Why I became a high school math teacher
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 12 ก.ย. 2024
- In this video I talk about why I became a high school math teacher. I get this question a lot and thought it would be cool to tell the story on youtube. I am hoping this story can be an inspiration to some of you.
For any students watching, let me know what career you are thinking of in the comment section below.
For any teachers watching, let me know why you became a teacher in the comment section below.
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I'm a computer science major and I'm almost finished with my bachelor's degree but my true passion is math. Spending hours doing more math is something I really really enjoy. It's my true passion. Maybe I will teach math one day.
That's so cool that you have a background in computer science as well. You are such an excellent candidate for teaching with that resume. Have you done any private tutoring? Tutoring is a nice intro to teaching.
i am wanting to become a math teacher as well, and the funny thing is is i have always hated math, it was boring to me, and i didn't try enough during high school to get good at it. but its important, and i have understood that im not bad at math no one is bad at math, its more about how you approach it. in fact math should be considered one of the easiest subjects because all you do is count a certain way and follow a formula to get the answer. it is straight forward and not spontaneous like things like english comp or art. i want to be the math teacher that i had wished i had when i was younger, if i can help others be good at math then i can help them reach their full potential and open up doors for them.
We need teachers that are committed to making math straightforward and simple! Best wishes with your math teacher journey!
I wouldn't agree math straight forward and non spontaneous. Proving things requires a lot of creativity and thought. For me, that's what makes it fun. However, you don't really get into definitions, theorems and proofs all that much until late senior high school, or even university. I think that's part of the reason a lot of people have the perception that it's all rules and sticking to formulas.
Hey Mr. Dellatacoma,
This is John Pollack from high school. I always thought that it was great that you upload videos to teach math to kids around the world, and I hope that this school year is going well for you so far. Thank you for the entertaining story time, and good luck with everything!
Thanks, John! I hope you are doing well in your first year of college. Are you considering any specific major/career path?
@@vinteachesmath Yes. Currently, I’m majoring in nursing at CSI, however I’m still keeping my options open incase if I want to switch to another career path as well.
@@johnnyp6040 You are a nice guy, John! You would do great as a nurse. Whatever you choose, I hope it involves interacting with the public!
Vin you were a great substitute Calculus teacher. you also taught me the best shoulder exercise ever. Light weight arnold press !
Thanks for the trip down memory lane! If I did not say yes to taking over the calculus program halfway through the school year, I may have missed the chance to teach AP Calculus altogether. I appreciate your class for getting me started! What career path did you choose?! How are you doing, Vinoth?!
@@vinteachesmath Hi! i am an electronics engineer these days . Working in Optics and haha yes great memories ^_^. Thanks for everything
Got an actuarial degree years ago. Passed 3 exams. I never got a job. Just simply could not get my foot in the door anywhere. I even offered to work for free as an unpaid intern or something, even though I was well above qualifications for entry-level. Oh well. Now thinking of becoming an algebra teacher…. I worked blue collar jobs for years. But the school life with all the holidays and weeks off seems real nice.
That is a very interesting journey! The holidays and summers off are pretty awesome.
I was a high school math teacher. After 2-1/2 years of unrelenting abuse from students, parents and administrators, I hobbled out of the classroom with a serious case of PTSD. I left teaching behind and feel better than ever.
These kind of stories need to get out more. There is definitely a serious teacher burnout problem going on in this country. I am glad you are doing better today. What career path did you switch to?
@@vinteachesmath Agreed! Anyway I went back into trucking. I make twice the money & get to sing along w/ my favorite songs.
I felt like if you were narrating the story of my life … I majored in applied mathematics. Also, helped an small group of colleagues in complex analysis and mathematical statistics … and wanted to go into actuarial science but it felt pretty rat race, so i going to start teaching, just a coincidence
I’m an accounting graduate and already in my 6th month working in a MNC. Received a good pay, kinda good at my job but don’t find a joy doing my work at all. Now I feel like I want to be at Math teacher because:
1. During high school I’m always good at both math and addmaths. But not other subjects. So I have this strong feeling with maths
2. When we get the addmaths results, my friend cried because she failed. From there, I feel like I need to share my knowledge to others
3. When I teach my friend in Uni she said that I’m really good at teaching and suggest me to be a teacher
4. I really get the satisfaction feeling when my friends understood what I taught them, and when they thanked me a lot for teaching them
But I have to go back to 0, learning maths all over again because accounting is different from maths right, so i’m starting from the bottom again to learn maths (i applied for masters). and hopefully i will get into teaching role one day :)
You will be a great teacher-especially because you have working experience outside of education! It may feel like you are going to "go back to 0," but if you were good at math before, you will be surprised at how fast you will pick it back up. Any math struggle you encounter can be a great story to share with your future students.
Teaching math in public schools is just 50% of what you do every day, the easiest part. The hardest and most stressful part is dealing with the student's behaviors, school administration, and parents. Being a teacher is not just teaching. Teachers have a lot of responsibilities for little salary.
I need to make a video down the line talking about why I am still a math teacher after 10 years. There are definitely a lot of challenges in public schools, which contributes to why this profession has a very high turnover rate.
I have been working as an electrical engineer for 5 years but want to go back to school to finish my math major after abandoning it for the higher paying degree. I’ve always had a passion for math and teaching but a huge career change in my life is scary. I’m in my 20s so I’m young enough to take that risk but that fear is preventing me from following my passion.
Your background as an engineer would make you an excellent addition to the teaching force. Making that big of a change is very scary. Maybe you can start off tutoring math so you can get a small dose of what the profession is like.
this video sounds very cool! my dream is to be a math teacher when i get older. i want to teach algebra and geometry i think it’s very fun plus i also got a lot of inspiration from watching this video so ty!
I still like teaching, and I'm 11 years in. Your students will appreciate you if teaching is your dream!
@@vinteachesmath thank you! that really means a lot from you! being a teacher has been my dream ever since i was really little. i hope my dream will come true one day!! 😄
Thats awesome. Great story and message
I appreciate the comment! I am trying to tell my story while the memories are still fresh in my head!
As a math teacher, I love this story! Great stuff man.
Thanks! This might be a lot to type, but why did you become a math teacher?
@@vinteachesmath I was actually in college trying to figure out what I wanted to do with my life, didn’t know if it would be business, law or somewhere in the medical field. Yet, none of those really grabbed my full interest… so I took an interest in education, looked at Science, History, English.. and I once again didn’t find to much interest. It wasn’t until I sat down and decided to open up my college algebra textbook, work out some problems.. and forgot how much fun I had doing math… and well 2 years later.. I became a math teacher.
@@davidayala128 I can relate to this. I've just finished my bachelors thesis in (pure) math and am wondering what to do next. I've even gone so far as seriously considering switching fields to medicine. Nothing grabs my attention quite like math though. I find it really enjoyable and I think that's something I should value. I want to contribute to society in my job, so applying to do a masters in mathematics and teaching - which combines mathematics with pedagogy and didactics - seems to make the most sense right now. I sway at times, but I think I would be happy as a math teacher.
@@RedBar3D that’s amazing! First of all, congrats on achieving your degree!! Yea, I understand the feeling of wanting to switch degrees. It can be stressing and challenging, but if you give it time, you will grow to love the field more and grow in your teaching skills, not only to make you a better teacher, but drive you to want to go work and give your students your all!
Thanks so much for the hearted comment!! There were two things that I forgot to add for todays people. That is the BEDMAS method along with basic alphabet math as they (Along with the method I shared) should be more than enough for most people to be able to get through all the math that they will ever need in their lives to allow for the floodgates of critical thinking to burst wideopen :)
I think math in the head can still be taught to todays kids (And teens/etc) but in a different way. As far as I am concerned, the times table is highly outdated and does not make people think for themselves... Within a few minute time limit, you ask people from my gen something like, okay, only using your head and nothing else (Not writing it down/etc) what is 17 times 14? Since it is beyond the 12 times 12 that was robotically drilled into their skulls, oftentimes blanks are drawn. Back in highschool (Mid to late 90s), I did it differently. Okay, so you round one of the number out to the nearest 10. Let's make 17, 20. Now you have 20 times 14 which is 28 with an added zero, so 280. So you have 3 extra 14s to take away, so 3 times 14. Make that 3 times 10 so you will have 30 to take away from the 280 which now gives you 250. You have 4 3s leftover which is easy as it gives you 12. So, now you take 12 away from 250 and the answer is 238. Depending on what you are rounding to you either use + or - symbols to get your answer. With decimal points, you just have t know where to move them. Also, division is the exact opposite of multiplication, so this method can be adapted to that as well :)
The more this method is practiced the better most will get at it. For me it makes things passible so I am sure a lot of people will probably be able to do better with it then me, and it can can even be used for 3 plus numbers with enough practice. I needed to think of something like this cause I was just so bad at the timetable and would often cry myself to sleep at night trying to memorized all those damn numbers from the tamestable method... It still takes me a hot second to get the answer in my head to a question with this method that I created, but at least it makes me think for myself :)
Personally myself, I think the biggest problems almost always come about when people are taught to be robots and not taught to think for themselves/use critical thinking :)
I love that activity idea. I agree, math should be concept driven, 💯.
There are so many fun ways to explore 17x14, I like to use 17(10 + 4) then use distributive property.
I appreciate the well thought out comment.
@@vinteachesmath Thanks for your idea as well. I can tell you that math was a massive struggle for me and finding something that I could do in my head without having to write anything down, use a calculator or anything outside of my own noggin got me through it in highschool and helped me to better understand it as a whole. I don't know how I could have survived it if I didn't think of something :)
I was kind of like you in that I didn't know what I wanted to do while in college and decided to go the accounting route. I spent the last 8 years in different accounting positions but never quite have been fulfilled by this profession. My mom has been a math professor for a very long time and I got my love of math from her. I've been thinking through some possible career change options and pursing a career in math is one I'm heavily considering. I'd like to do something that provides for others as well as I am passionate about. I live in Texas, would you recommend getting another degree in math and going back to school or going the alternative certification program route since I already have a degree in accounting. I only have 6 college math hours which is a bummer. My wife works for a community college so the school route could make a lot of sense in my case.
If time/money is not a big issue, then getting a math degree would be fun for sure. However, if you want to expedite the certification process and get to teaching as quickly as possible, then go the alternate certification route.
Having a professor and classmates is a fun experience, but you can learn a lot of math through self-study at the library. My best advice would be to go through the theorems/formulas from Algebra 1, Geometry, Trig, Precalculus and try to understand the proofs. If you know all the formulas/theorems inside out, then you will be ready for almost any question the students will ask you!
I still go to the library every week to either plan for the channel, or to look at interesting math questions.
That's so cool that you are coming from accounting. Your real world experience will help you put a unique twist on your lessons. The students will be luck to have a teacher like you!
I recognised your transcript, did you go to Binghamton? I am also working on becoming a math teacher there, and I am starting my masters in adolescence math education very soon.
I went to SUNY Bing for undergrad! I met many of my favorite people there, that is where the math journey began. Zaslav was my favorite professor. I hope your semesters are going well.
Thank you for the video. At a crossroad with my career. Why teach high school versus college? Better benefits?
Glad you appreciated the video! Working in a public high school offers a salary, to earn that type of money at the college level you need to reach professor status. I decided that I could have fun teaching HS and learn interesting math on the side at a casual pace.
Good luck with the crossroad! I hope you find fulfillment on the road you choose!
Hey my friend, I hope you will understand my question. Can you be a “C” student at math and be a math teacher? I’m doing the best I can in my math studies at Grand Canyon, and like anything, some people are naturals and some people aren’t. I’m that guy that isn’t. But I want to teach math to help people like me; people who have a hard time with this subject. Any advice please 🙏
Absolutely, you will be more relatable to the students because you to had to work hard to learn it. It sounds like you are going into teaching for all the right reasons; you have my vote, schools need more teachers like you!
Thank you my friend. 👍🏽👍🏽
Inspiring story thanks for sharing!
I am glad you think so! My goal is to help as many people as I can.
❤
The only thing stopping me from teaching is the pay and mistreatment.
I love numbers and yearned to be a high school math teacher but school officials, particularly the DOE, discouraged me as much as they could (without making it look so obvious) from chasing my dream. I also recall CUNY guidance counselors discouraging me from pursuing my academic objectives. This was all done in an effort to keep certain minorities from reaching success and job security.
The New York City DOE is the definition of toxicity. So, I did others things with my life. Now at 59 years old with three (not boasting) college degrees, I find myself working as a security guard making peanuts for a living in a dead-end job with no pension, no benefits, a simple but confusing 401k (knowledge of the stock market is needed), and the list goes on and on. How about that for a story?
I am sorry to hear that you had such a bad experience with the NYC DOE. I am glad you were able to keep your passion for learning, that's very impressive that you earned 3 degrees. What was your favorite subject/major?
@@vinteachesmath :
Two CUNY degrees:
B. A. Sociology
A. A. Liberal Arts
Family Radio Bible School
A. A. Religious Education/Eschatology
Can i ask question?
What is the difference between math of high school in british system and american system?
I will have to do some research! I will add in a British math practice test so I can gain more insight! I don't want to give a lazy answer!
I want to be a teacher but I heard they are very underpaid :(
This sad reality why people either don't become teachers or leave the profession. There are some states/districts that pay more than others.
Im 18 now just finished my higher secondary school and I'm looking to become a mathematics teacher in USA, but i currently live in India and tution fees in the usa to do my bachelor's is really expensive so i thought of doing my higher studies in canada but i have doubt, well if i do complete my studies in canada am i eligible to apply to schools in USA? Am i eligible for H-1B visa if i get rejected can I apply again? My gpa is 3.6 and i if i get a sponser in usa how much chance do i have to be qualified for H-1B visa
I would research specific states in the USA. I know some states are desperate for teachers so they are more likely to have programs that would get you on board. I am not 100% which states, but I believe it was somewhere near Arizona and/or New Mexico. Unfortunately, I do not know much about the H-1B visa application.
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teach
I got in it for the money.
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Lol I have a complex analysis final in 3 days.
Good luck with your final! How is the class going?
@@vinteachesmath bro horrible. I got a 98% on my first midterm, slacked off on the second midterm and got a D, then for the final i got a C- or lower and passed the class with a C. I can drop a midterm so I was hoping I’d do well on the final :(. Man I hate being a math major sometimes, having to always take 3 math or cs classes each quarter is actually agonizing. Ucla math is honestly insane idk how I passed some of my classes, especially real analysis. In my real analysis class, I swear to god my professors were straight up inventing math problems I’ve never could find on the internet. Came back to this video because I’m still on the edge of being a software engineer or math teacher. Being a math teacher sounds so awesome compared to programming, but I just don’t know. Ai scares me and unlike programming, math teachers have mad job security. Currently taking a mathematical imaging class, probability statistics class, and algorithms class.
@Djainwiqjzncdek sorry to hear school was rough recently. I remember having a weekly existential crisis in real analysis.
I am still happy being a teacher. If you ask teachers if they would recommend the profession, you are going to get very mixed answers. I'm in year 11, it took me until year 4-5 before I felt like I had a rhythm. After 10 years, I'm really comfortable but always picking up new details.
Good luck choosing, and remember, if you don't like the path you are on career-wise, you can switch.
Sr. Anne u wanna hear a joke?
I'm taking Calculus BC with this guy right now, seems GOATed so far!
thank you for sharing your story :) you are such an inspiration for those wanting to become a teacher. @vinteachesmath
Thanks for the kind comment! I want to help as many people through as I can. Are you a math teacher? Thinking of becoming one?