Memorable Math Teacher

From the start of my educations, grade 1, I loved math and everything else. In grade 5 when we started to have different teachers for different subjects I started to affiliate academic subjects with teachers' personalities, their teaching techniques and attitude towards me. My biology teacher was a communist and liked us to ware blue work uniforms (as if we were shop workers). He also had snakes in big jars in his classroom. And I didn't like snakes. I didn't like memorization either and this subject was predominantly that.

On the other hand, my math teacher was perceived strict and demanding by many students and parents. So, I could not have imagined that she would be my most inspirational teacher later on. The beginning was tough because we had to learn how to learn math. She started to teach us to see connection between the elements of various theories. The emphasis was less on memorizing the methods to solve problems quickly. This was the time when were learning things like adding two or more negative numbers, things that we would really have to understand and memorizing algorithms would not last long at all. I will never forget how she explained the importance of having your notes organized. But the fact that she could keep me busy in class and at home (with meaningful homework) made me respect her and math as a study. Up until then I would finish my work and be bored for the rest of the class. Unfortunately, I can't remember exactly how she did that. I think she made us think relationally and until then I was probably looking for quick answers.

Another very memorable moment was when I was in grade 6. I had a traumatic experience which caused my grades to suffer, biology being first. At the end of that semester, to help me not slip to low with my grades, my math teacher invited the biology teacher to examine me in her class (as his class was already concluded). She persuaded him to give me a mark that I was used and not what I deserved at these difficult moments in my life.