Mike Kelley

Director of Teacher Preparation

W. Michael Kelley is an award-winning mathematics teacher and author. He began his career teaching mathematics at his hometown high school for seven years. At the age of 25, Kelley was named department chair and became the Advanced Placement Calculus instructor. During his four-year tenure in this position, calculus enrollment had increased by more than 400%, and the number of students earning college credit by passing the College Board exams increased more than tenfold. Kelley earned local recognition as "High School Math Teacher of the Year" and was named an "Outstanding High School Mathematics Educator" by the Maryland Council of Teachers of Mathematics.

Kelley also established the web site calculus-help.com, which offers free online animated tutorials, weekly practice problems, archives of examples, and an annual nationwide contest called the Superbowl of High School Calculus (in which teams of high school students from coast to coast compete as they prepare for the Advanced Placement Calculus exam). Though no longer in the classroom, Kelley still maintains this site and continues the annual calculus contest, which has hosted nearly 500 teams during its first three years. Recognized by the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics and the Eisenhower National Clearinghouse of Math and Science resources, calculus-help.com hosts approximately one thousand unique visitors each day.

Before accepting a job as the Director of Teacher Preparation for the American Board, Kelley served as the Academic Technology Coordinator at the Education College of the University of Maryland, College Park, training faculty to infuse their traditional teaching methods with innovative technology. Among his projects, he spearheaded the electronic portfolio project, training student teachers to use computers and Web design to prepare electronically-delivered multimedia professional résumés replete with student work, videos of classroom instruction, and all of the traditional paper documentation, delivered on a CD-ROM.

Kelley is also a prolific author of mathematics and educational titles. Since 2000, he has released seven books, including Rookie Teaching for Dummies and three mathematics books for the popular Complete Idiot's Guide series. His most recent book, based on an original proposal developed in conjunction with Penguin Publishing entitled The Humongous Book of Calculus Problems: Translated for People Who Can't Speak Math, will be released in January 2007.