Good maths teaching
Oct. 9th, 2008 11:08 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
start_to_finishMany of your will have heard this before, but I was reminded again of one of the main reasons I ended up studying maths to degree level - my secondary school maths teachers - and I thought I would put it down in my reflective journal. I'd love to say that I've made that sort of impact on someone eventually.
I feel bad about this but I cannot remember my GCSE maths' teachers name - I used to call her Miss C. and that's what I remember. I used to like being in her classes because it was interesting and because I was very confident at it. I used to sit next to a girl who was struggling and I would spend half my time in class helping explain to her whatever we were studying, which meant I didn't always finish, but Miss C. didn't mind, which was great. I particularly remember when we did sin and cos and we learned to do it using the calculators. She told us that before that they'd used tables and I asked what the formula for it was - I was sure the calculator couldn't just be looking it up from a big table for us. She told me that I was right but that it was a long time since she'd studied the formula and so she couldn't tell me right away but if I was interested she would look it up and we could go over it together later so next week we got together and she gave me effectively an A-level lesson on how the formula was derived in my lunchhour. I absolutely loved that - it was such a contrast to my science teachers, who were always telling me that my questions were too complicated and I would find out later. I didn't want to find out later, I wanted to find out now.
She didn't actively push me to do Further Maths a-level, which was a very cunning move. Instead, she suggested to the 2 boys who were trying to get enough people together to run a course that they try to get me to apply for it and when I asked her, she just reassured me that I would be able to manage it no problem.
My A-level teachers were both blokes - Mr Hardy and Mr Walker. The regular A-level classes were nothing special but the further maths group was great. There was only 5 of us - 3 boys and 2 girls - and we explored and extended like mad. He gave us separate work to do in our regular maths lessons because we were almost always way past the work they were covering and whenever I was finding something tricky, they would reassure me and remind me that I'd figure it out eventually. I remember getting very tearful about somthing at the beginning of the upper sixth and Mr Walker giving me a very awkward hug because, in retrospect, he'd probably been told never to touch the older girls but he could see how upset I was.
The final gift they both gave me was to encourage me to apply for the Oxford maths course, not the Cambridge one. At the time, I was very confident with mechanics and thought it would really suit me, but actually the pure maths, algebra and logic in my degree was by far my best skill. They recognised that for me well before I did. So yeah. I wish I could write to them and show them this entry because they were amazing.
I feel bad about this but I cannot remember my GCSE maths' teachers name - I used to call her Miss C. and that's what I remember. I used to like being in her classes because it was interesting and because I was very confident at it. I used to sit next to a girl who was struggling and I would spend half my time in class helping explain to her whatever we were studying, which meant I didn't always finish, but Miss C. didn't mind, which was great. I particularly remember when we did sin and cos and we learned to do it using the calculators. She told us that before that they'd used tables and I asked what the formula for it was - I was sure the calculator couldn't just be looking it up from a big table for us. She told me that I was right but that it was a long time since she'd studied the formula and so she couldn't tell me right away but if I was interested she would look it up and we could go over it together later so next week we got together and she gave me effectively an A-level lesson on how the formula was derived in my lunchhour. I absolutely loved that - it was such a contrast to my science teachers, who were always telling me that my questions were too complicated and I would find out later. I didn't want to find out later, I wanted to find out now.
She didn't actively push me to do Further Maths a-level, which was a very cunning move. Instead, she suggested to the 2 boys who were trying to get enough people together to run a course that they try to get me to apply for it and when I asked her, she just reassured me that I would be able to manage it no problem.
My A-level teachers were both blokes - Mr Hardy and Mr Walker. The regular A-level classes were nothing special but the further maths group was great. There was only 5 of us - 3 boys and 2 girls - and we explored and extended like mad. He gave us separate work to do in our regular maths lessons because we were almost always way past the work they were covering and whenever I was finding something tricky, they would reassure me and remind me that I'd figure it out eventually. I remember getting very tearful about somthing at the beginning of the upper sixth and Mr Walker giving me a very awkward hug because, in retrospect, he'd probably been told never to touch the older girls but he could see how upset I was.
The final gift they both gave me was to encourage me to apply for the Oxford maths course, not the Cambridge one. At the time, I was very confident with mechanics and thought it would really suit me, but actually the pure maths, algebra and logic in my degree was by far my best skill. They recognised that for me well before I did. So yeah. I wish I could write to them and show them this entry because they were amazing.