Teaching Math?
It's no secret that I am
not a math person. I have math-phobia. I am completely
serious...just asking me to add together a bunch of numbers makes me break out
into a sweat. It's not that I don't know that one plus one is two, it's
just that putting it in front of me sends me into a panic. (Okay,
maybe I am exaggerating a little bit there, but not much.) Even the word “math” makes me feel anxious!
I have TRIED not to pass my
math-phobia onto my son. The good news is that my husband is pretty good
at math. However, there have been times when we have needed a
tutor. We have been lucky enough to find someone who is not just educated
in the subject, but can work with people. (Which is a big piece of the
picture.) She has often pointed out that when my son needs help, mostly
what he needs is a boost of confidence and a reminder to double check his
work. His biggest flaw, for the most part, is making little errors.
So it's not that he doesn't understand, it's that he's not paying attention to
the details. Whenever we needed her help, she'd guide him through the
process and he'd gain the confidence that he needed to do better.
Amazingly, last year he breezed
through Geometry. He did so well that I wish there was a Geometry II
course that he could have taken instead of Algebra II. (There
isn't.) I'll freely admit that I was totally freaked out about Algebra II
based on MY experience (at the same high school; albeit many decades
ago). Back in the last century Algebra II was the bane of my
existence. I liked the teacher, but just never got my head wrapped around
the subject. I had a tutor. She was a very nice lady, but she
didn't help much. If I recall correctly (and I truly do NOT want to), I
got a D on my final exam and I may have even gotten a D during the final
marking period. Yes, to this day that haunts me. I like to think of
myself as a good student and a D?!?!? OMG! Is it any wonder after
that experience that I was scarred for life?
With my son taking the subject,
I've been hyper aware of his grades. He did really poorly on one quiz back
in October and I immediately emailed his teacher about it. Was this a
fluke? Did he need a tutor? What were the teacher's thoughts...? (Yes,
I was completely overreacting.) This teacher immediately responded and
put me at ease: "he had some struggle with that when we did the
practice quiz, but asked great questions and resolved his problems during the
practice quiz....so I think when he took the real quiz, he couldn't recall how
he overcame his struggle on the practice quiz...we will probably have another
short quiz this Friday, so I might wait one more week to see how he does on
that quiz before calling in the troops." And you know what, he was
right! For the rest of the marking period, he did relatively well and I
knew that my son had a teacher that really cared about his students and getting
them to understand the subject.
More recently, I saw that my
son was missing a quiz grade from December. (This would have been right
before the big Omicron outbreak.) In place of a grade there was a
note: "See me about this quiz. I think you
misunderstood the directions on the second page" This note speaks volumes to me about this teacher and is more
important than any grade that he could get. Instead of just giving my son
a grade (which I'm guessing would have been pretty bad), he wanted to make sure
my son understood what he was doing. While I want my son to get good
grades (who doesn't), this is more important than a number or a letter
grade. This is about learning. This is about making sure a student
understands a concept. This is what teaching is really about. This is
what education SHOULD be.
As much as I dislike math; I adore this teacher. More
importantly I admire and appreciate his commitment to the subject and his
student. If there has to be an Algebra II; I'm glad my son has a teacher
like this.
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