Teaching one of the most infamous subjects at City High, math teacher Nancy Sherman comes into City High armed with 30 years of experience, positive energy, and humor.

“I try to stay positive and I try and add some humor to it so there’s that aspect, and again I try and give it meaning; like this is stuff you actually can use and yes it’s hard, but I try and work [my students] through that struggle,” Sherman said. “I try really, really hard by the end of the year to have them like math. I try to force them into liking math.”

Sherman has recently moved back to Iowa City from Idaho, where she lived near the Teton Mountains and taught outdoors classes. 

“When I graduated [college] I’m like you know what, I’m free, I’m single, I’m going for it. So I packed everything I owned in my car and went to Idaho. I thought I would teach there a couple years and come back, and I taught there 28 years,” Sherman said. “I came back here in a semi. It took a semi to move all my crap back.”

Outside of the classroom, Sherman has a variety of interests, from making art to camping.

“I am a math geek but I’m also really into art, like stain glass and I make jewelry. I also do photography. I love the great outdoors so I go hiking and camping and all that good stuff,” Sherman said.  “I’ve just done a huge variety of different things, and I think that’s what makes me different, not just a math geek. I love, love, love, math but I also have a huge range of interests.”

Before Sherman started teaching Algebra One and Honors Pre-Calculus, she worked at ACT and Tate High School.

“I got back into teaching at Tate, and it was a good school, it was, but I missed teaching at a traditional high school. So when there was an opening at City High I applied and was thrilled that I got it,” she said. “City High is much larger, which offers a lot of opportunities that smaller high schools cannot offer. But the kids are wonderful, the staff is wonderful, so yeah I love it.”

Her passion for math and teaching was realized at a young age, and has carried with her ever since.

“I’ve loved math since 5th grade because one of my friends hated math and couldn’t understand, so we’d sneak a book out at recess and I would teach her what the teacher had taught us, and at that point on I knew that I wanted to be a math teacher,” Sherman said.

With certain math concepts hard to grasp, Sherman applies math to real scenarios as a strategy to get her students more engaged and involved.

“Apply math to real life situations. Some people like it a lot better, some people don’t like it because they have to think differently and they don’t like that,” she said. “Most people like it better and rarely people say, ‘well when are we going to use this,’ because they can see.”

Sherman’s only problems in her first 6 weeks of being a teacher at City have been math problems.

“The students are amazing, the staffs amazing, I’ve had zero issues. I just love it. I feel like I’ve just come home, died, and come to heaven. I really like it here. It’s a positive, positive atmosphere.”