The first 14 years of my teaching career I taught in the primary grades and 12 of those years were spent teaching first grade. As a primary teacher, I developed a real passion for teaching all things reading. My classroom was always a beehive of reading activity. And, I have to say I was pretty darn good at teaching reading.
Then in 2002, I willingly moved to 5th grade where I once again taught reading, as well as science. The move was a good one! Then just two short years later, I was forced to give up teaching reading and teach math instead–those of us who have taught for any length of time know how those things can happen so I won’t go into how this came to be. The point was, I was stuck teaching a subject I didn’t like…disliked greatly to be exact…and 5th grade math to boot!
That first year of teaching 5th grade math was a matter of survival. It had been so long since I myself had used many of the skills I was teaching that I had to take the math series home with me each evening and review, just to stay a step ahead of the kids! After 7 years, I finally felt like I was getting a handle on the curriculum…and then Common Core happened…and with Common Core came new standards including fractions. Our state standards did not include fractions at the 5th grade, so I found myself once again having to relearn what I was going to be teaching.
Then just last year a ‘glorious’ day came…when I learned a third 5th grade teacher was going to be hired…and yes, I would promptly bail on math and joyfully go back to teaching reading. Then a ridiculously crazy thing happened…about a month into the school year I realized I MISSED teaching math!
I missed the patterns, the calculations, the solutions. It seems during those 9 years of teaching math, I had unknowingly tapped into the analytical part of my brain and actually liked it. Solving problems right along with my students gave me a rush! Listening to them explain their thinking and reasoning was exhilarating. And, while I was still passionate about reading, the thrill just wasn’t the same.
When a child has a breakthrough and finally masters a math skill, it’s a time of great jubilation. And once, they have mastered that skill they can apply it to any scenario and get the right answer. Oh and the patterns! I discovered just how giddy ‘patterns’ in math make me and students too! It seems teaching math had provided me with something I never even knew I was missing!
Reading doesn’t quite work that way. Yes, the sight word ‘have’ is always read as h-a-v-e. But the level of understanding one takes away from something they have read depends on so many variables including schema, fluency, connections, visualization, etc. And those variables, vary for each and every student. Vary greatly, as a matter of fact. With math 2 + 2 is always 4…it’s universal.
So all year long, I regretted the fact that I had given up math. Until, that is, the newly hired teacher resigned to accept a teaching position closer to her family. I couldn’t believe that the opportunity to go back to teaching math had presented itself. When I told my principal and teaching partner that I wanted to go back to teaching math, I thought they were going to fall over. After all, I had been so eager to leave math and go back to teaching reading just 9 months earlier.
Funny how things work sometimes, isn’t it? Don’t get me wrong, I am still an avid reader. I often visit with my students about what they are reading. But, it turns out math IS my real passion and I can’t wait get back to teaching it this coming year!
And that, my friends, is why I chose math!