Coral Academy math teacher fosters love of numbers

On a recent morning in Henderson, the hallways at Coral Academy of Science echoed with the sounds of math instructor Hikmet Erdogan yelling at his students.

“The circumference!” he bellowed. “I need you to find the circumference!”

At nearly the same volume, his eighth-grade class responded with possible solutions to a particularly difficult geometry problem that they soon would face in a regional math competition.

The decibels of this exchange are not an uncommon feature of Erdogan’s classes, his colleagues and students said, and reflect a deep — albeit noisy — passion for math that the 42-year-old teacher nurtures in each of his pupils.

For that passion, Erdogan was named Clark County’s educator of the month for April.

The program, sponsored by the Las Vegas Review-Journal and Sierra Nevada College, chose Erdogan from nominations submitted at reviewjournal.com under a link for “Contests and Promotions.” A panel that includes members of the Clark County School Board, Public Education Foundation and Teach for America chooses the monthly winner.

“I used to hate math, and I didn’t even want to take his class,” said Noel Tran, 14. “My parents signed me up for it behind my back, and I actually didn’t pass the entrance exam.

“But he let me in anyway, because he doesn’t want to turn any student away,” Tran added. “I can’t describe how much I’ve grown as a mathematician since then.”

Erdogan joined Coral Academy, a public charter school with multiple campuses, about six years ago after moving to the United States from Turkey.

He initially taught traditional math courses but soon developed a unique program to train students for math competitions at Stanford University in California and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, as well as other prestigious universities.

“The students like a challenge better,” Erdogan said. “I’m a competitive person myself and really want the students to raise the bar for themselves.

“For some of them, this is like — no, it’s better than — sports.”

Erdogan originally studied math as a college student in his home country, hoping to become a researcher.

Instead, he fell into teaching.

“I love this: working with students, seeing the sparkling effect when they finally understand,” Erdogan said.

“I wouldn’t say it’s a sacrifice at all,” he said. “I get to train the next group of researchers instead of being one myself.”

His students estimate they completed 1,000 hours of training and, as Tran put it, “at least” 10,000 math problems last year.

In addition to committing each class to coaching his math students, Erdogan also stays late every day. At the demand of his students, he makes time during winter and summer breaks to host math camps.

The academy even opens over the weekend when the team needs “math sleepovers” to cram a few hundred more formulas and equations into their brains.

But it’s not just rote memorization that Erdogan teaches, said senior Arbab Khalid, who took Erdogan’s class for five years.

“The way he taught was problem solving,” Khalid said. “We’re not just writing down questions and answers. He really makes us think and get lost in the problem.”

Those skills will benefit the 17-year-old as he prepares to attend the University of Pennsylvania this fall.

He chose that school’s math program above Cornell University, Dartmouth College and Duke University — all of which accepted him.

Khalid credits that success, and his love for math, to Erdogan.

“Math is absolutely beautiful,” Khalid said. “I get that now, because of Mr. Hikmet.”

Contact Neal Morton at nmorton@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0279. Find him on Twitter: @nealtmorton