this post was submitted on 23 Jul 2024
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Anything that makes you apply your hand to your face.
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As an autistic teacher (as in I am autistic, not that I teach only autistic kids), I am on the lookout for ND kids who have slipped through the cracks. One of them this year took under my wing, and she just flourished.
When J would come into my on-level Algebra 2 class at the very beginning of this past school year, I could well recognize the fear of math lurking behind her glazed-over eyes and panicked microgestures. I suspected she was autistic due to her speech patterns, movements, and other things, so I put that idea on her counselor's radar. Not sure what became of that, but it's not my job to clock the counselors and diagnostician, so I just trusted they were doing their jobs. 😊
I started with building trust with J, by insisting that she just try and then, when she got stuck in frustration, showing her the patience she deserved and guiding her with a smile through filling the gaps in her knowledge. Once she could see that I wasn't going to jump on her wrong answers and make her feel even more stupid than she already felt, she was willing to follow through on just trying as I'd asked her to do every day. "Perfection is a myth, and Rome wasn't built in a day. So just...try! Give yourself permission to be wrong, because that is the only way learning can happen."
And so she did...her grades for the six grading periods of the school year were (approximation) 70, 75, 81, 86, 92, and 98. By the fourth six weeks, she was asking for extra examples to try in class, and she insisted upon being able to understand how to do them before the period ended. I'm not sure if I could say she loved math after my class, certainly not as much as I love it, but she was no longer afraid of it, and she had developed the tenacity and self-efficacy she needed to show any future math class what for and no mistake.
J really did my teacher heart proud!
As an autistic woman who was beyond inept at maths, I wish I'd had you as my teacher.
I can always remember the day when I found out I'd scored around 12% and 8% on my simultaneous equations homework, and the teacher went through it on the board... I was so embarrassed that I went bright red, and even worse, my glasses steamed up
I would love to understand and be able to do maths
You still can learn! It’s horrible nobody took the time to teach you as a kid, and I’m not going to say it won’t feel awkward learning as an adult, but the information is out there and it’s valuable much like learning a foreign language to take the time bit by bit and be kind to yourself and learn.
You may never find yourself a mathematician or engineer (though I won’t say you can’t, you may very well have that capacity in you even starting as an adult), but you can learn to not be scared of algebra and even to develop a general understanding of calculus.
Paul’s Online Math Notes got me and possibly my sister through engineering school if you’re interested in a good resource for algebra and Calc at some point. But there are plenty of resources for arithmetic, trigonometry, statistics, and all that stuff out there. And most of all I can assure you math is worth taking the time as an adult. It can change the way you approach problems in a beneficial way and help you understand stuff like science better
Thank you, I've starred your comment so I can use the link later on. They do have adult education classes near me so I can also see if that's appropriate.
Your mentioning about the science is partly why I'd like to understand maths, I love science and the natural world. I know when I'm watching BBC documentaries that the info is accurate, but I'd like to see how the maths proves and supports it.... or just be able to see the patterns it makes
Ironically, my dad was an accountant and would go through my homework when I was in primary school. You'd think he would be helpful and supportive? Nope, he get angry and shout and tell me to "just think".....!
I literally didn't have a clue where or how the correct answer was supposed to pop into my head. Not very helpful at all
That’s terrible. You really deserved better. I was very fortunate as a child that my father actually did math problems with me on my bedroom whiteboard before bedtime stories as a little kid.
And yeah the further you get into math the more science not only is explained by it but the more science makes it make sense. Calculus was a nightmare until I took physics and suddenly I could tie these abstract concepts and numbers to phenomena I’ve experienced my whole life, and with that more generalized understanding math gave I could extend it further and to less intuitive things.
A lot of people are really bad at teaching math. For some people it just clicks and they often struggle to understand why it isn’t easy for everyone. And a lot of people learn to dread it, when it’s definitely something many people have an uncomfortable history with, but it’s really not scary, it just takes thinking a bit differently. It also doesn’t help that a lot of people, especially from older generations, were taught math by memorization instead of by investigation. And a lot of teachers below the high school level (and even many math teachers there) don’t really get why they’re teaching what they’re teaching and have a general dread of it. Rules and properties seem simple and pointless when you learn them because they’re easy to demonstrate there, but as you go further suddenly it does start to matter things like how you can move numbers without changing the answer. But for someone who more likely wanted to be teaching children things like reading and writing and probably took algebra if that in college they didn’t really understand why things they need to teach need to be taught, and they may not understand why they need to teach things like number sense.
One other great tool is visual representations. Small candies like m&ms are the classic example, but basically moving things around in accordance to equations is an effective tool for building a sense of arithmetic and a baseline understanding of how real numbers work (real numbers just means numbers that you can actually have that many of a thing). And fractions while scary to many people are just a division problem you decided not to do
Hi, I took onboard your comment and checked out my local adult learning college. I've signed up to do a maths course, I'm going to see how it goes and try not to freak out or drop out!
I just think if I can make sense of day to day maths, I'll consider it time well spent. I would absolutely love to understand science and its mathy language, the mini test I had to had graphs to interpret (which I couldn't) so who knows....?
Anyway, thanks for the kind words, your encouragement and the friendly kick up the arse 👍 😍
That’s wonderful!!! Good job and good luck! And remember it’s ok not to get it immediately, math can be hard because it’s like a language but also a way of thinking. Also, I’ve never met a teacher who isn’t happy to spend office hours explaining things differently to someone who genuinely just wants to understand the course material.
I wish more people would pursue adult education the way you’re doing now, the pursuit of knowledge is one of the greatest virtues.