Poll of the Day > If you wanted to be a math teacher but kept bombing prep questions, would you ,

(+) Yeah! (+)

Reconsider/give up?

Clearly not suited for this role if I keep getting basic probability questions wrong lol :(

Would also be very concerned if my child was learning from someone like this :/

I ask because I just don't want to give up but at the same time this situation clearly speaks to me and says "You tried but please don't do it"
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mastermix3000 posted...

Would also be very concerned if my child was learning from someone like this :/

The fact that you're considering that part tells me you're a good person deep down.

How long have you been going down that career path? It can take a while to become nearly flawless at something. Also, have you talked with other math teachers to see what sort of struggles they had and how to deal with it? I feel like asking someone in the field would prove a little more helpful than most of what's said here, but YMMV.

GanglyKhan posted...

How long have you been going down that career path? It can take a while to become nearly flawless at something. Also, have you talked with other math teachers to see what sort of struggles they had and how to deal with it? I feel like asking someone in the field would prove a little more helpful than most of what's said here, but YMMV.

I started studying last month and scheduled my exam in two weeks. People who have I asked on reddit who took the Math MTEL (Massachusetts Teaching exam) for math keep telling me they're easy but I can definitely see why a math major finds them easy, they are not all that difficult but for me I just can't grasp the concepts well enough to know which ones to apply on wordy problems.

GanglyKhan posted...

mastermix3000 posted...

Would also be very concerned if my child was learning from someone like this :/

The fact that you're considering that part tells me you're a good person deep down.

It's a reality check for me. The guy from Khan Academy answers some of these test questions so well and while I would like to be like that it clearly ain't happening so I would push my students to him anyway, or free textbooks I found/other youtubers for further clarity
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Honestly - it takes a lot of time in something to become 'good' at it. I'm currently working on my math minor - so I'm sympathetic.

As someone who used to teach and has been around education for many years I can tell you some of the better teachers are those who struggled initially. It is because of that struggle that you learn how to better teach others.

That being said - my biggest regret from my early college years was not getting a diverse minor (in fact I graduated with no minor at all). Get a minor or associates in SOMETHING.