Friday - Everything comes to a Circle

Dear Diary, 

You might be wondering why I am writing a journal each day but it's because of Ms. Aguilar. From the first day of school she had a cabinet filled with journals and she told us that the journals will always be accessible to us whenever we have the need to express our frustration, happiness or even our sadness in our day. I cannot express how much Ms. Aguilar is such a sensitive and wonderful teacher and I enjoyed her input into everything about herself in teaching mathematics. I really admire her and have taken aback some hatred feelings toward Math. Like Ms. Aguilar said I cannot say she is perfect because there is always a wire that she trips and makes mistakes. Teacher come up to her to ask methods for teaching and some teachers dislike her way of teaching but I believe Ms. Aguilar showed us that Math is a subject like any other subject and how it should be respected and viewed as a necessity in the world. One would be how to create a perfect routine to be on time for school/work or how money should be handled with caution and sabiduría because it can hurt you or benefit you and how writing math dictionaries is a key life to success. 

I would be lying if I said that being in her class was the worst because she encourages us to write journals, interact with new people or even do stations but I think Ms. Aguilar is wise. One last motto that she has in her class that my parents used to say “Todo llega a un círculo” is “Everything comes to a circle.” In the beginning half the class did not like math which was hard for Ms. Aguilar teaches mathematics and also gets us motivated but by her implementing our cultures and treating us with respect and equality we have gained respect for her and for the subject at hand. When we strive hard to succeed she notices our effort and when we struggle she is the one who approaches us first but in return we have to walk side by side with her. 

What not to do

What not to do

What admire about Ms. Aguilar is that she is very open-minded to many possibilities and she always cares for our opinion. For example, a math teacher, a close friend of Ms. A, spoke with her about an activity he did with his kids which dealt with the students creating their own equation which leads to creating our own presents. He showed her a video on tiktok on how to create it and told Ms.Aguilar about it. Ms. Aguilar first asked us if we would be willing to do that because it requires a lot which she knows we can do but it was our half day. Usually for half days we play jeopardy and we get a prize for the team who gains the most points but seeing how the activity excited Ms. Aguilar, we told her it was okay. It was actually fun because she played music with a mix of our favorite songs and she let us sit with our friends. At the end we started presenting our small projects and solving our own equations. 

I can never understand how she made us communicate or even get through the day with us because we usually had our good and bad days. Sol when she had a bad hair day she was pretty grumpy until Ms. Aguilar complimented her that her beauty inside was much more valuable than her hair and that the next day will always be a new day. Or when Julio was absent for an entire week Ms. Aguilar to stay with Julio after school or have zoom meetings on her weekend to make Julio catch up. 

I know writing in this journal doesn’t give me points or deduct points but it helps me relieve my stress and write down my greatest memories in class. I know there are a couple of my friend who take the journal too to write their stories about Ms. Aguilar. We all have different stories and different problems that I may not have told here or may have not heard about but being with Ms. A and having her as a math teacher really improved my grades not only in mathematics but also in English and my other subjects. 

1. Support students’ academic achievement;

2.Ensure students gain and demonstrate forms of cultural competence in maintaining their own cultural history while gaining access to the dominant culture; and

3. Have students develop an understanding and critique of societal norms, which requires critical reflection in guiding action.

One thing about world problems or implementing our culture into mathematics is that we learned factors about our heritage or new information that really helps us in science class. It can be anything like new vocabulary terms or doing research like surveying or collecting data is similar in a science class. Ms. Aguilar always and I mean ALWAYS emphasize that math always comes to a circle and everything in life always comes into a circle with English, math, science and history. What more else can I say?

Math relationship with History, Science and English 

Math and Science: https://undsci.berkeley.edu/the-science-checklist-applied-mathematics/

Math and History: https://www.bbvaopenmind.com/en/science/mathematics/great-moments-in-the-history-of-mathematics/

Math and English: http://blog.tesol.org/8-strategies-for-teaching-math-to-english-learners/

Thank you for reading my side of the story! Stay in tune for more.

Works Cited

Thomas, C. A., & Berry III, R. Q. (2019). A qualitative metasynthesis of culturally relevant pedagogy & culturally responsive teaching: unpacking mathematics teaching practices. Journal of Mathematics Education at Teachers College, 10(1), 21–30.

Nolan, K., & Graham, S. (2021). Challenging what counts as mathematics: reflecting on teacher’s perceptions of culturally responsive pedagogy in the mathematics classroom. Philosophy of Mathematics Education Journal, 38, 1–6.

Ramsay-Jordan, N. N. (2021). How secondary mathematics preservice teachers grapple with enacting culturally responsive practices at placement sites. International Journal of Science & Mathematics Education, 19(5), 997–1013. https://draweb.njcu.edu:2107/10.1007/s10763-020-10091-9

Ukpokodu, O. N. (2011). How do I teach mathematics in a culturally responsive way? Identifying empowering teaching practices. Multicultural Education, 18(3), 47–56.