Road to a Teacher

Life is like a roller coaster ride when you are deciding what you want to do with the rest of your life. I had considered being an archeologist or an anthropologist; they always sounded like outstanding careers that would be absolutely fascinating. If I got lucky I could be transferred to Africa, possibly to find some new miraculous thing that has never been seen before. Although, it was not likely that this would ever happen. After deciding that this was not going to be my complete future, maybe a hobby, I looked at other possible careers. I thought that I could do well as an accountant because I enjoyed working with numbers. This also sparked the idea of a computer engineer, but sitting at a desk all day looking at a computer, casually walking around your cubical or office to find a piece of paper, also did not sound like something I wanted to do.

It didn't seem like I could find any other adventurous careers like the archeology-anthropology path that I first had in mind. I had always enjoyed being with children, and people in school looked at me like I was a nerd. But I really wasn't a nerd, I just worked hard for my grades. I liked helping people out in school and they seemed to understand my ways teaching them what they did not understand. Then in hit me, I wanted to be a teacher. The question was, what kind of teacher did I want to be? I liked to write, but I had no interest in reading. Science was out of the picture. I loved history, but I had been told that history was one of the more difficult fields to get into because of its increasing popularity. What about math? I was good at math, I enjoyed it. I loved all of my math teachers. So, why not be a math teacher? That was it, I decided and now five years later I am still content with my decision.

This seemed like one of the best choices for me because it felt right. Summers off! What could getting any better? Yes, that is a pure plus of being a teacher. But on a more serious note and after thinking about it, I could go on living my life knowing that I had made a difference in someone else. Sure, it could be a small effect, but it is something. Moreover, I have always loved the feeling when someone came back to me and said, “I got a 90 on that test, thank you for helping me!” It just made me feel good because I helped them get a better grade. I could get a lot of these similar words from my students if I became a math teacher. During high school, I have tutored a few people and that was a complete success. I had once tutored someone in geometry; I had taken the course previously and I did okay. I didn't do great, but I knew the material well enough to recollect in my memory, as well as using my old notes, to help him out. In the beginning of our sessions, he said that he had no idea what was going on in class or what he was doing and he was utterly failing. This was a shocker, I was worried that I was not going to be able to help at him. We worked on problems that he did not understand and to be honest, it was difficult. We worked through all of the problems together, sometimes it was hard for me too and that made him even more doubtful. I made him to do corrections on his homework, quizzes, and tests because I have found that it is one of the best way to help myself learn the material better. Angle, after proof, after angle was the key to his success. Overall, at the end of the year, he came to tell me that he got a 87 on his geometry final and his final grade was no longer failing but he improved to the mid 70's. His mom actually called me that night when she heard the good news and thanked me so much for all that I had done. I am hoping that when become a teacher, the student and that parent can be thankful for what I do.

Do you have a penny?

The importance of being able to work with change, dollar bills, and the concept of currency is very critical to today's world. Why not start learning about it young? Leaning about what each type of coins means is very 'worth' while. Hopefully, the concept of handling money is quite interesting as a youngster, explaining this topic would keep the children interested because they can relate to it. To keep the enthusiasm running in the classroom setting, it would be most helpful to make it a hands-on in class project. Each student would be given a handful of small change and asked to create a certain amount of change with the coins to create specific values. Also, you could have them put the coins in order from least to greatest, how many nickels are equivalent to one quarter, ect. There are many activities using money that can branch off into other topics such as fractions, percents, decimals, probability and so on.

I would assume that most children keep a piggy bank and put all of their dearest coin change inside of it. I remember the first one I had was a big purple piggy bank that I carried all around the house searching for coins on the counters, floor, and searching in people's pockets. Nevertheless, the pocketing stopped after had I realized people pockets were not filled with any kind of money, instead I found worthless pieces of paper and I did not want that. I could do my drawings on bigger paper. Of course, if I had known that the green paper with a two, zero on it was not worthless and it was much more valuable than my plentiful assortment of bronze pennies, I would have kept it. Furthermore, and yet another mistake on my behalf, if only I had known the difference between a penny and a dime; a penny is worth one cent, and a dime is worth ten cents. At the time it meant nothing to me, and now, not that pennies and dimes make all the difference in the world, but I would rather have ten dimes than ten pennies. [I would hope that] a common question may be asked such as, if the penny is larger than the dime, why isn't the penny worth more? This was my first instinctive idea because I loved pennies and they were a different color than all of the other coins and..., well not really. In general, something that is larger than something else would be considered the larger quantity, and in this case, it would seem as if it had more value [through the eyes of a youngster, I was such a smart one!]. At first, talking about money was difficult, [as you can see, it was for me]. 

In the summer of 2010, I traveled to England, working with currency there is much different than in the United States. Because children learn when they are young what each coin resembles, going to a new country with new currency, new faces, shapes, weights and sizes makes you feel as if you just learning how to figure out what each coin meant. Instead of trying to figure it out, I just remembered that the thickest, gold-ish, coin was worth one pound, and the rest, I gave the cashier to describe trusting their honesty. I thought I was done with worrying about how much each coin is worth depending on it's size...

Beginning Steps to Wanting to Learn Math

If a student is going to learn math, the student is going to have to want to learn it. There are many different ways a parent, teacher or friend can encourage a child to want to learn math. Puzzles, [computer] games, websites, books, and blocks are great ways for children to become interested in learning. Simple card games such as 'Go Fish' and 'Rummy' will help children begin to understand how to group numbers and put numbers in consecutive order. Choosing activities that they enjoy doing is much more efficient than giving them things that are strictly memorization.
 

However, flash cards can be helpful if the teacher continuously repeats the set. While using flashcards, children may become frustrated when they do not know the answer. Using a multiplication chart as well may increase the child's ability to remember certain equations. There are so many options that provide fun ways for children to start to learn math without even realizing it.

When I was starting to understand the basics of math, my parents were able to make the process fun for me. Around the house, someone would randomly ask me a question about how many objects were around the room. Not only did my parents try and consistently ask me these sorts of questions at home, but anywhere they had the chance. For example, when my mother and I went to the store, she would ask me simple questions, “how many rectangle shaped boxes are in the shopping cart?” Of course, at the time, these questions only occurred at the beginning of the shopping spree due to the vast amount of piled high groceries my mother would buy. This is emphasizing the ability to count the number of boxes and separate the objects by their shape. These questions could become more complicated including the color, size, and weight of the object. Sometimes she would also ask me, “can you take five apples, two oranges, and three bananas from the display?” Again, this would allow me to count different types of fruits by placing each one into the shopping cart. One of my favorite things to do was to weigh what ever I could get my hands on in the scales above the fruits and vegetable isles. Without even knowing this was a way of learning math, reading a scale.

Computer games were very influential for me and I enjoyed them. When I was in elementary school, at home I got to play “Reader Rabbit.” It was not only a fun games, but was filled with educational aspects. “Each fun activity has many play levels, progressing from the easiest to most difficult” according to the description on the box. “Reader Rabbit” had different levels of education for more than one age group. So when I was able to complete the 6-9 set, I could move on to a higher level and still enjoy playing and learning. For me, to play this was a reward for doing something good, I didn't get to play it all of the time because I would be on it for as long as I could. While I was in grade school during computer lab, sometimes we would be able to go onto the computes to play games on the Internet. A very common site that we were directed to go to was: http://www.coolmath.com/. If you were ever to have the opportunity to access this website, an all time favorite of my class was the Lemonade Stand. This game would allow students to try and figure out of to make profit selling lemonade. It would make them buy, paper cups, lemons, sugar, and ice. There are many resources out there for children to learn math in a fun and educational way. People should take full advantage of all of the programs and helpful tools to teach younger children math.

Simple Math, Try Addition.

Teaching math is a profession that could be a challenge for most who do not particularly like the subject, math. In general, I have come to realize that if I want to teach a topic to someone at any age, I am going to at least need to know the basics about what I am teaching. It would be very tricky to teach someone about something when he or she does not have any background information. For example, if someone wanted to show another person how to bake a recipe, and they have never made the recipe before, it would be extremely challenging to explain to the other person what do to. In hand, the person who is trying to learn how to bake the recipe is going to be completely lost. It is most helpful to be prepared with answers to any possible questions about the topic. The main objective to teach math is the ability to understand the material yourself and be comfortable with the topic. It is necessary to do these things before you are going to efficiently explain the topic well, let alone correctly.

Personally, teaching math seems like one of the hardest things that can be taught. Unlike math, history and science, in an elementary setting, are mostly what is memorization and to remembering certain key points. Math, on the contrary is much different. At the beginning of this class, I was certain that teaching math would be one of the more simple things to teach to other students. However, my thoughts completely changed when I realized that it was not. Teaching a student how to add numbers may be one of the easier topics to explain, but the main difference is how to explain the process. If you give students five blocks and ask them: what are different ways you can add the blocks together to get the number five? They may either look at you and stare silently saying, “there is only one way,” and then group the blocks together to make five; or they may move two to one side and group the other three together, etc. Stating that: 2 + 3 = 5, is not going to be enough for the student to understand the concept of addition. While most of us would know, surely the answer is 5, a student who has never learned math may be completely confused. Questions may arise such as, “if two plus three equals five, then why does one plus four also equal five?” 

Instead of just stating, well that is just how it is, there are many different ways to help the student understand why both answers are true. One of which is to draw a number line, representing the increase using arrows and tic marks. Another way is to explain how to add numbers is to use pictures, or counting objects. Gradually increasing step by step is much more informative and understandable then simple stating the correct answer.

Note: The picture given above is an example showing how to use a number line to add: 5 + 4 = 9.