Confession: 

I graduated the University of Illinois with an English and Rhetoric degree (minor in cultural anthropology- thanks mom and dad!).  I got my degree in not math.  I fell in love with teaching while subbing, and enrolled in National-Louis’s masters in education.  I loved the social studies class, reveled in the children’s literature class,  but wasn’t particularly looking forward to the math class.  

Math wasn’t hard  for me, I just didn’t like it.  I was good at math, I had always been a straight A student.  It had just felt like a bunch of disconnected numbers and processes that I could do well, but I didn’t understand why it all worked.  Math problems didn’t have a rich plot or characters that I could follow (or so I thought).

The “ah ha” moment

We were sitting in a stark room at tables that had been arranged in a “U” (you know, to encourage class discussion).  I was 21, one of the youngest of the group of career changers.  The math teacher handed out fraction sticks, which I had never seen before as a child of the 80s.  Paper and pencil or BUST!

“Now, take two tenths and line them up under one fifth.” There was a collective gasp of understanding.  THAT’S why that works!  That’s why you divide the top number and the bottom number by the same divisor.  It was one of those moments when you feel your world shift beneath you a little bit.

 That was over twenty years ago, and I still see it as a landmark moment.

Then to Now

Today I find a peace, ease and playfulness with numbers that I didn’t have when I was younger.  It’s like a whole different world.  I have always enjoyed a good puzzle and I have finally found how numbers all fit together.  As an educator and a mom, I hope I make my love of math as obvious as my love of literature.

My hope is that you and your students can find that same fun and magic in numbers that I have when you try one of my products.