Anyone Can Do Math

Amos, Grade 10                                                                                            Mississauga, Ontario

Featuring: Vanessa Vakharia, The Math Guru 

Follow up post on Let's Get Together's Math It UP Event

There are loads of hard subjects in school there’s Geography, History, Physical Education, and finally, there’s Math.  Math is a very tricky subject, and it’s one that a lot of people have difficulty with.  For people like Vanessa, math was one of those subjects that you just struggled with back then in school.

 

Image Source: https://www.mathnasium.com/apex/news/why-do-children-struggle-with-math-

During Grade 11, she failed math twice; and on her second try, she just gave up right before the exam! She believed that she was one of those people who was just not a “math person” and that she could never do it. However, her parents never gave up on her and decided to put her into another school where her teacher didn’t believe in the whole concept of a “math person” and thought that students were human beings, capable of anything they set their minds too. With that philosophy in mind, she received 99% that year! She now has her Masters of Math Education, is now the director and founder of The Math Guru, and has been on the show: Canada’s Smartest Person: Season 3. 



Vanessa Vakharia, Founder of The Math Guru and Author of "Math Hacks"

https://style.ca/leadinglady-vanessa-vakharia/

There are multiple reasons behind her success, the first being her parents. Her parents never gave up on her even when she did. They sent her to a different school while trusting in her abilities to succeed! Another reason for her success is because she never gave up. She persevered, followed her teacher’s philosophy, as well as her teacher’s beliefs that there is no such thing as a “math person”.


When I was in Grade 7, I started believing that maybe people were just born with the ability to be great at math. Maybe they just all had that gift, and I was that person who was only good at things that didn’t require arithmetic, or calculating the volume of 3D shapes! The society also shaped my perspective that not everyone was meant to be good at math. The movies and books sometimes told me that only people with an Asian background were good at math, and everyone else was either average or bad at it (because I’m Asian that made me feel sad for some time as I wasn’t good at math, and I rarely had the marks my parents wanted). That was the year where my marks fell a bit, and my parents decided to start sending me to tutoring for a while. Now, I can see for myself (and I hope that you can see it as well) that there’s no such thing as a math person, that anyone (and I mean anyone -even I) can be good at math, and it’s all thanks to Vanessa Vakharia for her achievements as well as her story that’s helped us realize this.

Math Can Be Fun!

Amos, Grade 10                                                                                                            Mississauga, Ontario

Follow up article to Let's Get Together's Math It UP Event

Everyone loves to have fun, and everyone hates math right? Well, there are a couple of games you can play that will make you like math (for the time being) and also improve your skills!  You can play these games either by yourself or with friends, and practice math at the same time (I can guarantee you’ll have lots of fun!).

Image Source: https://www.educationalappstore.com/blog/10-best-apps-improve-math-skills-adults-2019/

During the Math It Up workshop, there were lots of university and college Student Ambassadors there that introduced lots of fun games to try out!*  You can play a whole variety of games ranging from 24 to Math Tic Tac Toe, and in every game, you can learn a lesson! 24 is a game that you could play with friends or by yourself. In the game, you are given 4 numbers, and with those numbers you have to make the number 24 using any kind of operation (addition, subtraction, etc.). The lesson that 24 can teach you is that there are many ways to complete a problem, and there’s usually more than one solution. Math Tic Tac Toe is a fun game where you can play it with your friends! It involves the basic rules of Tic Tac Toe, but the catch is: you have to answer math questions to place your marker. This game is great for learning while having fun with your friends, and if your teacher catches you in class playing with them you can just say that you were doing math (I don’t recommend that you do other things rather than focusing on the lesson though)! The lessons that this game can teach you is that you can have fun while doing math, that you can work together as a team (if you’re playing as a team), and that you can ask each other for help. There’s also a site called MathIsFun which allows you to study math, have interactive lessons, and play fun math games too! This site, along with the other games I’ve mentioned; can prove that sometimes you can have fun while learning and practicing your math skills. 

24

Image Source: https://www.24game.com

Playing/using these games (as well as the site) can help those who learn through interaction. In Grade 7 the way my teacher taught math wasn’t that great. She gave us worksheets and different learning styles, but they were not usually interactive, unlike my Grade 6 teacher. So, because I was a more interactive learner I didn’t do all that well in class. Through this experience, I believe that teachers should try to implement all types of learning (even in math) to make their learning fun and easy to apprehend. In conclusion, you can have lots of fun and practice math at the same time using these games.

*Note: Math It Up will continue throughout the year in various events (to sign up or to keep posted of these events go to letsgettogether.ca)

Planning & Preparing for Post-Secondary Education

Written by Naba, Grade 10                                                                             Mississauga, Ontario

I would like to share some of things I learned from the Let's Get Talking's 1st year Post-secondary Education Plan & Prepare webinar. Firstly, I learned how the first year in university/college is a lot different, and it has a really unpredictable schedule. Some tips I learned would be to go to orientation and frosh week because it is really helpful, fun, it gives you a chance to meet other students and it's an easy way to learn more about what services are available to you. Another tip I found very helpful was to get a campus map on the phone which is a really easy and convenient way to navigate campus.


Secondly, you should always keep track of your deadlines and note sharing is really important. From my experience being in high school, I believe note taking in fact is really important in high school, and university is 10 times harder than high school so note taking for sure is REALLY important in university/college. Note sharing programs can also be an easier way to share your notes with others.



Image credit:  https://images.app.goo.gl/1egdvnxME8YAHrvo8

Parents have a huge role in university/college. Parents are always there to support you and can help you pick classes. Mothers especially can help keep you on track. Always talk to parents or family if you are stressed, always try getting support. One thing to make sure in high school is to have basic math skills which I am trying to have since there are no calculators allowed in university/college and you also cannot get extra time during tests, so in general you should work on basic math skills. Last tip would be to push yourself, do not rely on lectures.

Finally, university/college is more independent where high school is not. Some adjustments with writing can be frustrating since university/college writing has strict boundaries regarding structure. University/college is more independent and requires you to do more research, and do more reading in order to be able to absorb the necessary materials of courses (self-teach). In conclusion, give yourself a break sometimes and try to maintain a positive mindset towards studying. High school can be a lot different than university/college. It is a big step, so it’s better if you learn more about it now and be sure to go to orientation and frosh week.