November 2009

I am 19 years old and have been fooling around with ideas for a major in college. I have come to a decision to take off my kid boots and am planning to major in mathematics to help me gain some ground in this economy today, and hopefully acquire job as a math teacher. I think that in order for me to become a good communicator and become better at teaching is to ’start over’.

I’ve always been very good at math to the point where it came to quickly to me, to where I took Pre-cal during my junior high years and almost got a ride to Chapman University and could have had interns from Boeing get me started. Well I stopped and ‘declared’ a hatred for math after that for a few years because it was disrupting my social health and well being,and just needed a change of pace.(ah so naive ,still am )

After a while of not taking math since high school pre-cal(haha) of my junior year, I felt a little rusty so in turn underestimated myself for the college entrance exams and went for a level 2 test and am currently in Math 080 Intermediate Algebra, and it seems ridiculously easy.(I was self-taught during the time I was in middle school, so I never really had that person-to-person understanding of going through steps, it was mainly mental short-cuts) Now I see this as a gain, but an opportunity to learn ‘again’ to build patience and better communication with peers that might need help as I am going through each step for these problems. I am much more patient than I was say 4 or 5 years ago, and I can say with confidence that I have a better idea of how to succeed in future courses and life in general if I take with this approach.

Is that a good step for one who wants to learn to understand peers and become a teacher or all around better communicator?

P.S. I am really good at music,namely percussion and have had trouble getting stuff across.I have a friend and he wants to audition with me for a group, I’ve been drumming for about 11 to 12 years, and he started last year, and really want him to make an impression and succeed. I guess this would have just been a question of how to communicate ideas in general.haha

It’s a great idea IF it’s your true intentions (which it seems like it is). It’s also a great way to explain your experience to future employers. One of the best things a professor did for me in college was to make us learn how to do math on systems that weren’t base-10. It forced me to think differently, and I was able to understand how difficult it could be to learn the base-10 system for young kids. If anything, it helps me to have more patience and understanding when 3rd graders can’t get place values straight. (Grrr!)

I especially like how you talked about the human aspect of it since you were self-taught in middle school. Again, it’s a good selling point to future employers to show that you’re willing to admit it might be an area of weakness that you attacked.

I also recommend you take a public speaking class of some sort. I’m not sure if it’s a requirement at all colleges for all degrees, but it should be.

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