Math and Me
Positive
Neutral
Math teacher
I have many positive experiences with math. Through elementary and secondary years, math was always relatively easy for me. I had some excellent math teachers. One woman in particular, was amazing (I believe grade 11 pre-calculus) and she was really an inspiration for me going forward. In any case, as a result of my 'natural' competence in math, I decided to pursue a BS in Math in University. I told my mother that I would be an engineer but I really liked the pure math. I have to confess that while a math degree seemed like a good idea in university years 1 and 2, by the time I was in year 3, the math grew far more difficult and I became less confident in my ability. In my senior year, I was responsible for preparing a thesis - as a requirement for graduation. I picked the thesis topic partly because I liked the teaching style and manner of the professor who was the expert in this field. My thesis on the Fourier series was a labor (of love?). It was far more difficult for me than I expected. I learned a very good lesson though - I could have spent the time on a math topic that was of more interest to me such as math and computers, or math and art or even math and English had I given it more thought. As it was, I finished the thesis on the Fourier series and walked away with a terrific degree and a life lesson.
Why do I want to be a math teacher? I really do love math - I love the puzzles and problems. I love the predicability. Maybe even more than math, I like the students. I worked in a school as an aid last year and I so enjoyed spending time with the kids - getting to know them, connecting with them in different situations.
Neutral
Math teacher
I have many positive experiences with math. Through elementary and secondary years, math was always relatively easy for me. I had some excellent math teachers. One woman in particular, was amazing (I believe grade 11 pre-calculus) and she was really an inspiration for me going forward. In any case, as a result of my 'natural' competence in math, I decided to pursue a BS in Math in University. I told my mother that I would be an engineer but I really liked the pure math. I have to confess that while a math degree seemed like a good idea in university years 1 and 2, by the time I was in year 3, the math grew far more difficult and I became less confident in my ability. In my senior year, I was responsible for preparing a thesis - as a requirement for graduation. I picked the thesis topic partly because I liked the teaching style and manner of the professor who was the expert in this field. My thesis on the Fourier series was a labor (of love?). It was far more difficult for me than I expected. I learned a very good lesson though - I could have spent the time on a math topic that was of more interest to me such as math and computers, or math and art or even math and English had I given it more thought. As it was, I finished the thesis on the Fourier series and walked away with a terrific degree and a life lesson.
Why do I want to be a math teacher? I really do love math - I love the puzzles and problems. I love the predicability. Maybe even more than math, I like the students. I worked in a school as an aid last year and I so enjoyed spending time with the kids - getting to know them, connecting with them in different situations.
Your blog made me think more about my motivation for becoming a math teacher. Largely, I think I went for math as one of my teachable subjects simply because I had enough math credits as part of my physics degree that I could count math as a teachable subject. I feel like I didn't have any particularly bad experiences with math (outside of the one big example in first year university which I wrote about), but neither did I have defining great experiences with pure math that I can take into my teaching career. I easily got mathematical concepts, but I didn't really enjoy doing math until I got to use it in physics.
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