All throughout high school, I was one of those students who LOVED math. All of my friends would always ask why, because "it's so hard and so confusing". During high school, math was one of those classes where I said to myself.. "I'm actually going to use this information throughout my daily life down the road!" Unlike those other classes like history and english. My senior year in high school I was required to take a class called Financial Math. This class was unbelievably useful in so many ways. We learned life like lessons having math involved with them. I knew after taking that class that it would come in handy for me one day down the road.
I think a major part of realizing whether you enjoy math or not depends on what course you are taking and who is teaching you it. For example, I loved it in high school because of what I was learning. Also because I had an awesome teacher. She explained everything so thoroughly, and if you didn't understand it, she would go over a problem as many times until you did. She was always available for after school help too.
Then, my first year of college rolled around. I went to East Stroudsburg University in Pennsylvania. I took the same math course as I am now. My teacher was not so great at explaining things. She also had that attitude where she just didn't care about her students. She was there to teach the material and that was it. This was when I began to dislike mathematics and start to have a little bit of mathophobia. Ever since that class, whenever I hear anything about math I cringe. However, after taking this course at DCC, I believe I can overcome my fear of math and work on my test taking anxiety. My problem is, I'll do the homework assignments and everything will make sense, then the morning of the test, I suddenly draw a blank. I need to come up with some type of strategies to overcome this and do better on my tests.
I believe in myself, and that is all it takes if you all want to overcome your fear of math as well! Good luck to myself and everyone else in their journey of elementary mathematics! :)
I had some similar experiences with math as you did. All through school I loved math. I loved the fact that sometimes it was difficult, but I could usually grasp the concepts. I think teachers do play a large role in if students have mathophobia because some teacher do not take the time to help those students who do not understand the material. I am glad to hear that you are doing better with math now, and hope you can overcome your test taking anxiety, I used to get that when I would take NYS Regents Exams.
ReplyDeleteI completely agree that having someone for a teacher who is just not interested in the actual students can make math incredibly difficult and terrifying. In High School I once had a teacher who did not have any regard for if we were understanding her teaching or not. I had a vary hard time in this class and started to turn away from math ( which I have always loved). In the past years I have regained my love for math and I truly believe you will to! I have my fingers crossed you never run into a bad teacher again, because they truly can damage a students self esteem in any subject, especially math.
ReplyDeleteI am completely the same when it comes to test taking. I will study and study. Practice all night long. Then come test time. I make simple errors, over think what I already know, and/or just blank out completely. I cringe when a math teacher says there is a test coming up. I always assume that the grade will be bad. As for you high school experience, I am so jealous. I wish I learned math in a way where I thought it would be applied to my everyday life. Math was always pointless to me until recently. I have now realized we use math in almost everything!
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with your entire blog. I also strongly believe that your math experience depends on your teacher. I was always the person my friends asked for help regarding math because I enjoyed the challenge. This year I am helping my sister because her teacher does not care if everyone in the class understands what she is teaching. I am trying to get my sister to understand what the teacher is saying because unfortunately she still has a few more years of math courses. I had one teacher for two different math courses in high school and having the same teacher for two years really helped me better understand and enjoy math.
ReplyDeleteThere are techniques that will help with test anxiety, which it sounds like you may have. I have give you some tips, if you like.
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