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I graduated from North County R-I Senior High in 2009. I believed at the time that instead of staying with teaching that I should go for Nuclear Engineering. So I made the trek down to Rolla where I attended Missouri University of Science and Technology. After one semester, in which I did rather well I might add, I decided that I liked working with people more than I thought and I shouldn't have given up teaching, to begin with. So after coming back to the Mineral Area I attended Mineral Area College (MAC) and received my Associates of the Arts in Teaching (AAT). After graduating I attended Southeast Missouri State University (SEMO) where I received my Bachelors of the Arts in Mathematics Education (BA). Afte graduating I was accepted into SEMO's graduate program where I was awarded the Graduate Assistantship. I finished all of the graduate program courses in May. I am currently finishing up my thesis portion of the graduate program and will receive my Masters of Natural Science in Mathematics (MNS) in the fall of 2016.
Now that the boring part of credentials are out of the way I can tell you who I actually am rather than just what I have done in school. Hopefully, this will give you an idea of who I am with not having met me yet. I will also try to give you an idea of how I plan to teach, some of my beliefs, and some of my ideology.
First and foremost I am happily engaged, with plans to get married in October, to the woman that gave me the most wonderful child that I could've asked for. Our two-year-old son, who will be three in September, is the wildest, and most rambunctious little man, but has been a greater addition to our family then I could've ever asked for.
“We all can be only who we are, no more, no less.”― Terry Goodkind, Stone of Tears
I'm a nerd and I'm proud of it. My favorite pastime is reading, and doing cool math things, like superhero math. I absolutely love reading and have lost many hours of sleep through the years. I also have a love for learning. There isn't anything that I won't try to learn. Of course, the top of the list is filled with different math topics since it's the most interesting subject ever! Statistics, and topology coming in as a tie for the top. Languages though follow very closely behind in number two. I've taken Spanish, French, German, and have tried to learn Japanese on the side. I'm kind of a jack of all trades, but master of none, yet at least! I enjoy learning about any new technology that comes around. I'm also a huge fan of science. Bio-Chemistry and anything related to medicine, and cancer is definitely at the top. I enjoy history, but it's one of my weaker subjects.
“Knowledge is a destination. Truth, the journey.” ― Terry Goodkind, The Sword of Truth
As with all learning though it's taken time. Lots of times studying and lots of times re-reading things that I thought I already understood. The struggle though is half the fun. All learning shouldn't, and won't, come easy. Some of it is going to take time and that is fine. Some things will take longer to learn than others and that is fine. Everyone and everything is different and that is fine. All that matters is that you put in 100% every time you try something. For some it will come relatively easy and you'll get it on the first or second time. Some though will be on there fourth or fifth try and still wondering why they are struggling. No matter what kind of learner you are by the end of the year, I hope you are all stronger and more confident in mathematics!
“An ordinary archer practices until he gets it right. A ranger practices until he never gets it wrong.”― John Flanagan, The Kings of Clonmel
Throughout the whole learning process, I'll tell you flat out, I will make mistakes and I will stumble, but I hope to keep the road bumps small and few. This is my first year teaching, so it will be a learning experience for all of us. You will also make mistakes through the learning process and that is great. Mistakes are learning too. They tell us how not to do something and remind us how to do it better the next time. Though we will make mistakes we will be able to use each other to fix our mistakes. Together we'll be able to take our mistakes and change them into successes.
“He who never makes a mistake never makes anything. It's part of learning the job.”― Joseph Delaney, Revenge of the Witch
A lot of people are standoffish when it comes to math. We grow up hearing that: math is hard, only nerds are good at math, and the infamous, you'll never use this stuff. All of those are untrue and negative mindsets we get caught in. They put in our head that math is a foreign language and that it is okay to not understand it. On the contrary, math is the only language that no matter what country you go to anyone would understand. Pretty awesome isn't it? So no sense not trying. Let's dive into together and if one of us starts to sink the rest of us will help hold them up.
“You never know just what you can do until you try.” ― Joseph Delaney, Revenge of the Witch
So regardless of whether you think you are good at math or not we still have to learn it. So let's aim for the top. Let's aim to master our level of mathematics, whatever level you may be. Rather than sitting and worrying about what we don't know and that it's hard or anything like that we'll aim as high as we can. Then even if we miss our target by a little, we'll still be much closer to the top then to the bottom. I know i'm not perfect, but i'll try my best to teach everything as clearly as possible and if that is unsucessesful I'll try it from a completely different angle to make it understandable. One way or another we'll make it to the end of this with a head full of math knowledge.
“It is better, I think, to grab at the stars than to sit flustered because you know you cannot reach them.” ― R.A. Salvatore, Sojourn
In a nutshell, that's me and what I think. I'm a fairly simple person. I enjoy learning and enjoy making other people enjoy learning too.I'd be happy to answer any other questions that anyone may have. I'm a pretty open book and would happily answer any questions.
“Surprising what you can dig out of books if you read long enough, isn't it?” ― Robert Jordan