I’m sure you’ve heard this a million times before. I never wanted to be a teacher. I never really thought about it as a viable career choice let alone a calling. When I look back on my life, I realize that I’ve always been a teacher, I just never knew it. When I was in elementary school, I struggled terribly with math. I had good teachers, but somehow, my brain/learning style did not match theirs or with the other kids. When I got to high school, my algebra teacher was the first person to tell me that I was smart and that I was good at math; I just had to work harder at it. Mrs. Hayes was kind, supportive, and so generous with her time and patience. We worked hard together, and I graduated high school with honors; I even passed Calculus!Today, I teach math to 7th and 8th graders in Nashville. I am proud to say that my students are so much stronger in math at this age than I was. I know how painful it feels when a student doesn’t “get it”. I now have more than twenty years of teaching experience in mathematics to middle/junior high students. My greatest achievement has been to take students who hated math and turn them into successful math students.I will always be grateful for all my teachers, the good and the bad, because I learned from each of them.