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Donald Nelson Katz
B.A, H.DE, B.Ed, Dip. Ed (Postgrad) (UCT), ICDL (Microsoft) Donald Nelson Katz was born on the 11th of October 1963. He spent a huge chunk of his life at 3874 Dingaan Street, Galeshewe, Kimberley, South Africa. The township in this part of the world used to be named Vergenoeg. Donald is married with two beautiful daughters. Donald matriculated at Homevale Secondary school in 1981. He regards himself as very lucky to have been recruited into Mathematics education by Professor Chris Breen at the University of Cape Town. This connection is primarily behind the eventual MATHSLINK, where everybody counts! Through his studies under professor Breen, Donald ended up working for the then Mathematics Education Project (MEP), now consumed under the umbrella of the Schools Development Unit (SDU). The MEP experience opened various opportunities and fond associations with people like Anne-Marie Breen (Nee Brown), Jane Coombe, Zain Davis, Jaamiah Galant, Charles Ntsukukazifani Ncube
Charles Ntsukukazifani Ncube Ashley Parsraman, Gabeba Agherdien, Agatha Lebethe, Bronwen Wilson-Thompson, Charles Khati, Vusiwe Ngcongca, Yusuf Johnson, Corville Cranfield, Mthunzi Nxawe, Gloria McKinnon, Nothemba Vusani, Nkosinathi Mdleleni, Pinky Siyo, Linda, Cathrine, all the staff at the education department at UCT, very importantly my neighbour John Valentine, and a whole long list of people including the quiet yet highly dedicated professor Kevin Rochford, Roy Pickerel, Jasmine Mohidin, Buyiswa Lekker, Wendy Colyn and a whole string of people that I will always stay indebted to.
Through his association with MEP, Donald accessed Dick Tahta, Geoff Faux (Open University), Anne Watson (Oxford University), David Henderson, John Mason (Open University), Matume Bopape (AMESA), Dr. John Volmink (currently Umalusi), Arnout Brombacher (then Westerford High School and AMESA), Mzwai Kibi, Mark Jacobs (both of the latter was at the then Leaf College), Arthur Powell (Rutgers University), and a whole range of resources in people of high calibre as human beings and certainly as entities that either implicitly or explicitly, continue to raise the bar. I also accessed MALATI, with fond recollections of association with professor Piet Human. MATHSLINK per se owes its eventual existence to dr. Olufemi Olubamidele Oguntade. Needless to say, professor Cyril Julie, Ephne Williams, Eddie Smith, Raymond Charles Smith (then Curriculum advisor), Derick Pieterse (Senior curriculum advisor), .... The list of all of these formidable people is endless. Donald currently works for the Western Cape Education Department (WCED), teaching Mathematics at Fairmount High School, having taught grade 10 Geography (two classes), grade 10 Mathematics (three classes) and one Grade 12 class of 33 learners.ast year at Esangweni High school. Donald Katz enjoys the distinction as the first African to work occasionally in the capacity as lecturer for Aimssec, which is a Cambridge University project in Africa. Belgravia High school in Cape Town has a very long and colourful History. Donald Katz has no qualm to acknowledge that he likes to be owned by that institution, having been recruited to that school by the highly respected Mr. Najaar. Mr. Najaar, Currently principal at a school in Mitchell's Plain, Cape Town, South Africa Quite importantly is lessons that Donald learned and associations developed with all staff at Belgravia High, and certainly the powerful mathematics department, headed by Mr. Headley King, and graced by the prowess of Mr. Safiedien, Mr. Davids, Shamiem and Mariam. Donald fondly remembers teaching at Princeton High School. Mrs. Gordon was acting principal then, and very supportive. Mr. Najaar came in a supportive capacity to boost the school, which effectively was a 2-in 1 school. Princeton High is an engineering school. As such, it also is an academic school. There are literally two campuses in one. The staff at this school is phenomenal, and there really is no point in singling out anyone. He was teaching at the time when learner totals were dwindling. Some teachers had to leave and hence his move from Princeton to Belgravia, where he spent 2 years in total, teaching grades 8 to 12 Mathematics. prior to Princeton High school, he had spent five years at the Khanya ICT project in education. Donald Katz left through a rather controversial decision by the then leadership. While at Khanya, his role was to help improve curriculum delivery through ICT in mathematics and science, with the intent to improve enrolment figures for the then higher-grade mathematics at targeted schools in the Western Cape, and to improve the pass rates in mathematics as well. That particular job evolved into teaching Computer Literacy at various Khanya Schools. Monitoring and evaluation is certainly not new. MATHSLINK, and specifically Donald Katz has a proud relationship that was built up with Dr. Cheryl Reeves. Through Cheryl and MATHSLINK, Donald engaged various projects by, respectively
In this process, MATHSLINK had to critique curricula at classroom level in relation to statutory dictates, to analyse pacing, and compliance (in terms of Mathematical substance, Curricula pacing, didactical appropriacy (for lack of a better word) and overall practicality). Under Dr. Cheryl Reeves, Don Katz complied with MATHSLINK's instruction in terms of data collection, analysis of some fieldwork data (e.g. critiquing classroom practice in terms of pace, compliance, curricular substance etc.) University of the Western Cape Donald spent time at the University of the Western Cape, mostly in the Mathematics Education Department. In 2003, he lectured the ACE (Advanced Certificate in Education), and NPDE (National professional Diploma in Education) courses. PUBLICATIONS Co-editor Coombe, J.C., Davis, Z., Galant, J., Katz, D., Ncube, C.N. & Parsraman, A. (eds.) (1994) Secondary Presentations: MEP (Secondary) presentations to the first AMESA National Congress, Witwatersrand University, 4 - 7 July 1994, Cape Town: MEP, UCT (Published) Publications hitherto includes: Zain Davis (1995) "The use of analogy in the teaching of mathematics: a cautionary note" (with Donald Katz) in Exploring Mathematics Teaching & Teacher Education, Cape Town: MEP, School of Education, UCT Coombe, J., Davis, Z., Katz, D. & Parsraman, A. (eds) (1995) Secondary Presentations, Cape Town: Mathematics Education Project, School of Education, University of Cape Town.Galant, J. & Agherdien, G. (Eds.) (1997), "Implementing the new primary curriculum" Notes from a course presented by Gabeba Agherdien, Jaamiah Galant, Donald Katz and Bronwen Wilson-Thompson. The Mathematics Education Project. University of Cape Town. KATZ, D. (1996) “School as a Workplace" in Morrison, K. (ed.) (1996) Conference proceedings: 'Building a Culture of teaching and Learning in Mathematics'. Second national conference of the Association for Mathematics education of South Africa. Interpak Natal. KATZ, D. & DAVIS, Z. (1994) “The use of Analogy in the Teaching of Mathematics: a cautionary note” in Davis, Z. (ed.) (1994) Explorations in mathematics teaching and teacher education, Cape Town: MEP, School of Education, UCT KATZ, D. (1994) “The Tigress on the Mount” in Davis, Z. (ed.) (1994) Explorations in mathematics teaching and teacher education, Cape Town: MEP, School of Education, UCT. KATZ, D. (1995) “The Tigress on the Mount: How do teachers and researchers talk to one another?” in Mathematics Teaching. The Association of Teachers of Mathematics. Burlington Press (Cambridge) Ltd. Number 153, December 1995 KATZ, D. & KHATI, C. (1994) Introducing limits (edited by Chris Breen & Zain Davis), Cape Town: MEP, School of Education, UCT KATZ, D. & Ncube, C. N. (1997) “Teaching Trigs Not Tricks” (edited by Davis, Z. Cape Town: MEP, School of Education, UCT NGCONGCA, V., KATZ, D. & NCUBE, C.N. (1994) “Introducing angles in geometry” in Coombe, J.C., Davis, Z., Galant, J., Katz, D., Ncube, C.N. & Parsraman, A. (eds.) (1994) Secondary Presentations: MEP (Secondary) presentations to the first AMESA National Congress, Witwatersrand University, 4 - 7 July 1994, Cape Town: MEP, UCT Katz, D & Zeekoei, E (2004) : 17 units for the International colleges group (icg) mathematical Literacy modulesKatz, D, De WET, C. (2003), Grade 10 Mathematics. Nasou via Afrika Katz, Smit Teacher book for Standard 5, Lesotho. Maskew Miller Longman. Katz, D, Maphumulo, B. Smit, S, (2005) Grade 9 Mathematics in our world. Nasou via Afrika. Here is further summary of Donald's experience on the work front:
LANGUAGES Thanks to the experience at Esangweni High School, Donald ha significantly improved his linguistic abilities. Added to Afrikaans, Tswana and English, Donald has significantly increased his working Xhosa knowledge through teaching at the particular school.
In the process, he has also studied the whole process of line fishing, given that the school is a few hundred metres from the beach. "Let there be peace on our planet, so that the best dreams of the human race may be realised and the greatest achievements of the civilisations may be saved to purposefully season the days of our lives whilst we survive the usual quake of our universe". C.N. Ncube
For More Information Contact: Good news is that Don Katz will continue to be the webmaster for MATHSLINK's website for now. As a novice webmaster, join this trip, as we engage each other in our quest for the best
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