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My Mathematical Past

1. Something That Reached Me As A Math Learner
My two strongest memories of being really excited about math come from very different ages. The first comes from pre-school, when I was about 3 or 4 years old. I went to a montessori preschool, and numbers and math were my favourite things to explore. There was an exercise called the thousand chain that involved laying a thousand beads in the hallway a (grouped into ones, tens, hundreds), and I remember being so excited when I completed it. The second memory comes from high school, when I discovered the youtube videos of ViHart. She used math to make beautiful art and music, and explain mind-bending concepts along the way, and I found it utterly fascinating.

2. Frustrations With Math Learning
My biggest frustration with math learning came in University when I took a group theory course. The subject didn't come easily to me, and my professor didn't teach in a way that reached me, and it was the first time I felt lost and stressed out about my math learning. In the end, through a lot of self-study, I managed to understand most of the material, but it was an eye-opening experience into the struggle that many learners feel at some point in their mathematics journey.

3. A Math "Teacher" I Want To Emulate
One of my high school math teachers was the most inspiring teacher I've ever had. He was passionate about the subject and managed to engage all students - those who struggled with math and those who excelled at it. He inspired a love of math in nearly everyone, and gave everyone the confidence to succeed.

4. A Math Teacher Whose Ways I Want To Avoid
Through university I had many teachers who's methods I do not want to emulate. I had professors that were not engaging - that stood at the board with their backs to the class lecturing in a monotone voice for hour after hour. I also had professors who were geniuses, but left everyone except the top students in the class behind. And I had professors who seemed completely uninterested in whether students succeeded in their class or not. These are all qualities that I intend to avoid.

Comments

  1. Susan Gerofsky27 November 2017 at 12:12

    So great that you were enjoying Vi Hart's videos even in high school!

    ReplyDelete

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