marlie carpenter's Learning Story

Stories

The teacher who inspired me to become a math teacher is Mrs. Whitehead.When I was a freshman, she was my Algebra 1 teacher. Math has always been my favorite subject. So, when I became a senior, I asked her if I could teach her class in celebration of “senior take over” day. She said I could and went over the lesson plans with me a few days before the big day. I taught the students how to add and subtract radicals. I have always enjoyed helping my friends and my fellow classmates with math homework. However, I could never imagine how much joy I’d get from teaching math. I felt special. Math has always been my strongest subject, even though there have been times when I struggled. The teachers I had when I struggled made me feel as if I was clueless and that it was impossible to do better. Mrs. Whitehead showed me that I have a gift for teaching math. I felt encouraged. She even said that she noticed that the students actively participated more because they got to see a fellow student teach them. She said all schools should allow upper classmen to help the lower classmen with math because the lower class men will say, “If they can do it, I can do it.”