Hello all,
Today I am asking you to open up a bit to me and tell your Math story. However, in fairness I feel I should first begin by telling you a little more about myself. While I love math in its many forms, I did not start my career thinking I would be a math teacher. But before I tell that story I want you to know I have many other interests as well. First, I love sports. I grew up playing volleyball, basketball, and softball, and I’m now learning how to play golf. My absolute favorite sport is volleyball, and I love both coaching and playing. But when it comes to watching a sport on TV, golf is my go to. To be honest, I did not like or understand golf for the majority of my life. It wasn’t until my son fell in love with the sport that I truly gained the understanding and respect for the game. It use to bore me. Now it fascinates me! I even find myself turning on the Golf Channel without my son or husband home! Wait, what?!
My other hobbies include reading, baking, sewing, and really anything crafty. This sewing and craftiness did not come until I was in the Navy, stuck on a ship for six months at a time, surrounded by grey steel walls. My mom taught me to sew when I was young but these past couple of years I have been teaching myself to make patterns. I find it very satisfying to create your own product. I love to bake so I’m hoping you won’t mind being my taste testers from time to time!
I have always enjoyed math in school but my first life goal as a high school student was to become a Naval Aviator. I knew I wanted to be a pilot so that drove my academics. I was a good student. I was not the smartest kid in the class but I worked hard and I always enjoyed the payoff. I am competitive so I was always pushing myself. I remember disliking Geometry but loving Algebra. I loved the idea of the puzzle that variables brought to the problems. I can clearly remember sitting in class in Woodbridge, Virginia and that moment of excitement.
My first real academic failure happened in high school when I was taking the SAT’s. I needed to get a certain score to be accepted to the United States Naval Academy and I couldn’t get it. I took the SAT’s three times and finally was able to squeak by with an acceptable score. I hated that feeling of failure and watching my friends get high scores the first time they took it. I’m pretty sure I never talked about that with my friends. My second academic failure was in college. I was taking Differential Equations and failed the course and had to take summer school. Looking back I realized that I was a good memorizer. I played the game of school well but I did not understand the maths that I was learning. I was just memorizing and the higher I got in education this poor learning technique came back to bite me in the butt. This is why I am pushing you all to have an understanding of the math.
I’m most nervous about failing you as a teacher. I have so many students at many different levels, and I want to be there to push all of you and to ensure that you can all succeed. But with 117 students it can be a challenge to quickly develop the relationships and trust needed to break through the fixed mindsets and get you to see anything is possible. You can all accomplish whatever you put your minds to. I truly believe that!
My greatest hope for math class is that we become a community where we all work together, support each, and are unafraid of our mistakes. I want us to embrace our mistakes and to appreciate them as they are our path to learning and understanding. I hope we can create a safe class for all of us to learn in and most importantly, that you believe you can excel in math!
Of course, I am more than just a letter, but we will have all year to get to know each other better. I look forward to those chances. So let’s get off to a good start and carry that through the whole year!
Mathematically yours,
Mrs. Arnaldo
Today I am asking you to open up a bit to me and tell your Math story. However, in fairness I feel I should first begin by telling you a little more about myself. While I love math in its many forms, I did not start my career thinking I would be a math teacher. But before I tell that story I want you to know I have many other interests as well. First, I love sports. I grew up playing volleyball, basketball, and softball, and I’m now learning how to play golf. My absolute favorite sport is volleyball, and I love both coaching and playing. But when it comes to watching a sport on TV, golf is my go to. To be honest, I did not like or understand golf for the majority of my life. It wasn’t until my son fell in love with the sport that I truly gained the understanding and respect for the game. It use to bore me. Now it fascinates me! I even find myself turning on the Golf Channel without my son or husband home! Wait, what?!
My other hobbies include reading, baking, sewing, and really anything crafty. This sewing and craftiness did not come until I was in the Navy, stuck on a ship for six months at a time, surrounded by grey steel walls. My mom taught me to sew when I was young but these past couple of years I have been teaching myself to make patterns. I find it very satisfying to create your own product. I love to bake so I’m hoping you won’t mind being my taste testers from time to time!
I have always enjoyed math in school but my first life goal as a high school student was to become a Naval Aviator. I knew I wanted to be a pilot so that drove my academics. I was a good student. I was not the smartest kid in the class but I worked hard and I always enjoyed the payoff. I am competitive so I was always pushing myself. I remember disliking Geometry but loving Algebra. I loved the idea of the puzzle that variables brought to the problems. I can clearly remember sitting in class in Woodbridge, Virginia and that moment of excitement.
My first real academic failure happened in high school when I was taking the SAT’s. I needed to get a certain score to be accepted to the United States Naval Academy and I couldn’t get it. I took the SAT’s three times and finally was able to squeak by with an acceptable score. I hated that feeling of failure and watching my friends get high scores the first time they took it. I’m pretty sure I never talked about that with my friends. My second academic failure was in college. I was taking Differential Equations and failed the course and had to take summer school. Looking back I realized that I was a good memorizer. I played the game of school well but I did not understand the maths that I was learning. I was just memorizing and the higher I got in education this poor learning technique came back to bite me in the butt. This is why I am pushing you all to have an understanding of the math.
I’m most nervous about failing you as a teacher. I have so many students at many different levels, and I want to be there to push all of you and to ensure that you can all succeed. But with 117 students it can be a challenge to quickly develop the relationships and trust needed to break through the fixed mindsets and get you to see anything is possible. You can all accomplish whatever you put your minds to. I truly believe that!
My greatest hope for math class is that we become a community where we all work together, support each, and are unafraid of our mistakes. I want us to embrace our mistakes and to appreciate them as they are our path to learning and understanding. I hope we can create a safe class for all of us to learn in and most importantly, that you believe you can excel in math!
Of course, I am more than just a letter, but we will have all year to get to know each other better. I look forward to those chances. So let’s get off to a good start and carry that through the whole year!
Mathematically yours,
Mrs. Arnaldo