Fun With Math

My life has been filled with many wonderful people who have influenced who I am today, but one woman stands out among them. Mrs. Woodlin, my eighth grade geometry teacher, has inspired me in many ways. She has treated me as an equal, encouraged me to be myself, and even influenced my career choice.

As I have matured over the eleven years I have known her, Mrs. Woodlin has always treated me with respect and listened to my opinions. We have discussed racial issues, and she has taught me a lot. Growing up white, it is often difficult for me to fully realize the struggles she went through as a young black woman aspiring to be a math teacher. Besides racial issues, we discussed age and gender gaps that are important issues today.

Although Mrs. Woodlin has influenced me in many ways, her influence on my career choice is what will change my future the most. She convinced me to be a math teacher by the way she taught the subject herself. I hated math when I was in elementary school. By the time I entered geometry, I liked it. After eighth grade, I developed a love for the subject that I had never dreamed possible. I know math can be boring when it involves memorization, but Mrs. Woodlin relied little on this technique. Instead, she helped us explore why the various postulates and theorems are true. She taught logic. She also showed us that math can be creative. Instead of teaching the power theorems by reading out of the textbook, she danced around the classroom singing, "Go, Go, Power Theorems," to the tune of Power Rangers.

Mrs. Woodlin never tried to give us answers. She is the type of teacher who will point a student in the right direction and give encouragement along the way, but she will not spoon-feed the answers. This is the teaching style I admire most.

I began to think that math teachers were magical. They could always figure out the answers to a math problem so quickly. What I was learning seemed difficult, and it took a long time for me to realize that they had to struggle with the same types of problems while they were students. Mrs. Woodlin encouraged us to teach and tutor each other instead of always asking the teacher for help. She showed us that we were intelligent, and that by working together, we could often come up with the correct answers. Through the tutoring that she encouraged, I found that I could express ideas clearly and thoroughly to others. I still think math teachers are magical, and now I have some of that magic too.

Mrs. Woodlin is my mentor and hero. I hope that I will become the strong, intelligent, creative math teacher that she is today. I hope I can also share with students the sense of life that she has shared with me. She was always paid to teach me math, but I learned so much more. Although I miss her immensely, she will never be far from my heart.

- Kelly C.