Memorable Math Teachers

Teachers from my past...

Mrs. Law from my high school, how could I ever forget her. I believe she taught me in grade 9, 11, 12 and calculus. 4 out of 6 math courses, there is no way I would not remember her unlike my grade 8 and 10 math teachers. Anyways, as a math teacher, I thought she was good although I didn't have anyone to compare her with. I like math, I was good at math, math was my thing in high school.

Many of my class mates on the other hand thought differently then me. Their complaint was that she just lectured day in and day out. And it's true, that is what she did. For me though, that was all I needed from her, she would lecture I would take it in and work it out in my head and if I knew the stuff I would go ahead and do homework in class. I can understand where my class mates are coming from though. Pure lecture was not enough for many of them and they needed something more or different.

Another teacher that comes to mind is Anmar Khadra from UBC. I think the course was for either 1st or 2nd order PDE's. That guy had so much energy and had such passion when he taught our class. He wanted everyone to get involved and there was no way anyone would be able to get away with sleeping in that class. He did a good job in teaching too, at least for me.

In both cases, a lecture teaching style was used and they both relied on instrumental learning for the subjects. Before I came to the education program I didn't know there was a different way to teach math. I still think instrumental learning and lecture style teaching is necessary in math, but I don't want to be like my past teachers and rely solely on those techniques. I just finished reading the Robinson article and she really went from one extreme of teaching to the other. I'll have to find the correct balance for myself.