My so-called math life

 Peak Experience

Math has generally been a subject that’s come easily to me.  On top of that, I had excellent support at home from my father who enjoyed solving math and logic problems with me.  A time when I think my abilities in math were recognized was when I was a sophomore in high school.  This was the year of geometry.  I nailed the first few quizzes and aced the first test.  At this point is when my teacher asked me to work with a couple of students to help them with the material.  I think I recall smiling at this point.  Me?  Helping to teach my classmates?  Cool!  And this was only the beginning.  The teacher allowed me to have some wiggle room in making modifications for some of my classmates and break down problems in a way I thought would benefit them.  Side note:  later on, the teacher decided to not require me to turn in homework.  Score!

Nadir Experience

I’m not sure that the experience I’m recalling was a negative one, but it did bring out some negative feelings in me.  I remember being very frustrated in 1^st grade and having to complete so many worksheets of math problems.  More and more worksheets.  It never seemed to end!  One day, I cracked.  I remember the sheet in front of me had an outline of a pumpkin and different arithmetic problems inside.  Pumpkin or no pumpkin, this was another one of those worksheets.  I reached in my supply box, pulled out a brown crayon, and wrote across the sheet, “I QUIT!”  I think I was at the point of tears.  I walked the sheet over to the teacher, handed it to her, and turned to go to my chair.  She stopped me and took me out into the hallway.  The tears definitely flowed at this point.  Between the snot and tears, I tried explaining how frustrated I was to be completing worksheets with material I already knew how to do and said that what she gave me to do was “worthless.”  Or pointless.  I’m not sure which of those terms I used but I’m sure it was one of them.  Here’s where there was a turning point.

Turning Point

After my fantastic fit in 1^st grade, I had a chat with the teacher during recess.  She agreed to let me work on more advanced math sheets and gave me a Snickers bar.  That moment changed the way I dealt with math teachers since.  In 6^th or 7^th grade, I took a practice ACT and did fairly well for my age.  I negotiated with my teacher to let me work on different math topics than my classmates and she would send me at least twice a week to the computer lab to work on a program that was supposed to help students practice for ACT and SAT questions.  I previously discussed the opportunity in 10^th grade geometry.  Later, in my senior year, I engaged in a bold conversation with my math teacher in which I informed her that I would do very well in her class, but found the slow pace to accommodate other students frustrating.  I proposed that I would come to class Monday mornings to get the assignments for the week and come in Fridays to drop homework and for tests.  I’m not entirely sure why, but she agreed to this as long as I earned at least a 90 every time.  Oh.  I forgot to mention that this was the first class of the morning.  I’m not much of a morning person. 

I’ve thought about my own frame of mind during these encounters and where I had gotten the chops to draw the boundaries and make the rules for such interactions.  However, I don’t know that I’ve ever thought about why a teacher would negotiate with me and what that says about that teacher. 

Other...

There’s a moment when I was three or four years old that mom reminds me of at least every six months.  She knew that she would have to teach me about money and the work that goes into earning money after a visit to Kmart.  I insisted that she buy me a toy.  She insisted that she didn’t have enough money.  I insisted that she could “charge it.”

During the summer of 09, I spent about 6 weeks in Denmark.  After little research, it turned out that Denmark is pretty expensive.  Because of the housing option I’d chosen, I would be responsible for stocking my tiny fridge and cabinets.  This also meant that I would need to do some mental math over and over in the grocery store when deciding what was reasonable to pay for a jar of Nutella.  It also meant I needed mental math skills when shopping for souvenirs, buying lunch after class, and when paying for overpriced beverages at the Mexican-themed bar down the street.  I’d have to calculate if I should purchase a scarf for my mom at this store or the one across the street; not to mention deciding if the price difference had to do with the authenticity of the item in question. 

"Greatest challenge"

In the course of my long college career, I’ve taken a few math classes.  I opted mainly for the easier ones for any number of reasons – keep the ole GPA up, laziness, avoid bruising of the ego, who knows really.  Then I encountered a couple of courses I could not avoid: M316K and M316L.    If they were meant for future teachers, then these courses would teach me how to teach math, right?  Well.  The first course, M316K, consisted of scribbles of proofs on the chalkboards, playing with numbers in formats other than base 10, and playing nim.  What I got out of this course was that a) I was the queen of nim, b) the loser of nim would become my best friend, and c) some instructors will have no interest in learning your names.    M316L is a little bit of a blur.  The instructor didn’t quite get our names, but he did seem passionate about the subject matter and about teaching in a way to really engage students.  I can’t really say that I remember any specifics from that course other than being introduced to the movie “Flatland.”  So, here I am.  I am one semester away from being a certified teacher and am in a course that’s supposed to help me learn how to teach math to students.  So far, the instructor knows my name :-D

Special Education Teacher

Special education seemed like the area I had to teach in after I worked at a day program for adults with developmental disabilities.  It was quickly apparent which clients had had a positive school experience and which had been warehoused.  During the year that I worked with the clients we participated in the Meals on Wheels program, delivered newspapers, went on tours, had drinks at coffee shops, and helped a few with job coaching at a paper company.  The task at the paper company was quite tedious and repetitive, but it led to money; money earned.

Math is a subject I’d like to teach students with any level of disability.  Math skills mean that you can figure out how to divide the money you have to cover your needs and wants.  Knowing how to make change can keep you from getting short-changed.  Math skills facilitate transportation in that you can calculate what time you need to get on the bus to get to a destination at a certain time.  Math skills mean independence.