Why here, why now?

A story about overcoming my own anxieties...

The summer before my first junior classroom placement I found myself anxious and overwhelmed with the idea of teaching math to 9 and 10 year olds. I was always good at plugging numbers into formulas provided to me, but I struggled to connect my understanding to the bigger ideas. [Which by the way is a very important part of this thing called math!]. I could answer 100 homework questions relatively quickly, but hand me the problem solving questions and all of the sudden I was weak at the knees and my mind was blank. I achieved good grades in elementary and high school. (With the help of friends I even survived calculus)! BUT, in school I was never given the skills to effectively apply my knowledge to application types of [problem solving] questions. Maybe it was my lack of confidence, or belief in the myths that maybe I just wasn't a math person... 

​

I felt like a fraud. I mean how can I teach kids math when I didn't really understand the 'new math.' 

​

As a self-proclaimed perfectionist, I needed to find some answers to my questions. What is 'new math'? What does conceptual understanding mean? Huh! There's more than one way to solve math problems? I dove into professional development workshops, I read the books, I took the courses, I applied my learning to the students I taught, and one day I stumbled upon a Masters of Professional Education in the Field of Mathematics Course. With some convincing from some of the people I respect most on this planet [you know who you are] and some deep breathing, I closed my eyes and applied for the program, and this brings us to today. 

​

Math anxiety is real, and it has detrimental impacts on our children. What we say and what we do matters. Maybe you struggle with your own math anxieties -- this website can help you too! When we know better, we do better. My hope as you navigate through this resource is that you ask questions, reach out, and open your mind to the ideas that we can all be math people and maybe we just need to see things a little differently.