I've recently started taking senior year of high school Math after a long absence of math in my life. I need it plus a few university levels of math to achieve my eventual goal of becoming a teacher. It made me realize that there are very few teachers that are great at teaching math. I've had one in my whole life. His name was Mr. Verrigan. He was my High School math teacher in most of early high school (grade 8-10) The first thing that stands out in my about him is his term of "Mickey Mousey". It was always really funny. His French Canadian accent made it even better. Secondly, but more importantly, he used analogies, and stories to show how math can be casually applied to everyday life. Most Math instructors purely give you cold, hard, instruction. Spewing out the facts and formulas with little regard to different learning styles. The worst thing about these instructors is that they find it incomprehensible that somebody would be unable to figure out the equations simply through written regurgitation of the same thing repeatedly. This might just be my opinion but, it seemed then and remains true now that some math teachers have some underlying power trip over other people. Most of my math teachers throughout life have been like this. Having this superiority in authority over the students is highly coveted by them. Mostly, it seems like they don't give a damn if a student is unable to learn with their preferred method, or if they need extra help or instruction. Admittedly, personal responsibility by the student should occur but nobody should feel like they're incapable because he or she feels like they've been made an example of what not to do by their own teacher. This just comes up in my mind because the instructor in this Grade 12 for adults class readily admitted that he's not interested in helping students learn if they're struggling with some concepts. He said that he's actually quite happy with the fact that he scares away 50 percent of the students that come into classes he teaches. I just don't understand how somebody like that ever was an effective teacher. He is an older guy too. I need to get through this successfully. I just have problems with asking for help from family. They're generally sincere but if I truly need help, the favor in return usually feels more severe than the level of assistance I ask for. But those are my own issues. July already feels like it's going to feel like a LONG month.
the admission in summary. Math is a weak spot for me. I'm not sure if I'll ever feel confident with it. That being said, I don't think that it's impossible to learn it if it doesn't come naturally to you. Hope I survive
I'm always had a pretty good knack for explaining supposedly complex things in a simple way. I often need to explain complex stuff to folks in my line of work, and and I've been told that our Asia office has nicknamed me "The Professor". I don't know if that's supposed to be flattering or not, but I think it would be nice to be able to teach someday. It would really be nice to inspire young people.
ReplyDeleteHowever, I've always been, first and foremost, a practical person. Everyone knows that teachers are WAAAYYYYY underpaid in the USA relative to the value they add to society. I'm not a particularly materialistic person ( My favorite form of entertainment in my high school and college years only required a $30 basketball and a public court ), but I've always worried a lot about financial security. Thus, I never really even considered going into the teaching profession. I really can't stand my job these days, but it does pay the bills quite effectively, and as a father of 2 with a mortgage, that's all I really care about these days.