My Math Journey

In math, I feel like everyone was has been so overwhelmed where there is a mix of frustration, anger, confusion, sadness and disappointment during the learning or practice of a math concept.  Now as a future teacher and a current tutor, I can see it in my students' faces sometimes and it is hard being on the other side of the knowledge. I saw this quote the other month on Twitter and it made me smile.  I feel like in school, math is looked upon more of a nerdy thing and "not cool".  Because of this, I feel like it adds to the overwhelming emotions at a tough point in math.  I feel like in sports, it is more known in social media that struggling is part of the grind and you will get better because of this.  It is funny how this does not translate to the struggle in math (or any other subjects). This brings me back to the quote I saw above.  I think that math is very cool, is needed in many facets in life and is fun.  I feel like the discomfort can...

This is a PSA, I think that calculus should get much more credit on being a really cool course.  Maybe my teachers did try to tell us this, maybe not but I think something more should be done to show this. When learning about calculus through a book, it blew my mind.  This was especially so because I was adept at advanced functions and learned to work with linear equations and figuring them out and how to use them in real life applications.  So I was reviewing the book and it soon told me that linear functions used methods to find out information on straight lines.  That's awesome you say but wait theres more!  Then it went on to say that straight line relationships are quite unrealistic in life and that in real life, the lines are more curved (like the one below). So what?  Well what blew my mind is that somehow, people figured out how to solve for information on curved graphs to then solve for real life situations.  Further, the creativity...

Hey all, I wanted to tell you about my experience with senior math courses throughout high school.  I remember before I would change schools (elementary to middle, middle to high, high to university), teachers would make a point to try and get you line by saying that "oh the teacher won't chase after you for marks and they will just fail you."  To me that worried me but I soon found out that teachers definitely do chase you for marks (whether elementary, middle or high school) (though not as much).  This sort of gave me a relaxed outlook on really trying in school. In grade 11 I heard this speech again but for some reason, I really believed it this time.  I believe this was due to my parent and family telling me the same sort of thing.  When this happened, I started really focusing and trying in school.  At the same time, I entered into "Advanced Functions" which was notorious in the school for being hard.  For whatever reason the mix of effect...