Math Autobiography

I have always liked math, with the exception of calculus, which I loathe. But more about that later. I only have three memories of math in primary/elementary. Strangely, all of them are from grade three.

1. Sitting in my classroom at a small table with big headphones on my head listening to tapes of multiplication tables put to music. I thought it was pretty cool.
2. My older brother showing me how to figure out the 9 times tables by putting down a finger and looking at how many fingers are left up on each side. For example, for 9 x 2, put down your left ring finger. This leaves one finger on the left side, and eight on the other. 9 x 2 = 18.
3. Sitting on my bed and realizing that division could be figured out in other ways than just multiplication backwards.

I don't think these memories of math have shaped my views of math. I don't have any recollections of my teachers giving math instruction. I was good at math through elementary school. I knew this because I could quickly rip through my work sheets and get them all right.

I was placed in the accelerated math program in junior high. This ended up meaning I would go through all of junior high with the same class of mostly boys. For the most part, the smart boys chose math and the smart girls chose French immersion. I would guess this is a common occurance. In high school, I loved the puzzles that math presented. I would compete with my friends to finish the assigned work first, or to get the highest marks on math, physics and chemistry tests. Yes, I was a huge nerd in high school.

Then calculus happened. My pre-calc course in grade twelve was terrible. Math was not easy anymore. I had to work at it to make sense of it. And mostly I didn't. So my math confidence disapeared just in time for university.

I plodded through math 1000, 1001, 2000 and 2320 (calc I, II, III and discrete math). I enjoyed math 2050 (linear algebra) and stats 2510. This education course will finish off the course requirements for my second teachable subject.

All that said, my confidence in my math skills has not recovered from my horrid and often failed attempts at calculus. But I hope if I have a position that is not 100% music and I need to teach other classes, I will teach math rather than health.