Math Autobiography

I had to write my "math autobiography" for my math methods class and I thought it was an interesting idea, so I'm going to post it here as well.

IN THE BEGINNING:
I remember always liking school. I can remember asking my mom, “Is today the day I go to school?” when I was in preschool that only met 3 times a week. I can remember my mom telling me that the teacher said I passed kindergarten with “flying colors.” Although I don’t remember math specifically, I really liked school.

EVERY GENIUS NEEDS GUIDANCE:
The first time I ever remember having trouble in math was in 3rd grade when we were leaning how to write “take away” problems. I knew how to subtract, but I got hung up on one minor detail. One afternoon the teacher began calling all the “stupid kids” (that’s what we called them) over to her desk for some extra guidance. I’ll never forget her calling my name that day. I had accidentally missed it during instruction time when she said that the bigger number goes on top, you can’t take away 9 if you only have 7. I remember being so embarrassed and I thought, “if she would have just told me that, I would have done it that way!” (Yes, I was a perfectionist, even at the age of 8.)

HERE IT GETS A LITTLE BLURRY:
I really don’t remember anything about middle school math. I can’t even remember who my teachers were or what concepts were taught.

CORE PLUS!
When I went to high school, I chose to be enrolled in the pilot math program called Core Plus. It was a 4 year track through high school math that integrated all concepts of math, involved a lot of problem solving, and revolved around the graphing calculator. I really liked this math because I really liked the teacher I had for 3 of the 4 years of the program; I think he was very instrumental in bringing the program to the school. Knowing what I know now, I’m sure he spent a lot of hours preparing to teach this “new math.” One thing I really liked about the program was that the books were spiral bound paper and only about 70 pages, so it was much easier than carrying around an algebra book. The idea of the program was that at the end of 4 years the student will have had the equivalency of algebra 1 & 2, geometry, and trigonometry, but the concepts would be all mixed together and be taught using real world problem solving. I liked this math and I did very well in it. My friend in the “regular” math program often asked “why do we need to know this?!” but the Core Plus program showed us how to use the concepts. The controversy of the program was that some thought it relied too heavily on the graphing calculator. I knew so much about my TI-83 when that class was done, but I also knew how to do math without it. I was at a huge advantage going into college math knowing how to use my calculator. I have heard that my old high school no longer uses the Core Plus math program and I would be interested to find out why.

THIS MAKES SENSE:
I chose to be a business major after taking one entry level accounting class. I loved the balance sheet problems where you had to get the assets to equal the liabilities. I loved the accounting and math so much that I planned on getting my CPA license. As I got farther along in college and did an internship in an accounting office, I realized that I was too much of a people person to be an accountant. But I was about to graduate so I finished my bachelor’s degree and worked as long as I could stand it before going on to pursue my first career choice of teaching. Because of all the math I had in my undergrad, I ended up being a math major, although I don’t think I would have chose it otherwise. I guess I always liked it, but I never thought I’d be any good at teaching it.