Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
TEAC 403B
Josh Males
February 3, 2017
Mathematics Autobiography
Ding! There went the test timer again. I flipped my quiz over and
laid my pencil down. This time I felt accomplished. I had finally finished
quiz level V before the buzzer went off. I was so excited, now all I had
move on to level W. This meant I only had to pass four more quizzes to
excited. Why? Im not quite sure. I loved that I was good at this thing
called math. I loved how systematic it was and how it had worked my
the subject as well as take it a little more seriously. I was excited to see
what the highest level of math that I could take in high school was and
she had told me that it was calculus. For five years, I was bound and
determined to find out what this calculus was. I could not wait to finally
find out. It sounded like something that was impossible to get to. I
thought, How could math go beyond the basic algebra that I was
I came to learn that high school was different. Math was still
systematic, but there were also pieces of it that were not. I learned
that geometry was not my favorite of the math topics. At first, I did not
prefer the different kinds of proofs we had to do, but it all still seemed
easy to me.
Later on down the lengthy road of high school, I was finally able
colors and I loved the materials that we covered. Calculus started off
as a breeze, but this is where life became hard. For the first time in my
not lie; this was a hard task for me. I still received a B in the course,
but I think this course was a critical point that pushed me to continue
with a math career. It was this course that made me want to teach
doing it everyday.
difficult. I failed a class. Not just an assignment this time, I flat out
failed. I failed not because I did not try but because it took me time to
adjust to different ways of preparing and studying. This failure was not
them. I know a lot of them saw math as a drag and would try every
possible way to get out of math. But I was never in math class with my
friends. I was always in the upper level math where the students
wanted to learn math. So the vibe of the classroom I was in was a little
different than the vibe of the class they were in Im sure. In the upper
level courses, there were a lot of positive ideas floating around about
not many positive ideas rolling around in their classrooms, which could
work relevant and could explain the why factor were some of the best
things the way that they did. The aspects of these teachers are what
of the why and were doing more math. This may have been a reason
shaping the kind of math teacher that I want to be. I want to be that
teacher that can find a way to motivate all her students and to not
make math class a drag and the last place that these students want to
be. I want to be the teacher that teaches the whys and hows, not the
and how it was a majority of rote memorization of facts and how this
as a basis for the kind of teacher I aspire to be. I will strive to find a
goal is to set them up to succeed in all aspects of life and not just the
memorization of facts.
And if at first I dont succeed, I will try again and again. This few
hope that one day I can achieve the mathematical career that I want
and instill this motivation in every one of the people/students that I get
to work with.