M is for Math

Mathematics. At this point in time I have nothing positive to say about it. Well, that is not necessarily true. Math can be very helpful. A good example would be cooking and needing to double a recipe, or cutting a recipe in half due to the amount of people you are serving to. It can also be very helpful when something is being constructed, whether it is a building or a tree house. Math can also be very fun. Doing fractions with food and even probability using different types of candy is fun. In elementary school and middle school/junior high, math is easy and fun for the most part. Since knowing that type of math is required to graduate, many teachers try and make it as fun and memorable as possible.

My issue with math is once you hit high school the teachers really don’t seem to care. Some teachers just show you the information and hope it sticks. Now don’t get me wrong, there are teachers who care about their students. There are also teachers who overload their students with work. I understand that doing example problems help you learn the information, but doing so many that the student doesn’t have time to study, memorize formulas, or do any of your other classes homework is just ridiculous. In college, it just gets worse. Many of the teachers think that their class work comes before any of the other classes. Look, I know college is supposed to be more work and I’m fine with that. The teachers who don’t realize that their students have other classes and/or jobs need a reality check. Students realize that their teachers have lives, and sometimes unexpected things arise. We adapt, why can’t they? I have taken math both in the classroom and online. My suggestions to those who have not done as online math class and do not do well self teaching, do not take one. It will kick your butt. It is very hard, especially with a teacher that overloads their students with too much work, and even the ones who give very little work. Too much work, stresses out a large majority of students, and to little work lets students forget that they have that class. If we don’t visit the website for our class very often, we have a tendency to get wrapped up in other things and forget.

My current issue with math is trying to learn Trigonometry on my own. Trig can be difficult to learn in general if you just can’t seem to get it to click, and that is with someone teaching it to you. Online, it is like my teacher just gives us a butt load of stuff to do with no examples except really crappy videos on YouTube. I love YouTube, but it really doesn’t help very much with math. It is so easy to get distracted on there. My teacher has been extremely accommodating considering all of the medical issues that have been going on with me. She has tried so hard to make things work for me and I really appreciate all her help. Based off the average class grades, I’m not the only one struggling in this class and you would think that would put up a red flag to the teacher. Danger Will Robinson! Danger Will Robinson! Your students are failing!