Rate My Professor Autumn Dillaman

Autumn Dillaman serves as the Division Director for Elementary grades K-5 at Falk Laboratory School, a K-8 laboratory school affiliated with the University of Pittsburgh School of Education. She earned a Master of Arts in Teaching from the University of Pittsburgh in May 2005 and a Bachelor of Science in Psychology with a minor in Sociology from the same university in April 2004. Her professional career has been entirely at Falk Laboratory School since August 2004. She began as a student intern in grades 4-5 until June 2005, followed by After School Assistant Director for K-8 from July 2005 to June 2006, After School Director for K-8 from July 2006 to June 2009, Intermediate Resource Teacher for grades 3-5 from July 2009 to June 2010, and Intermediate Level Teacher for grades 4-5 from July 2010 to the present. In these roles, she has facilitated students' exploration of a wide range of academic content, including multiplication, magnetism, author inspiration, and geography of ancient civilizations, using real-life situations to develop critical and creative thinking, collaboration, communication, community involvement, risk-taking, interest-driven pursuits, resilience, and persistence. Dillaman emphasizes authentic relationships, personalized lesson plans, routines, open discussions about challenges, goal-setting, and student agency within developmental bounds, creating a secure environment grounded in love and structure.

Dillaman contributes to school governance as Co-Chair of the Mathematics Curriculum Committee since 2012, member of the Falk Aesthetics Committee since 2010, and the Falk Wonder Lab Committee from 2015 to 2017. Her research specializations center on elementary mathematics and engineering education. In Spring 2020, she received a grant for the project 'Exploring Engineering Through the Study of Friction.' Ongoing collaborations include examining classroom groupings' effects on student success with the Bridges math curriculum alongside Danya Lang, Jackie Metcalf, and Laura Greif; identifying optimal differentiation practices in upper elementary mathematics, balancing casual inquiry and explicit instruction, with Metcalf and Lang; and implementing Origametria, an Israeli-developed geometry program teaching principles through hands-on origami, with Kevin Goodwin and Elizabeth King, potentially partnering with Carlow University on teacher geometry instruction comfort. She co-authored a presentation under review for the National Science Teachers Association conference in October 2020 in Pittsburgh: 'Exploring Engineering through Connected Learning and Real-world Problem-Solving,' with K. Bartow Jacobs, C. Quigley, and T. Jacobs.