Mathematics has never been my favorite subject to teach, but for the last few years I have really started to enjoy it. I am more of a language teacher, but when I accepted the post at my current school I took on the enormous task of teaching mathematics. I was totally stressed out.
In the beginning it was difficult, because I was not used to the Mathematical language, but I learned fast and I felt very accomplished after my first year of teaching mathematics. You should also know that I was an experienced teacher of twenty odd years teaching a new subject for the very first time.
After I went through the curriculum once I understood where the difficult areas were and focused more on the difficult work in the next year. I have a lot of patience with my students and instead of just rushing through the curriculum to get everything done, I halted and kept on explaining until all the students understood the work. This seemed to be a good practice.
To me being a teacher means that a student must understand and enjoy their work. If they enjoy doing something, they learn faster and they feel very accomplished. I now try to make it fun for them, and give them a puzzle type sum each week to go and figure out over the weekend. They appreciate this a lot, and by doing this they get excited about Mathematics.
Believe me if any student gets excited about anything that they learn, then the case is halfway won. I can now say that Mathematics is my favorite subject of all time, because it has brought me closer to my students.
"Once you see a child's self image begin to improve, you will see significant gains in achievement areas, but even more important, you will see a child who is beginning to enjoy life more." Wayne Dyer
If you can change the life of one student, you have already started to change the world. It is our duties as teachers to educate and to change the world one student at a time.
