courses at Virginia’s Mary Baldwin College and Ottawa, Mid America Nazarene, St. Mary’s, and Fort Hays State universities in Kansas; and serving as president of the Kansas Association of Teachers of Mathematics. She represented eight midwestern states on the Board of Directors for the National Council of Supervisors of Mathematics (NCSM) and has been a co-presenter for NCSM’s Leadership Professional Development National Conferences. Miles is the coauthor of Walkway to the Future: How to Implement the NCTM Standards (Jansen Publications, 1996), and is one of the writers for NCSM’s PRIME Leadership Framework (Solution Tree Publishers, 2008). As co-owner of Happy Mountain Learning, she specializes in developing teachers’ content knowledge and strategies for engaging students to achieve high standards in mathematics.
Ted H. Hull completed 32 years of service in public education before retiring and opening Hull Educational Consulting. He served as a mathematics teacher, K-12 mathematics coordinator, middle school principal, director of curriculum and instruction, and a project director for the Charles A. Dana Center at the University of Texas in Austin. While at the University of Texas, 2001 to 2005, he directed the research project “Transforming Schools: Moving from Low-Achieving to High Performing Learning Communities.” As part of the project, Hull worked directly with district leaders, school administrators, and teachers in Arkansas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, and Texas to develop instructional leadership skills and implement effective mathematics instruction. Hull is a regular presenter at local, state, and national meetings. He has written numerous articles for the NCSM Newsletter, including "Understanding the Six Steps of Implementation: Engagement by an Internal or External Facilitator" (2005) and "Leadership Equity: Moving Professional Development into the Classroom" (2005), as well as "Manager to Instructional Leader" (2007) for the NCSM Journal of Mathematics Education Leadership. He has been published in the Texas Mathematics Teacher (2006), Teacher Input Into Classroom Visits: Customized Classroom Visit Form. Hull was also a contributing author for publications from the Charles A. Dana Center: Mathematics Standards in the Classroom: Resources for Grades 6 8 (2002) and Middle School Mathematics Assessments: Proportional Reasoning (2004). He is an active member of Texas Association of Supervisors of Mathematics (TASM) and served on the NCSM Board of Directors as regional director for Southern 2.
