My experience as a learner
Reading through chapters 1 & 2 brought back memories on how my hatred for Mathematics turned into love during my secondary school days. I have always dreaded solving Mathematics problems but my parents are really good at it. My dad coached me personally in Elementary Mathematics (E-Maths) when I was first introduced to it in school. He showed me how solving Mathematical problems could be a joy. When I got the hang of it, I started to fall in love with it! But things took a turn when I took up Additional Mathematics (A-Maths) during my third year in school. Having two Mathematics subjects at the same time, I started to dread the classes, doing tests and examinations. What made things worse was that my close friends were also weak in this subject and we were always behind the others in class. We were at the brink of giving up when this particular Mathematics teacher took over during our fourth year in school. His lessons were very interesting and engaging. He would also use every other weekend to coach some of us who were weaker in the subject. We saw his love in teaching Mathematics and we started to develop our passion for it too. We eventually saw gradual improvements in our grades and I graduated from school with Bs for both subjects!

I cannot help but agree with Walle, Karp and Williams that “families’ and teachers’ attitudes toward mathematics may enhance or detract from student’s ability to do math” (2010, p.9). For me, it was my dad and my teachers’ attitude towards Mathematics that eventually triggered my interest in it. That also explains why I decided to take up a Diploma in Banking and Financial Services upon graduation. It took 3 years for my love for numbers to turn into hate and eventually decided that I preferred the simple ABCs and 1+1.

And THAT was my love-hate relationship with mathematics.

My experience as a teacher

I have taught Mathematics to the 5 and 6 year olds, through the use of Growing with Mathematics programme in the previous childcare centre I worked with. I would simply follow through the lessons that were written, using the resources provided by the programme. I thought to myself “Boy, teaching Math was easy!” I have to confess that I have never once heard of the Principles and Standards for School Mathematics (NCTM) or the Common Core State Standards that were mentioned in the Chapter 1 (P. 2-7). It was only after reading through the chapters that I realized the Growing with Mathematics programme addresses the NCTM Standards stated under the Principles and Standards for School Mathematics. I have been teaching Mathematics to the children with a programme that addresses the NCTM Standards without knowing what the standards were up till today! Looking through the five content standards stated gave me a clearer picture of how children should learn and use mathematical knowledge.

Another thing that really struck me after reading through these chapters was how a teacher can make use of the classroom environment for learning and teaching Mathematics to the children. The following photos show a few of the Mathematics activities that I did with the children in my classroom:

The children learning the concept of sequencing through dramatizing the growth of a plant.

The children learning about numbers through reciting number rhymes.

I started reflecting on my classroom environment and how I could have created even more opportunities for children to construct their own learning in mathematics.Mathematics should not be taught only during the allocated timeslots with the use of a Math programme alone, it can be done anytime throughout the day in the classroom.