The year I realized I do not hate math
I was bad at math. At least that was how I felt. I could not memorize the endless addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division facts. I almost always missed a number when carrying over numbers and found long division a grueling process that I was sure to again mix up a number. I felt like I would never get it.
In walks my seventh grade math teacher. He was an incredible teacher and made math fun. I discovered a few things that year.
I was not bad at math
Math was kind of fun
I still did not know all my math facts but that wouldn’t completely stop me from doing math.
While I continued to enjoy math throughout middle school and high school I still didn’t have a very good understanding of how it worked or how interconnected each math skill was with each other.
I truly did not start to understand how math worked until I took Elementary mathematics while studying to be a teacher. Sitting in that class as a whole adult my stomach would drop when she would randomly call on us to do mental math in front of the entire class. I really had never learned how to do mental math and as I continued to learn I found myself wishing more and more that I could have learned mathematics the way it is taught now. My understanding of math grew the most as I taught student, worked with them and learned with my peers during continuing education.
I can now say for a fact that I love math. And I love teaching math even more! I can’t wait to share math with you all. Young and old.
It is never to late to learn something new and change how you see yourself as a learner.
