Coppell High School AP Calculus AB and precalculus teacher Dana Deloach has been a teacher for nearly two decades. Through her years here, she has seen her children graduate and hopes to instill fun within her course’s challenging curriculum.

What challenges come with teaching AP Calculus AB and on level precalculus?

[AP Calculus is] an extremely high level of math, and I don’t think that my kids realize everything my kids ever learned in math comes together and is applied. The previous math doesn’t go away. For calculus, we are driven by the AP exam, so you really have to watch your timeline carefully, and there’s not that much time to teach, to review and reteach. For [precalculus] in the past, a lot of times, the class sizes were bigger than honors courses, and that was a huge challenge because those were the kids who maybe needed a little more one-on-one teaching. This year, the on-level classes are smaller and it’s made a big difference.

What did you do before teaching at CHS?

This has been my 19th year. Some of them were part-time in the beginning, and it was half-time for about six or seven years when I first started here. I also taught at Millard South High School in Nebraska. My husband was a football coach at Millard North High School, and my father-in-law was a math teacher at the same school. 

What attracted you to teaching math?

I started off as an [elementary education] major and quickly realized that I did not want to be creative. I did not like that aspect of it. Everyone would always come to me and ask for math help. All my friends would say, “You’re so good at explaining it,” so I decided to change my major. I also tutored math as a job for college, and I’ve been doing it ever since. 

What were some of your favorite memories teaching at CHS?

One of the things I really loved was that my kids, Tyler (2006), Tannah (2010) and Davis (2013) went here. So that was just a very fun time when they played sports here and I would teach here. My oldest son, Tyler Deloach, would always walk by my room, flip off my switches and keep walking. It would be fun because he would tease me, and that was a really fun part of my career. 

What is one aspect of your class that you hope your students take with them for the future?

I hope they understand math is fun and learning math can be fun, because I think it’s fun. Kids make fun of [math teachers] sometimes, but I want them to experience working hard and having fun.

Outside of teaching, what do you like to do?

My most favorite thing is anything lake-oriented. We have a boat. I water ski and wakeboard and my dream is to have a lake house. I do cross fit, so that’s fun, and I’m also very involved in my church, Valley Ranch Baptist Church. 

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