Hi! My name is Nonso and for the majority of my academic life, I have been living off of the (very strong) belief that I suck at math. Well - this had started becoming an even harsher reality for me when I started high school. I started off in Algebra 1 my freshman year and had a great teacher! We’ll call him Mr. B. Now, Mr. B was not popular among my classmates. He’s older, has dryer and G-rated jokes, and loves to talk about books. I saw a lot of myself in him and therefore was really comfortable when it came to asking clarifying questions, doing homework the day it was assigned, and studying extra to make sure I was fully prepared for the tests/quizzes. For me, I did great in the class. I think I ended with a B or something like it wasn’t any concern for me. At this point I didn’t realize that my relationship with Mr. B was a huge factor effecting my grades.
Then I went into Algebra 2... Mr. B doesn’t teach Algebra 2 so I got a new teacher - we’re calling him Mr. M. Okay so Mr. M was MEGA popular amongst the students. He was a lot younger than Mr. B, told jokes that were definitely more suited for mature (aka angsty teen) audiences, he was louder (really, a lot louder) and more confident, never talked about books or pretty much anything besides math. All in all, your grade A extrovert for everyone to fond over and all in all, not my type of teacher. But alas, I didn’t have a choice except to stay in Mr. M’s class so I did. I told myself that as long as I focussed and worked hard like I did in Mr. B’s class the previous years, I can end the class with a B. Well, as time went on, his teaching lessons turned into super fast paced, mostly screaming and incredibly “all over the place” thought process and I quickly sunk into a deep hole of intimidation. And of course, this was all from my experience and opinion. I completely shut down: never asked questions, always did homework the night before, and never studied extra for quizzes and tests. I thought I could teach myself, because I thought I had done it in Mr. B’s class without any struggle. Oh boy was I wrong. I barely made it through the year with a C. That was my first C on a report card ever in my entire life and I was devastated.
FAST FORWARD to this year. I’m taking Precalculus (I’m going to say Precalc from now on lol) I didn’t have a choice in my schedule this year but to take Mr. M’s class again and I knew it was going to s u c k. I had established that Mr. M’s personality made it physically uncomfortable for me to do the learning and now I had to go back and experience that again in addition to the math level being higher. This year, Mr. B was offering a class called “Precalc Principles” which was basically a rendition of Precalc but a slower pace and good vibes. Me going to a school where everyone is a genius and entitled - I heard that this class was the class for the “slower and dumber kids” who couldn’t keep up with the pace of Mr. M’s really cool, faster paced Precalc Regulars class. I thought my parents would be disappointed in me if I took this class (spoiler: they weren’t) so I stuck with Mr. M. I got a D as my final grade of the semester. That’s it folks- after all the A’s I got in my first semester senior year, I had a shining D to tack onto the back for colleges to see. My GPA went from a 4.1 to a 3.7 because of it and it could have been worse but that’s a really big dip so I was ashamed. It was after this fiasco that I made a conscious decision: in order for my application to not get rescinded by colleges, I needed to go to Precalc Principles. I was happy about seeing Mr. B again but I was afraid people would silently judge me as “slow” so I slowly went to Precalc Principles starting my second semester. And it was the best decision I ever made.
I have never had so much fun taking a math class in my entire life. Not only did I learn new things that Mr. M had skipped over in “Super cool regular Precalc” but I got to learn more in depth about the topics that I already knew about without cramming every 2-3 days for a quiz/test. Getting to be Mr. B’s student again - I was able to ask any question I needed, I always did the homework the day it was assigned and always studied extra for quizzes and tests. In fact, I got so confident that I would challenge his answers (and get them right), ask multiple times if I didn’t understand something, and always stayed attentive when lessons were going on. I have a 99% in his class right now and I honestly think it makes sense now. Precalc Princples isn’t actually easier, I was just better at learning in that class. And this is because I loved learning from Mr. B - I vibed with him better. This is the first year where I’m truly confident in my ability to learn things I don’t understand, aka math.
So in conclusion, it’s important to choose a teacher you like or are comfortable with because it actually effects your grade, your work ethic, and overall your mental state. Like my anxiety had a freaking field day in Mr. M’s class - which is a lot of the reason why I have been pretty inactive lately on my blog and I’m sorry :’)! But I’m way better now so expect more posts every week ❤️Also I finally found my style for these blog post thingies so I’m satisfied. The other ones were too exciting and really just “not me” you know?
It’s Tuesday, my favorite day of the week so I hope you all have a marvelous rest of your day✨
Love,
Nonso
