Math...eeeeeek!

Hello,

Ok...so I'm maybe a little let on getting on here, but better late than never!

Math has always been a subject that I have dreaded ever since day one. I am very much of a visual learner and I guess the approaches taken by my teachers when I went through middle school did not involve much visual learning. Much of the exercises where a set of questions on a page that we had to solve with the right answer (of which there was only one) and get to that answer with the right process (of which there was only one)! As I got older, my grades in Math continued to plumbet, and this is not because I wasn't a good student. I received A's throughout middle school and high school in all subjects, but Math. As I mentionned in class, I was taught that there was only one answer and one way of getting there. All this changed for me when I found out that I was required to take two intro Math classes in university in order to meet the requirements of the PDP program. Well, needless to say: I was terrified! Would you believe me if I told you that I passed both classes with an A+ and and A. I know, I know...it seems a little ridiculous coming from someone that received a mercy pass in her grade 12 Math class in order to graduate, but it's true. I was put in a class with an instructor that took a completely different approach to teaching the subject. All of a sudden there was more than one good answer, more than one way of getting there and when I asked if I was right on something she would ask me things like, "What do you think?" The nerve of this women!! What a difference it made though, I then, for the first time, felt confident in what I was doing and felt good about my abilities in Math. Do I dare say it...I think I might have actually liked Math!!

Been given the opportunity to reflect on my own work and given guidance on other possibilities opened my eyes to the potential that I had in this subject. If it wasn't for this professor I think that I would have probably enter this class with the same attitude I have always entered Math classes with, that being annoyed, frustrated, and bored. I am happy to say today that Math is now one of my favorite subjects and is one that I have indicated that I would like to teach to middle school children with the goal of making them feel like they can acheive too!

I look forward to learning new teaching technics and learning processes that I can utilize and pass on in order to acheive that goal.