Fran Endicott Armstrong,PhD
Education
Francine M. Endicott majored in Mathematics and fulfilled requirements for teacher certification on the secondary level earning a Bachelor of Arts degree from Fontbonne College (now University) in 1968. She did her student teaching at Clayton High School in Clayton, MO. Fran received her PhD in Mathematics Education from the University of Pennsylvania in 1978. Her dissertation is Free-Choice Selection of Arithmetic Rules on a Sequence of Items after Prescribed Practice. She has participated in T^3 (Teachers Teaching with Technology) workshops at John Burroughs School studying the following: Algebra 1: Teaching with Technology, Teaching Calculator Enhanced Algebra, Connecting Math & Science, Advanced Algebra: Teaching with Technology, and Teaching with Technology: Modeling & Data Analysis.
Teaching Experience
Fran has taught mathematics in high school, middle school (Grades 5, 6, and 7), and elementary school (Grades K-3) in urban and suburban private and public schools. For Gifted Resource Council she has taught Saturday enrichment classes for 4- and 5-year-old children and 4th-Grade students. She has tutored students for enrichment or remediation from preschool through introductory calculus and has helped students in Grades 4-8 prepare for mathematics contests. Dr. Armstrong holds Missouri State teacher certification in mathematics from preschool through Grade 12.
Fran Armstrong has taught Business Mathematics, Elementary Applied Mathematics, Pre Algebra, Elementary Algebra, and Intermediate Algebra for St. Louis Community College at the Meramec, Forest Park, and Florissant Valley campuses. At Fontbonne University, Fran has taught Contemporary Topics in Mathematics and also Methods of Teaching Mathematics in the Elementary School, Fundamentals of Algebra, and College Algebra. Dr. Armstrong has presented professional development workshops for teachers at the elementary, middle school, and secondary level for various districts including the following: Ferguson-Florissant, Jennings, Normandy, Pattonville, Fort Zumwalt, and St. Louis Public Schools in the metropolitan St. Louis area, and also Janesville in WI, Orland Park in IL, and Sts. Peter and Paul School in Charlotte Amalie on St. Thomas in the U.S. Virgin Islands.
MathStrongLabs
In 1996 Dr. Fran developed and set up a MathStrongLab, a self-paced hands-on math lab, at St. Louis Community College/Meramec. In the lab, she and other faculty members taught Hands-On Arithmetic and Hands-On Algebra Workshops, courses which Dr. Armstrong created.
From 2000-2004 Dr. Fran was the Coordinator and Lead Mentor of a MathStrongLab, the Wyman Wildcats’ Math Lab, at Wyman School of The St. Louis Public Schools [eventually serving all students in Grades K-3 and the Special Education Class and the Class for Hearing Impaired Students].
In the Spring Semester of 2012, Dr. Fran was Coordinator and Lead Mentor of the Sacred Heart Villa Math Voyage, the embodiment of a MathStrongLab at Sacred Heart Villa, a Catholic Early Childhood Center on "The Hill" in the City of St. Louis, MO.
Professional Affiliations
Dr. Armstrong’s professional memberships have included the following: Phi Delta Kappa education honor society, Pi Mu Epsilon mathematics honor society, Mathematics Educators of Greater St. Louis (MEGSL), Missouri Council of Teachers of Mathematics (MCTM), and the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM). She has presented on a variety of topics at professional conferences on the local (MEGSL), state (MCTM, Illinois Council of Teachers of Mathematics, MOMATYC, and Midwest Regional Association for Developmental Education), and national (NCTM and American Mathematics Association of Two-Year Colleges) levels.