Math and Me

1-20-13
Essay #1- math and me
When I first learned about math I was nervous I thought I wouldn’t learn how to do it or be good at it or maybe not be able to keep up with the others. When I finally started doing it I realized I was actually pretty good at it so I kept practicing and learning new things and then third grade came and we had to do multiplication and times tables, I wasn’t thrilled. I didn’t quite get it at first and took me a while to get the hang of it. I just remember doing mad minutes, which where completing fifty multiplication problems on a piece of paper in under one minute. I could never finish it I always got stick on the higher numbers like eight’s and nine’s. But with practice that eventually went away.
Then I coasted until my sophomore year of high school, I was filling out my schedule for my junior year. There was a new teacher named Alexis Rivera, I thought hey it’s a new teacher, it’s a female why not give it a try. So the next year came and was I totally wrong, this teacher was not new and was not a female. It was actually a French male who studied school in Mexico at the age of fourteen, he also taught in Mexico and France and he had a strong accent which was hard to understand. So I thought ok, I can do this still it’s just algebra two no big deal, so a couple weeks went by and it was like a train hit me and didn’t stop or even brake, I was so lost. He soon realized that everyone in the class was lost, so he changed up everything with notes and showing more examples then actually talking about since it was so hard to understand him. And I was already so far behind and lost I had no motivation to do anything in his class anymore. So when I was getting warning grade reports sent to my house and to my coaches and they saw I was getting an F in math, so they weren’t very happy and neither was I. And you can guess my classmates and I weren’t very happy with our teacher and our choice of choosing him for this class. So I went to my teacher one day after school with some anger and asked him if he could help me understand the work more. So he took his time and helped me clearly understand the work and how to correctly do it. In that two hours after school of him helping me, caught me up to the stuff we were doing from the past 3 weeks. So after that day I kept going to his class after school and he helped me understand the class so after that was over I finally had respect for him and trusted him, and the next day was if it was fresh start in his class. So I was caught up and I understood everything he was describing and showing on the board, after that I felt more confident on test, exams and quizzes. It was almost like it was a piece of cake. At the end of the year I ended off the class with a B, I was so excited it was like I know how much work I put into it that I know I deserved it. I think I am prepared to do addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. And teaching easier and better ways for5 kids to learn quicker and easier. As a child I remember enjoying multiplication and the times tables. I didn’t like division that much because I wasn’t very good at it and took me a while to get used to it. My favorite teacher was my algebra two teacher he was very strict on your work and made you show your answers. Basically he made everyone work hard to become better at the class and earn their grade. He made you think and actually work to complete and find the answers to the problems. When I was a kid my dad would make my brother and sister and I, add up everything in the grocery cart and the closest one to the total price got a candy bar. And also growing I played sports so numbers were everywhere, whether it was my records, points I scored, or anything. I learn very well in the classroom and with visuals to see what is going on in the problem. School emphasized conceptual understanding by making me see pictures and examples to solve the problem. School was always repetitive, we did the same thing a hundred times to learn it faster and know it by heart. School helped me solve the problems in more than one way and in more than one example. I define conceptual understanding as showing visuals or painting pictures in the mind that help you solve the problem. I define computational proficiency as constantly or repeating, doing the same thing until you become familiar with it. I define problem solving as working a problem out or situation out until you find the solution or answer. The “perfect” elementary mathematics teacher has to be smart, interactive, helpful, respectful, responsible, caring and understanding. I want the kids to be able to understand the problems and know what they are doing and supposed to be doing every day. I part one, question a. I remember as a kid not learning as fast at my times tables as the other kids. So that question reminds me of the Math Anxiety Bill of Rights, because I didn’t want to be rushed because I couldn’t understand. So I’m glad the Math Anxiety Bill of Rights was written to help teachers and students, see that some people don’t do as well at math as others and they might need more time. In question b. I think of Math-Abused Students: Are We Prepared to teach them, because everyone has a teacher not only in math but other subjects that you may or may not have gotten along with. Then you either do well in the class or don’t. I also agree with the article because I had a teacher that was very mean and not really open minded and basically showed only one way to teaching and learning. But I have also had very nice and caring teachers that have showed they cared and made sure you learned with everyone else. For question c. also makes me think of the article Math- Abused Students: Are we prepared to teach, because pushing someone too hard to learn or making them work too hard, makes them not want to do it anymore or work as hard. For question d. I think of the article I just don’t like math, because if you don’t get along with the teacher or like the subject you might not understand it or want to understand it. For question e. I think of the Ten Commandments for teachers, because understanding a subject has part to do with learning the subject and being familiar with it. For question f. I think of the article math anxiety bill of rights, because it helps teachers see that not all students like math or as good at math as others and don’t learn as fast and easy as others. I also think it helps teachers stay on their toes to know how to change and adjust to different learning styles of students.