Jeremiah Ortner is the author of Fundamentals Of Math Book 1 Pre-Algebra and other math workbooks.
Jerry’s Childhood and High School
Jeremiah Ortner was born in Buffalo, New York. He spent his first seventeen years just east of Buffalo in Corfu, New York. Jerry credits his education from the public school system of New York, learning from some of the great teachers there. He studied math under high school math teacher Roland Carney for four years. Besides playing basketball and baseball throughout high school, young Jerry also raised chickens and collected eggs through the 4 H Club of Genesee County’s generosity.
The village of Corfu is where the Ortner house and their extremely large barn stood. The barn was big enough to house four to six and four box stalls plus a grain bin. It also has another box stall for birthing animals on the ground floor, with the second-floor housing 500 chickens simultaneously. Jerry’s grandfather was a veterinarian. His grandpa specializes in the care of large animals such as cows, horses, sheep, pigs, and goats. The mini-farm serves as a shelter for sick animals. Their family also had an actual farm of 130 acres just two miles outside Corfu.
College and the Teaching Profession
After graduating from Corfu High School, Jerry’s family moved to Valley Forge, PA, just outside of Philadelphia. His dad took a new sales manager position with a refrigeration company outside of the city. Jerry then went to a local college. The college did not have a math major, but Jerry went there to familiarize himself with the area better since they had just moved. Jerry’s plans changed when his father died suddenly (prior to his graduation). His plan to originally establish a frozen bread manufacturing plant in Corfu was canceled. Instead of going to graduate school, Jerry searched for a math teaching position in Philadelphia. This was to be the start of his exciting journey.
Jerry’s mother taught high school math in Corfu but retired just before he was born. With no teaching credits nor any teaching experience, Jerry was offered both of the math teaching positions that I had interviewed for and selected a junior/senior high school where Jerry also taught science. This allowed him to establish his teaching career and, at the same time learning the basics. After years of trying to advance his teaching career, Jerry finally obtained his Master’s Degree in Math Education. He began focusing on math, teaching at the high school and local community college levels. During this time, Jerry has also taken other professions (he also worked in the financial services field, becoming a stockbroker, transfer agent, and proxy vendor) and got married.
The Road to Writing Math Workbooks
Jerry continued to hone his skills and his profession. He never stopped thinking about what else he could do. When one of his uncles died, he left each of his nieces and nephews a modest inheritance. With his now rich experience in teaching high school and college math (he also work on getting another 30 credits beyond his master’s), Jerry used the inheritance to begin working on math workbooks. It ultimately led him to write and published math workbooks. Today, Jeremiah Ortner has written four math workbooks, a pre-algebra workbook, Fundamentals Of Math Book 1 Pre-Algebra plus its sequel, and a math-related road trip book using math concepts that students found difficult to understand.
Jeremiah Ortner considers the book “Frustrations with Math” was my ultimate endeavor because he took basic math concepts and turned them into a fun learning experience. In the book, Jerry also points out ways to “cheat” at math and be successful. Another fulfilling part of Jerry’s work is revising and updating his books, adding inputs to better help students struggling to understand math.
Jeremiah Ortner’s Published Works
- Fundamentals of Math Book 1: Pre-Algebra (2007)
- Frustrations Teaching Math (2007)
- Fundamentals of Math Book 2: Algebra (2008)
- Fundamentals of Math Book 2 Algebra 1: 2nd Edition (2010)
- Fundamentals of Math Part 2 Algebra 1 (2011)
- Basic Fundamentals of Math for Addition, Subtraction, Multiplication & Division Using Whole Numbers, Decimals, Fractions & Percents (2011)
- Frustrations with Math (2020)
To know more about Jeremiah Ortner and his works, purchase his book or visit his website today.
I had Jerry Ortner as a math teacher at Concord High School in Delaware during the 1970-71 season; I found him to be quite a good teacher