Mathematical Autobiography

The idea of a writing a blog is not only completely foreign to me, but also invokes a little anxiety. As such, I suppose the best way to get started is to share a little bit about myself and how I ended up where I am. 

My earliest memory of a math class is memorizing multiplication tables in third grade. I remember not wanting to just memorize the tables, but to try make sense of them. Specifically, I remember noticing patterns with multiplying by nine. Something like, 'oh, just multiply by ten and then subtract, that's way easier.' I thought that was the coolest thing. A few years on down the road I remember doing algebra and geometry and always enjoyed solving a tough problem and finally getting the right answer. Geometry was always one of my favorites, and still is; I like being able to see what I'm working with, it seems more tangible perhaps. I was never the really smart kid who could just look at things and get it. I had to study, but when I did I always enjoyed math and it came easier to me that it did for others. I think this actually help me explain things to others. 

Unfortunately, I severely underachieved in high school. Though with little effort I could have taken all the math classes my school offered and surely done well, I only made it through trigonometry... barely. There are a number of reasons for my lack of effort there, but that's a different story all together. I guess the point is, math is something I always liked but high school was almost the end of my mathematics career. 

Fast forward a few years down the road and I was in a job that I didn't hate, but most definitely didn't love. I could have made a decent living, but the one thing I knew for sure was that I didn't want to get stuck there for the rest of my life. To me, that meant I needed an education. I quit my job, moved to Grand Rapids, and started college fresh at the age of 29. Wow, was that a change of pace. 

Back to math. I started out at Grand Rapids Community College and had to get all of my basics out of the way. That means starting with college algebra, I had forgotten everything in the ten years I was out of school. I was pretty sure that I wanted to be in the sciences somewhere, probably physics, maybe engineering. Teaching had kind of always been in the back of my mind, by I wasn't set on it. Through all my work experience I had always ended up in training roles, and I just have a knack for helping people learn new things. 

As I made my way through the classes at GRCC I rediscovered what had drawn me to mathematics as a child. People look at me like I'm crazy when I say it, but math is fun. I love solving puzzles and figuring out how and why things work. That's math. The 'refresher' courses were a breeze for me, but I really did need to see all that again. I finally got to calculus, new material for me, and it blew my mind. I thought calculus was pretty much the coolest thing ever. It was interesting because I was using this tool that I had such a limited understanding of, to gain a deeper understanding of things that I had been using for ever, but had taken for granted. I'm thinking of how we derived a bunch of formulas for area and volume. Later on I got a deeper understanding of how calculus worked and my mind was blown again.

It was somewhere in that first year of calculus that two things happened which would both have a big impact on the direction I chose to take in education. First, I decided that math was too cool all by itself and I didn't feel the need to focus on a different place to use it, like physics. Though applied mathematics is great, I just wanted to focus on the math itself. Second, I started tutoring math at GRCC. I remember someone came to our class to put the word out about tutoring and kind of recruit people to do it. I thought it sounded like something I would be good at, and fun. I was hired in the tutoring lab part-time and loved it. 

I could probably write a whole paper just on my tutoring experiences. It never felt like work and the time always flew by. Helping empower people to solve problem and seeing them have those 'ah-ha' moments when they realize they figured something out are priceless. I'm sure there were times when it was frustrating, but honestly all I remember is feeling really satisfied every day I left work there. I felt like I was doing something important, and that made me feel good. And not only was I able to help others, but my knowledge in the material was growing every day as I tried to find new ways to explain things that someone different would understand. It was through that first tutoring experience that I knew I wanted to be in the education field in some capacity. 

After I finished up at GRCC and transferred to Grand Valley I didn't have the time to tutor anymore, but somewhere in there I decided that I wanted to get my masters degree in mathematics and teach at a two year college like GRCC. I think there was a lot that went into that decision, but mostly I just had a great experience there and saw that I could make a difference in a role like that. I finished up my B.S. in Mathematics at GVSU and overall really enjoyed the process. Advanced Calculus made me feel a little dumb, but I hear that's common. 

At this point something else unexpected happened. I started doing some more tutoring work with GRCC and Grand Rapids Public Schools, which was all great, and looking into masters programs. Unfortunately, the masters programs just didn't feel right. It wasn't that I didn't think that I could do the work, it was that the work just didn't inspire the same passion as the undergraduate math did. I applied for a few jobs with student services at GRCC but nothing came of that, and once again I felt lost. I knew I wanted to be in education, and I knew I liked math, I just didn't know what to do with it. Teaching high school seems like an obvious choice but for some reason I had always had an aversion to that. I think I had this idea in my head that I wanted to teach 'the good stuff,' to people who cared about it. Well, they would either like math in the same way I did, or would be diligent enough to at least try because they needed it for their degree. 

I figured I should give the high school thing a fair shake and started doing some substitute teaching. Though it can be a little hard to pick your preferred assignments I was able to get into a few math classes, and even met a teacher that started calling me when she needed someone to fill in. Through this process I changed my mind about high school and had some realizations about what I wanted to accomplish. I realized that the education piece is just as important to me as the math. It isn't enough to be good at math and like it, I want to know how to best help others learn it. In high school I have to opportunity to help students learn to appreciate math, or at least not fear it, before the get to college. Or if they don't continue education, at least teach them enough to have a basic understanding of the math that surrounds us every day. I know this a career path that will challenge and stimulate me, and at the end of the day leave me feeling like I am doing something worth while. Plus, in high school I can coach a sport and have summers off, so there's that. 

So here I am, working on a 'teachable minor,' headed toward a teaching certificate and a Masters in Education. I am excited to teach math, and to gain deeper understanding in order to teach it well.