A LOOK at ME...

Featuring: Ms. Jessica Alyce Wilson

Growing up mathematics was always my favorite subject. I can remember being in third grade and anticipating math. My instructor that year got us involved with subject by making it fun. She would do timed multiplication test which included, 50 multiplication tables and allowed everyone 60 seconds to complete them. We did these tests throughout the semester, and it made us want to learn more, because everyone wanted to get the highest score, or be the first to finish. My next memory takes me to fifth grade where I can remember a portion of the class being behind in math, and the other half being right on track. So in hopes of progression amongst all the students, my teacher divided us up into two separate groups. He taught the students that were having trouble, and asked me to teach a review to those students who were up to date. Also in the fifth grade I was a tutor to one of the second graders at my school. With such positive interaction with the subject, at a young age I gained a love for mathematics.

During my high school years I always had the highest grade in math class. It wasn’t till I was in the 11th grade that I came to the collusion that teaching mathematics was the career I would pursue in the near future. I remember being in the course Algebra 2 with Trigonometry, the instructor was average, the homework was simple, if I didn’t understand I would just teach myself using the textbook, and I had the highest grade in the class. All was well for me, but as I observed my peers, they really didn’t understand and seemed baffled by mathematics. The problem was they couldn’t comprehend the teacher, and when they looked for help in the book, they couldn’t comprehend it and the text seemed nearly identical to the notes given in class. Students saw that I new what I was doing and would sometime ask for help, I did all that I could and found myself almost translating what the teacher was saying. I found it amazing that teacher could not reach the students, but I could, and was good at it.

I would like to be a math teacher because I want to assist today’s youth, and hopefully inspire more young successful mathematicians. But even more so, I’ve noticed a lot of young African American students dropping out of school because, “math was too hard,” and they just don’t get it. I want to lower the drop out rate and show people that you CAN do absolutely anything you put your mind to.