McHaleTellDraft

I remember my first grade teacher better than any of my other elementary school teachers, for a mix of reasons. Without a doubt, Mrs. Baxter was the meanest teacher I had in school. She was always cranky and never seemed to be pleased or have anything nice to say. I can’t remember her praising one student, but I have many memories of her criticizing a student’s work. She was an older woman. She had gray hair and a pixie cut. Her whole face was covered in wrinkles, probably from frowning at students her whole career. She was short too. This made her more intimidating, because a student was forced to look her in the eyes when she called someone over. I’m positive she forgot about me as soon as I left her class. But, I’ll always remember her as the teacher who taught me how to subtract.
 * Past **

In the classroom we each had our own individual desk. These desks were put into groups of four. The girl who sat next to me was the class pet. She would raise her hand to every question and always got the answer right. She was a lot better at math than me, so when Mrs. Baxter handed us a worksheet with subtraction I asked her for help on every problem. A first grader’s interpretation of help, usually means to just give the answer to. She helped me with the first three problems, and then she was done her worksheet. Since we got free time after we were done she went up to hand in her worksheet. I couldn’t remember the lesson on subtraction, so I was completely clueless. I knew that I couldn’t answer any of the question, so I just wrote down random answers. I thought I might get lucky and get all of them right, but of course I didn’t.

When I gave Mrs. Baxter my sheet, she quickly looked over it. She caught on quickly that the girl who sat next to me gave me the first three questions. She frowned at me then told me to sit in the desk next to where she was standing. I was uncomfortable sitting at another person’s desk, because I thought they would get mad at me. I was even more uncomfortable, because I thought Mrs. Baxter was mad at me. She didn’t say anything for five minutes, because she was looking over other student’s work. Finally when she thought she had a break she turned to me and started to teach me individually. She did one problem by herself to use as an example, the next one we did together, and after that I didn’t need her help anymore. I remember going through the last five by myself with a huge smile on my face. I understood math and I liked it.

When I turned to Mrs. Baxter to hand in my sheet the huge smile remained on my face. She looked it over and seconds later she says it was all correct. She said this with the closest thing to a smile I ever seen her give me.

From then on Math became my favorite subject. I understood it and even got better at it than the girl who sat next to me. Math stayed my favorite subject for the rest of elementary school, middle school, and high school. I never had a problem with Math again, until I came to college.

In my first semester of college I was put into a Math class that is described as difficult, frustrating, and draining. I am one of those people who would describe this class that way. It is currently my hardest class and I admit that I have struggled at times with the material we are learning. Despite that, it is my favorite class.
 * Present **

Throughout the semester I have been thinking about why it would be my favorite while at the same time be the toughest. I have come to conclusion that it is probably because it is the toughest.

I enjoy a challenge. I like that I find Math difficult, because when I finally understand, that is when I am the happiest with my self. Math is the only subject that I can find it confusing, and then suddenly understand it completely. I would be happy to deal with this struggle for the rest of my life.

In my future I see my career having something to do with math and numbers. Whether that is teaching someone how to do simple addition and subtraction or being an accountant working with money. Either way I know that I’ll have questions like I did in my past, but I’ll also know that eventually I’ll understand it. Math will forever be my favorite subject.
 * Future **