Reflections Chapter 1 & 2

Am I talented enough to handle mathematics? This is a question that had bothered me throughout my secondary days. When I was fifteen, I asked my mother this question for the first time. This is my story……

Mathematics is one of my favorite subjects back in primary school. I love math simply because I was able to score well in my examinations. Well, I am thankful that my parents had enhanced my interest in math by using fun and captivating approaches to teach me this subject. There is an approach which leaves me a deep impression and had also benefited me up till today. Make a guess on the approach? Yes, my parents used money to teach me math such as asking to me get the total amount for my supermarket purchases, plan a budget for my spending and so on. When I was young, money to me is something magical. For the reason that I can exchange it for the things I wanted. My innocent mindset towards money had created an interest for me to learn math.

My experience with math has always been wonderful experience for me until my secondary days. It's a dreadful 4 years that I had to drag myself through. My secondary school math teacher has a "typical teacher look". I would describe him as an honest looking guy who wears specs, decently dressed and speaks in a mono-tone voice. His lesson was draggy and extremely boring. Things got very bad for me, I failed math from class test to year end examinations from secondary 1 to 4. I was very ashamed of myself, I hated math. I asked my mother "Why am I so stupid? Why can't I handle math?" She gave me a pat on the shoulder and said "No girl, you are not stupid! It's in our family's blood; all of us can't do well in math." With my mother's "encouragement" I manage to get a passing grade for my O'level.

Ask yourself the following questions:

• Are you taking mathematics only because it's required?
  
• When solving assigned problems, do you often think "What does he want us to do?"
  
• Do you often wonder why your teachers make you study a piece of mathematics that could not possibly ever be useful?
  
• Do you ask questions in class?
  
• Do you find it difficult to prepare for an exam?
  
• Do you worry about your grade a lot?
  
• Do you cheat on exams?

(Source: http://www.math.utah.edu/~pa/math.html)

What was your answer to the above questions? When I came across this website, I was curious to answer the questions. Peter Alfeld believes many students struggle with mathematics because they do not know what it means to understand mathematics and how to acquire that understanding. I agree with him as I did not understand math all this while. When I began the journey in my teaching career, I see myself being a teacher who is able to create a conducive learning environment as to make learning fun and interesting to all learners. In my classroom, I like to make use of games as a tool to help teach math. I believe math games can engage children in critical math reasoning. Math can be quite confusing for children to comprehend. However, games make it less complex for children as they are taught how to understand math through an interactive and enjoyable learning process.

Patterning

My final thought about learning and teaching math is that the learning process has to be pleasurable for everyone. But of course both teacher and student have their roles to play for the great learning experiences to happen. Although I still do not have a liking for math but I do hope to have a change opinion after I gain a better understanding about the subject.