Mom Knows Best

           Literal equations and exponential functions…blah blah…distributive property blah.

A week of school has gone by, and I personally believe the greatest part about that fact is having one week of teaching high-school math out of the way! Each day the fifth period bell rings sending my heart on quite the marathon.

            High-school math, not too long ago, intimated me by quite a great deal, let alone the thought of TEACHING high-school math. I suppose that once upon a time I could have promoted arithmetic as my thing, my shining factor, my prime attribute. However, grade school has come and gone…and sadly my mathematic skills have gone along. They are unquestionably not brag worthy.

This week proved that fact. I had made it to Thursday complete with pretty smooth sailing along the way, teaching directly out of my special Teacher’s Edition book (which pretty much breaks down entire equations for the reader), and was finally feeling rather confident standing in front of the high-school classroom. I was even cracking jokes here and there, twirling the marker around in my fingers, Eh this is gonna be a piece of cake..I thought…..and then I was put in my place.

A small 10^th grader made her way to the front of the classroom, tapped me on the shoulder, and quietly pointed out a mistake I had made on the whiteboard. OF COURSE I thought. I quickly fixed the problem on the board and informed the students that I must have been checked out or something to make such a silly slip-up. None of them said anything, just smiled and quickly fixed the equation on each of their papers.

Not more than ten minutes went by and again, the same tiny girl came up and tapped me on the shoulder. “Tee-Cha…this answer can actually be reduced further….” At this point I HAD to laugh it off, “Okay, okay, I CLEARLY need to have help up here more often..” I don’t tend to get embarrassed too easily and in this situation that trait definitely came to aid in my favor. I found the whole situation quite comical and very much to my preference my students did too.

Okay, okay..this story isn’t too sidesplitting until you realize the factors lying behind it. My student’s name, the little 10^th grade student that put me in my place, is Mom. Her first name is MOM. Every time I hear other kids calling out her name or grade one of her papers I just get such a kick out of it. I cannot get over it! I want a friend named Mom!!   “And yet AGAIN class, we can realize that Mom’s are always a good thing to keep around!!” I think some of them fell out of their chair from laughing so hard, or maybe it just felt that way to me ;)

They must think I’m an idiot. We still have fun however and TRY to learn..well whenever possible. Even if my students did not absorb much of anything from me about calculations on Thursday, they and myself too were reminded that Mom’s always know best!!

-Amber