Ladies and gentlemen, I am a math teacher. I have the patience of a 90 year-old grandmother. I have the wit of a stand-up comedian. On occasion, the humor of a 13 year-old boy. And I have been blogging for years without any direction.
I am Crystal Math of the Complex Radicals, though don't ask me who they are (some of 'em are imaginary!). I started teaching in 2008 -- a year of growth for me, filled with political protests and unknowingly meeting my future husband at a farmer's market. Within that year, I learned the hard way of how to plan a lesson, discipline students, and balance home life with a career. I also decided to pursue a teaching credential -- I felt valued at the little charter high school where students wrote their feelings on their homework and we held monthly community meetings with families. About a decade later, Crystal Math is no less radical but a little more complex.
But none of that has to do with what I am DOING. HERE. TODAY.
I want to do more with my career than go back and forth from home and work, work and home. I want to give students more than formulas and numbers that some of them might never use. I want to help be a part of the bigger picture in showing students how to find meaning through mathematics. But I don't know how to do that. I don't know how to do that, because no one in my family ever pivoted their career to the "bigger picture" perspective. Maybe I am just getting overzealous.
Within the past year, I have seen our society change the way they think about teachers. I want to push back and be sassy, but I find more meaning in leaning in to find positivity, and cultivate change.
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