The Advance Team's Maureen Hahn

Most people are lucky to have one great career. Maureen Hahn of the LG2G Advance Team has been even luckier… because she's had two.

Maureen was already a successful computer programmer when she decided to take time off to begin a family and then be with her small children. After about ten years, she was ready to go back to paid work, and it turned out that her kids' school needed someone to teach math and computers. Well, Maureen had never been a teacher before, but she had been a Math major in college… and she did know her way around computers. And at that particular time, the Archdiocese of Baltimore was offering a program where people could get their Master's degrees in Education and then make a two-year commitment to teach in the Archdiocese. With all the forces of the universe seemingly pointing her toward the classroom, Maureen jumped at what looked like a great opportunity. And how about that two-year teaching commitment? Well, the whole teaching thing seems to have worked out for Maureen: she's now in her 17th year at Baltimore's St. Ursula's School where she presently teaches seventh and eighth grade pre-Algebra and Algebra.

While Maureen doesn’t necessarily fit the profile of the newer teacher who grew up with digital games as a part of her own life, she has, in fact, used games in her own teaching and is very excited about the prospect of using the LG2G game with her students. "I like the way the learning is going to be integrated into this game," she says. "It's not going to be the old way of 'drill-and-kill' and then you get a reward at the end." And what does Maureen think teachers will need to use the game? "Teachers will need to learn it and know how it works," she explains. "We have to feel comfortable with it. We have to know that we’ll be able to answer kids' questions."

Maureen is enthusiastic about her role on the LG2G Advance Team, especially as it relates to helping with the teacher resources and tying the game directly into the math standards. But she's also a realist in terms of understanding that the LG2G game is not going to change education overnight. "I think anything new takes time for teachers to accept it," she says, "especially because there are so many expectations on teachers these days." Still, the veteran of two great careers that she is, Maureen knows that ultimately the game won't be judged by whether it's something new or old, but by whether it works. "In the end," Maureen explains, "teachers will use it if it helps their students."

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