Math is not a 'Four Letter Word'

I didn't always hate Math. When we first got to know each other, we could see eye to eye, I enjoyed it's fun activities, practical/useful applications and manipulatives.

Somewhere in my early teenage years (cough!...middle school), I learned new information about Math from some unreliable, unfriendly sources...and our relationship changed. It became DIFFERENT, estranged and even hateful at times. I learned to think, "This sucks."

In my junior high years, my classes were 'tracked.' We were tested and homogeneously grouped with students that should be able to progress at the same rate. I was placed in accelerated classes for everything except Math. Looking back, I probably should have been put into the slowest track available, but I instead I was put into the middle group, not the slowest, or the fastest, but into group 2.

There's a saying about Math. "You either love it or hate it, there is no in between." As an up and coming educator I want to change that. I want to create that gray area where it's possible to create a new group of math students who respect it, appreciate it, and can use it even if its not their favorite thing in the whole world. To do that, you have to have time, patience and follow-through, not only as a student, but as a teacher.

Miss Kiehl was my 9th grade Algebra teacher and one of my favorite teachers of all time. She let us come in after school for extra help, and she encouraged us, giving us time to process the material that she covered in class. I was a kid who couldn't receive and understand the concepts all in one session. I needed extra time to process what I heard and relate it to what I already knew. She was a teacher that rewarded you with her time, and understanding.

By contrast, Mr. Mahood, my 10th and 11th grade Math teacher didn't have patience for students like me who asked too many questions in class and held everyone back. He would roll his eyes and act disgusted when I would raise my hand. He held review sessions on occasion, but they moved at the same pace as his classes did and if you couldn't keep up, that was just too bad so I stopped trying. I hated both his classes and I really didn't like him. Going to class was like going to my own personal, high-school hell.

What a difference a good teacher can make! I want to be that teacher that makes a difference in a kids life. Who allows them to make friends and to come to an understanding of math at their own pace, instead of adhering the time table someone else gives them that they must follow at the expense of coming to terms with the subject being taught.

Students can learn to come to terms with Math, even if they don't love it. They can learn to understand how it works, and how to use it to their advantage and to cultivate resources to increase their understanding of it, when they don't have an answer to the question. They don't have to give up.

I want to be the teacher students are comfortable coming to for extra help, and to offer it. I want to create the type of classroom atmosphere that is conducive to learning and to allow students to question and examine a subject in an appropriate fashion, so that when one of them doesn't understand something, they don't have to think, "This sucks." They can say, "I can learn this," and know it to be true.