Since I can remember, I have struggled with math. The subject has never been my strong suit and has been hard for me to wrap my mind around. From a young age, I grew to accept this and year after year I celebrated just being able to pass. Throughout elementary school, math soon became a source of anxiety. I would dread the time we would spend developing these skills. I soon stopped asking questions in class, afraid to look silly or stupid in front of my classmates. My lack of confidence caused me to second guess myself and my skills, resulting in me falling behind in my comprehension and understanding. By grade seven, I was so distraught about math that my parents became concerned and considered holding me back.
Luckily, they didn’t because it wasn’t until my grade eight year in high school that I got a teacher who showed me that there were other strategies to approach math. She explained to me that there were various ways to solve math problems and that it was completely normal to sometimes see math differently. Her classes were spent showing multiple ways to get to the right answers. This approach helped me learn within the classroom, so I didn’t have to feel uncomfortable asking questions. Soon after, I gained the confidence to meet her outside of class to better develop my math comprehension and improve on my skills.
Up until this point, I thought that I just had to accept that I wasn’t good at math, get the bad grades and remain confused. Although,I gained the confidence to try my best when this teacher invested extra time in my learning and helped me learn other perspectives. She gave me the tools I needed to go to study sessions and not be scared to ask questions. I understood that I might just not see math in the most traditional sense, and this was okay. Due to this new found confidence, I went from almost failing my math classes to excelling into an A student. Most importantly, I was understanding my course content. This progress was something that had never happened to me before. To this day, this math teacher has had a lasting impact on me, and who I want to be as an educator.
For me, now standing as a teacher candidate, education is like my toolkit.
For a short story on the background of this toolbox, in my family once you turn eighteen, you start to receive what we call ‘practical gifts’ for Christmas and birthdays. These gifts are meant to prepare you for growing up, moving out and having your own home. When she gave me this toolbox on my eighteenth birthday, my grandma explained it was important to have to insure you can do things on your own.
I think this really applies to my teaching philosophy. Even though, there are many different tools which preform various tasks in this kit, all these tools serve a common purpose: to build. The same reasoning goes for teaching. There might be many different perspectives and methods to help each individual child learn better. As a student myself, I needed this and now my weakness has become a strength because I understand learning to be different. Sometimes the traditional or standard methods of teaching went right over my head, even when everyone else was getting the concepts and succeeding. What I needed was for my teacher to pull out some different tools out of their toolkit and offer me some different perspectives to better help me understand. Even though the different strategies might work better for different students, everyone is engaged the the common goal of learning and growing.
As a teacher, it is my goal to teach the individual, rather than just focusing on the collective because every child’s success is important. Every student matters. First and foremost, I believe that everyone is born with everything they need already inside them. Like in my experience, I just needed someone to show me different approaches and perspectives for my learning to click into place. It is our job as educators to help and provide young ones with the skills they need to be confident with who they are. I want my students to excel and feel confident. For that reason, I strive to give them the proper tools so they can best engage in their own learning.
