This morning I was helping students who were having problems doing some of their Math work. Since Math is not my strongest subject, I was worried about exactly what kind of Math they were working on. Lucky for me they were working with adding and subtracting positive and negative numbers. This I knew how to do. As I was showing them what they were doing, the other Adult Education teacher, who's strongest subject is Math, came into the room. She took one look at what I was telling them and proceeded to tell them that I was working the problem wrong. Since Math is not my strongest subject, I stepped aside and watched her show the students the "correct" way to do the problem. I understood what she was telling them, but something just did not seem right. So I checked my work with a calculator, and then checked the answers in the back of the book. Somehow the answers I was coming up with always matched the answers in the back of the book. Concerned that maybe I was doing something wrong, or maybe the book was wrong, I asked my fellow teacher to explain why she was doing the problem in the order she was working the problem. When I told her that my answer was different, she looked at my work and told me I was also doing the problem correctly. I was confused, as the students now were, which answer was correct and which one of us (the teachers) was working the problem correctly. After a few minutes of looking over the problems again, my fellow teacher, realized that she was doing the problem incorrectly. COOL! I was right...how about that? I actually knew what I was talking about.
Knowing that I was still a little concerned about basic Geometry and Algebra, my fellow teacher wanted to find out just how much Math I really knew. She gave me several basic Algebra, and Geometry problems. With a few minor mistakes, I correctly worked and answered the problems presented to me. How Cool Again! I Can Do Math!......Now how come I couldn't do this when I was almost failing Math in 9th & 10th Grades? I really hope I do not sound cocky or arrogant, but I was just so excited that I actually knew what I was doing.
1 comment:
Math was, and is, one of my hardest subjects. I keep thinking that it must be the way I was taught; that if I were to learn a different approach, I would be better at it. I did well in almost every other class and did good in math but I had to work a lot of hard work to get the good grades in math.
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