IF YOU'RE A student, you've probably wandered the Uni hallways while a class is in progress, catching a glimpse of something through a door that made you double back. What?

In a classroom, you spot math teacher Craig Russell jumping on a desk, doing pushups between the rows of desks, or walking around expending energy at a dizzying rate.

Don’t worry — it's 100 percent normal!

Russell, head of Uni’s mathematics department, literally keeps you on the edge of your seat. Forget about nodding off in his classroom. There are too many interesting things going on — math and otherwise!

How it all began

The oldest of four boys, Russell was born in Vicksburg, Mo. Were it not for his mother, we would have known him as Hilton Russell III.

"My mother decided to stick in the Craig (which was her maiden name) at the hospital when they recorded my birth," he noted. "My 'country cousins' still call my father 'Uncle Junior.'"

Russell grew up in Arkansas and Louisiana, where he graduated from Southwood High School in Shreveport.

His father, a pharmacist, instilled a sense of curiosity in him. His inquisitive nature probably contributed to the fact that he didn't always feel academically challenged at school. In spite of this Russell didn’t dislike his high school years — he simply found ways to compensate.

He devoured books. Old favorites back in high school included "Mathematics and the Imagination," "Alice in Wonderland," "Phantom Tollbooth," and "Physics: The Fabric of Reality." Clearly, it’s not your average teen leisure reading material.

One may expect your mathematics teacher to say that math was his favorite subject at school, but for Russell it was band, where he played the French horn. He still loves playing and listening to a variety of music — church, classical, baroque, ancient, and "modern." Music is an integral part of his life, yet he doesn’t walk around singing — "because I never remember the words, but I often have a tune running through my head."

Russell recalled that he also thought physics and his third year of mechanical drawing were cool. In fact, this enjoyment led him to choose to major in architecture in college. He picked the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for his undergraduate education.

"I wanted to go to one of the top-ranked schools that had an architecture program," he said. "I also wanted to go to college somewhere far away from home, where there might be snow.”

Architecture, however, turned out to be "more artsy than I expected, and the architecture department had so many course requirements that I wouldn't be able to take all the electives I wanted. Also, I realized that I was pretty good at math, and I really enjoyed it."

As he began taking more math classes, he began to truly find his niche.

It's off to work he goes

After graduating from MIT in 1983, Russell started his active-duty Army service as a second lieutenant, since the last three years of his college tuition were funded by an ROTC scholarship.

"I felt that national service was important, and figured if I was going to join the Army, I'd be better off as an officer," he said.

Serving in the Army was also one way to still some of his "wanderlust."

He was stationed in West Germany as an air-defense officer, working with Patriot and Hawk missiles. In 1990 the Army sent him to graduate school at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, N.Y. There, he earned an M.S. in applied mathematics and completed all but dissertation requirements for his Ph.D. in 1992.

That done, he was assigned to teach freshman and sophomore math courses at the United States Military Academy at West Point, N.Y. In addition to teaching, Russell was the math department leader in a study involving issuing students laptop computers for class work.

After leaving the Army, he taught in Jackson, Miss., at St. Andrew's Episcopal School, where he was the math department chair. Even though Russell really enjoyed teaching at St. Andrew's he took the job at Uni in 1998 because "my family and I were not satisfied with community aspects of life in Jackson."

Over his 11-year tenure at Uni, he's taught numerous mathematics courses. This year, his classes were Algebra 1, Algebra 2, and Statistics.

Last year, Russell won the prestigious Edyth May Sliffe Award for Distinguished High School Mathematics Teaching.

He was nominated for that award by students Alex Zhai, Ethan Berl, and Geoffrey Beck, all members of the Class of 2008 who had excelled in contests sponsored by the Mathematical Association of America.

"We cannot imagine a teacher more deserving of this award, due to his diligent leadership, sacrificial time outside the classroom, and consistent excellence inside the classroom," wrote the trio in their nomination statement. "His leadership as the head of the math department has been both reliable and comforting. Math has continued to be a big priority at our high school because of Mr. Russell’s leadership."

It's no surprise that he was nominated for this honor given his overall dedication to math education. As the trio pointed out, this includes classroom teaching, independent study instruction, and a load of administrative duties.

Russell also happily spends hours outside the classroom inspiring his students to participate in extracurricular math events, such as the Illinois Council of Teachers of Mathematics competition, in which Uni consistently places in the top 10 against schools many times its size.

Above and beyond

Russell grades papers in class while his students work on problems from the textbook he wrote this past summer. He wrote the book because he believes students at Uni were in need of a more challenging book. Gargoyle photo by Katherine Allen (click to enlarge)

Yet, somehow Russell doesn’t seem to get enough math during the school year. His 2008 summer project was writing a math textbook, "Algebra and Functions with Trigonometry: A Critical Thinking Approach."

Although many of the activities in the book were actually developed over several years, he compiled and completed the book and had it ready for use beginning this past fall.

I imagined that the reason Russell wrote the book was to deal with typical mistakes students make — perhaps because those pitfalls aren’t efficiently addressed in other textbooks or maybe because there are gaps in kids’ math education.

Russell corrected me and explained that "there aren't really gaps, and most authors address common pitfalls." For Russell, the goal of the book was to tackle the issue "that most textbooks don't address students at the top end. I wanted a textbook that could be used with all Uni students, whether they are 'average' math students or very talented math students."

He pointed out that “the textbooks available from publishers don't address the curriculum we feel to be important. … The greatest shortcoming of commercially available textbooks is that they don't quite have enough 'density' for Uni students. There is too much distraction, too little theory, too low an expectation of engaged, critical thinking."

Russell felt that "no textbook I've found provides the enrichment activities and questions appropriate to challenging our top students. While my attempt may not completely satisfy those hungry-for-knowledge folks, I have provided some enrichment tied in with the content of each unit."

How many students can say their math teacher wrote a textbook just for them? Sophomore Adam Joseph used the book this year. He liked that it was "shorter and more concise than any other book I have used. We pretty much used every single lesson in the book. It was definitely tailored for the class and for Uni students in general. It tended to be more to the point and have less review."

Russell decided not to publish his book.

"I spoke to folks who publish Mathematica stuff, and they have stopped doing that,” he said. "I don't think there would be a wide audience for a textbook aimed solely at a bright-student audience."

However, he does plan to contact a publisher who addresses gifted students about publishing some of the activities included in the text.

Russell's approach to teaching math is to have "active learning" in the classroom, with students working on problems most of the time. His textbook, which reflects that approach, comes in two parts, a "workbook" (in a three-ring binder this year) that students use in class, and a textbook (spiral bound) kept at home for reference and homework problems.

"Often students will work on something in class, then for homework, they'll read about it and do a small number of reinforcing problems," he said.

Russell may one day write books for the other math classes as well, although he is not sure about that. He seems to be satisfied with the texts for Algebra 1, Calculus, and Statistics and added, "I suspect that good geometry books exist."

Home sweet home

Having an active family life, Russell does sometimes get away from math. His wife, Christina, a speech pathologist in the Mahomet schools, daughter Elizabeth, who just finished her junior year at Uni, and son Ethan, a seventh grader at Mahomet-Seymour Junior High School, keep him occupied with various activities.

It’s also only fair that Larry, Trip, and Cosmo, the family's three greyhounds, demand and get their share of attention.

At home, the Russell family enjoys playing board games such as Settlers of Catan and Iron Dragon or favorite card games like Canasta and Hollywood Rummy.

Russell’s passion for reading has not waned since his school years. Currently he enjoys science fiction, particularly the works of Ben Bova ("Mars," "Venus"), and Isaac Asimov ("Foundation" Trilogy), and if he had to pull something off the mystery shelf there is a strong possibility that the author would be Nancy Atherton.

Unfortunately, "limited by temporal and fiscal resource issues," Russell does not travel as much as he would like. But no fear — there are plenty of other fun things to do.

"When my kids haven't claimed cooking duty, I like to prepare spicy dishes," he said.

Elizabeth notes that her father "has strange taste in food, which is awesome since when I absentmindedly mistake coriander for cinnamon on one of my culinary adventures, he'll initially complain loudly but eventually take a liking to whatever I created."

Being rather active, as an hour in his math class will immediately show, Russell loves running and occasionally runs with Elizabeth, who shines in cross country. If you have ever done cross country, you would notice him running around the course hollering (much appreciated) encouragement at Uni athletes.

So, if you ever feel a breeze in the hallway, despite the fact there’s no window or door open, don’t fret. Craig Russell probably just walked by so quickly that you didn’t even get the chance to see him.