A little over three years ago I began tutoring high school students in several types of mathematics, physics & chemistry. While I did this initially to earn money, I have continued to tutor (often pro bono) because I enjoy the material and the contact with the students. I have always enjoyed math tremendously. I can remember riding in a car for long distances as a child with my father and continuously calculating average speeds and percentages of distances covered as we traveled. In college I took upper division math classes though they were not required for my major. All this time spent playing with math has left me with a deep understanding of the way numbers work and the many ways in which problems can be solved. When I first started to teach students at middle and high school level, I was surprised to find that most of the kids I worked with, although very bright, not only lacked the ability to solve complex problems, they were very uncomfortable with some of the basic principles of math. This discomfort led to fear and avoidance, and the avoidance led to more discomfort. A strange cycle began. Instead of seeing math as a beautiful system in which arithmetic, algebra and geometry all worked together to allow one to solve problems, they saw it as a bunch of complex rules which made little sense that they were forced to memorize. As a teacher, I found that it was important when starting with a new student to find out where his/her discomfort with math began. Often, this
It is crucial to develop in children the ability to tackle problems with initiative and confidence…mathematics has changed from careful rehearsal of standard procedures to a focus on mathematical thinking and communication to prepare them for the world of tomorrow (Anghileri, 2006, p.2).
There are many subjects that I enjoy in school, but the one topic that stands out to me remarkably is mathematics. There are numerous measures in which analytical skills have helped and influenced me in life. One of the many ways math changed me was when I started community service. Another way it helped me is the way I look at other courses I currently partake. Lastly, math influenced me to study the analytic ways of it further in college.
Van de Walle, J, Karp, K. S. & Bay-Williams, J. M. (2015). Elementary and Middle School Mathematics Teaching Developmentally. (9th ed.). England: Pearson Education Limited.
Back when I was first learning math, in 2nd grade, I remember being very confused. See, I had moved from Arkanson Nebraska to Carroll Iowa, in the time between preschool and kindergarten. I definitely, remember learning to read in the first class when I came to Carroll. I vaguely remember counting, learning to add and subtract too. Then in all my memories of first grade, it seemed to me that I had never had a math class. All of a sudden in 2nd grade, teachers were asking me to multiply and divide. At the beginning of the year, my teacher set a piece of paper in front of all of us then set a timer for one minute. When she started the timer we were supposed to do as many problems as possible. I didn’t do one, I was preoccupied with the time limit and would freak out that there was a whole sheet full of problems that I couldn’t get done in that one minute. It was very stressful. Meanwhile, all the other students were having no trouble
Formulas, factoring, derivatives: math topics make many people cringe and are viewed difficult to endure when learning these boring concepts. On the other hand,
The NAEYC affirm that high-quality, challenging and accessible mathematics education for 3-6 year old children are a vital foundation for future mathematics learning. The first few years of a child’s life in development is important because teachers are individuals who play the key role to help children learn, grow and succeed in education. NAEYC and NCTM feel that young learner’s future understanding of mathematic requires an early foundation on a high quality, challenging, and accessible mathematic education. They feel children’s learning within the first couple of years of life demonstrate the importance of early experiences in mathematics also children start to engage in early encounters of mathematics developing their confidence in their
I love math the most for many reasons. For me, true mathematics lover, there is a satisfaction and a reward in the mere solving of a problem. The second reason why I love math is for its rewards in the long term. I believe the mathematics will help me in my life and my career. Many people said that it will be too boring for me to take College Trigonometry and I went for a challenge and ended up in Calculus AB. My life became consumed by two-hour homework, yet being truly happy and myself. I found that I have a passion for finance, which is closely related to the
Math is all around us. Everywhere you go there is some sort of math involved consciously or subconsciously. Even though math is all around us, and everything we do involves math, I myself must say I dislike math. Research has shown there are many more people that dislike math compared to those who do like it. A survey done by a nonprofit organization named Change the Equation asked 1,000 middle school kids in 2010 whether they would prefer to eat broccoli or do one math problem, surprisingly more than half answered they would eat broccoli. Throughout the years, there have been many different strategies created on how to introduce and/or teach math to children.
Mathematics anxiety has been studies for the past “50 years” (McMahon 2015), because it is a problem that affect many Americans. With all of the studies done, there is still much to be known about it and its effect on students. Mathematics anxiety has been defined by Vahedi and Farrokhi (2011) as “negative cognitions, avoidance behaviors, and feeling pressured and inadequate in performance that combined interfere with solving math
Since elementary school, I have always found myself fully engaged in math classes. In third grade, I began to speed up my education by completing two courses in one year. I repeated this in fourth grade to get even further ahead of my classmates. Due to my passion for math, I continued to pursue the subject throughout middle school and ended up at the very top of my class in math upon graduation. I also continued along this path in high school and by my senior year I will have taken every math course that has ever been offered to me. I enjoy the subject because it fosters inventiveness and challenges me to find new ways to solve problems. Math has allowed me to think in a logical manner in all situations and is the reason for my success in
The Scholastic Aptitude Test, or SAT is a very well known test, especially by high school students across America. This test consist of 138 questions, all multiple choice except for several math graphs, divided into two sections-math and verbal, both scored on a scale of 200 to 800 (Pacenza). The SAT’s are currently a determining factor for college admissions. This paper will only address the SAT’s, not the PSAT’s or the ACT”s. The SAT was born in the 1920s-the product of a growing desire by American educators, led by Harvard president James Bryant Conant, to open up their universities to the best students across the country (Pacenza). After searching for something that could satisfy their quest for intelligence, the American educators came to a test created by Princeton psychologist Carl Brigham. Brigham had created this test because he concluded in his 1922 book, A Study of American Intelligence that, "American intelligence is declining, and will proceed with an accelerating rate as the racial admixture becomes more and more extensive." The test was created because according to the author there needed to be a “division since racial admixture becomes more and more extensive.” The author made the test to be able and pick out the smart, white males and be able to put them in recognized institutions.
Math is my forte. By the time I was six or seven, I fully comprehended the concept of variables and algebraic expressions. Its fascinating to me that when I pick up a math text book, as long as I can pick up on a concept that I have already seen, I can
It was only last year, my math teacher opened my eyes about the importance of math and how we need it to survive. On the first day of school, sophomore year, my math teacher started the class off with why does math matter? Mr. Howard, my teacher, recognized my vintage New York Giants shirt at the time, so he used that as his example. With a background in construction, he was familiar with architecture. He explained the mathematics involved in cutting the metal, making the field, setting up the bleachers, the goalposts, the field distance, constructing the actual shirt. After that class, I realized math is all around me, I just need to look for it. My experience in math class changed that year. In the previous years, I actually didn’t care about what I was learning, I just wanted to receive a good grade. Math, in my mind, went from a bleak, strange nightmare, to a fun, engaging environment, full of ideas that could potentially change the
Maths is ubiquitous in our lives, but depending on the learning received as a child it could inspire or frighten. If a child has a negative experience in mathematics, that experience has the ability to affect his/her attitude toward mathematics as an adult. Solso (2009) explains that math has the ability to confuse, frighten, and frustrate learners of all ages; Math also has the ability to inspire, encourage and achieve. Almost all daily activities include some form of mathematical procedure, whether people are aware of it or not. Possessing a solid learning foundation for math is vital to ensure a lifelong understanding of math. This essay will discuss why it is crucial to develop in children the ability to tackle problems with initiative and confidence (Anghileri, 2006, p. 2) and why mathematics has changed from careful rehearsal of standard procedures to a focus on mathematical thinking and communication to prepare them for the world of tomorrow (Anghileri).
Mathematics is the subject in school that i have succeeded in the most. It has always come easy to me, and i was able to learn things very quickly when it had to do with math and numbers. When using math and numbers in other subjects, i felt like i was able to understand the subject more and was able to learn quicker as well. For example, during some of my history classes there would be times where we were learning about a certain time in