Morgan Sears

ELED 433
Timeline & Reflection
August 27, 2014
Timeline:
August 1996- First math-related memory: leaving my older sisters open house for
school and repeatedly telling my mother that I could count to 12.
September 1998- My kindergarten class counted to 100 everyday as a whole group.
2000- Timed addition and subtraction tests. I failed the subtraction one a few times
before I finally passed and was so excited!
May 2001- My grandfather lived with us for a while. We gardened together and he
would make me count how many holes I poked for vegetable seeds.
April 2002- My third grade teacher had us set up a classroom-wide store where we
exchanged play money for actual goods. I even brought in my play cash register!
September 2002- Learning long division was very challenging for me!
June 2003- My sister and I had been saving our money for a puppy together. We sat
out on our parents bed with all of our change in front of us to count it, right before
we went to pick out our new Boxer puppy!
September 2003- My fifth-grade math teacher, Ms. Cook, drilled us on our
multiplication tables from the very first day. We practiced daily for the entire year!
2004- My sixth grade math teacher, Mrs. Peyton, did math problems on the
overhead projector for the entire class. This year, I learned that a division problem
could look like a fraction!
September 2005- I began my first algebra-related class! Some of my friends had
already moved on to algebra 1, part 1, but I was about average in math abilities.
October 2005- My home economics class began a baking unit, where I got extremely
interested in baking cookies. From then on out, I practiced lots of cooking
mathematical units!
September 2006- I began algebra 1, part 1. I remember learning greater than or less
than equations, normal algebraic equations, and even graphing. My awesome
teacher even had a dance for us to remember the difference between lines and
columns.
September 2007- Algebra 1 comprehensive course was taken in my first year of high
school.
September 2008- I began my first geometry class. My teacher was terrible and I
reached out to the other geometry teacher at our school to teach me proofs so that I
would be prepared for the SOL.
June 2009- I got my first debit card right after my sixteenth birthday. I learned a lot
about managing money.
September 2009- I began Algebra 2 with a great teacher! I remember being
extremely confused by matrices, but loving properties. I was challenged by this class
and often went to my teacher for help during her free period.
November 2009- I took my first SAT and remember thinking that I would never pass
the math portion, but I found out a while later that I had passed and was overjoyed!

September 2010- I started my last high school math course. I had a great teacher but
hated the class! Trigonometry was very difficult for me (especially sin, cosine, etc!). I
often went to his class during free period for help.
August 2011- LouAnn Lovin taught me my first math class here at JMU: Math 107. I
had the most difficult time in this class because I had to relearn how to think with
the mind of a child.
January 2012- I began Math 108, where I learned more about geometry than I ever
had before! I was always at the graduate assistants office hours (especially for
figuring out volume of 3-D shapes).
August 2012- I finally got to Math 207! I had never taken any kind of probability or
statistics course, and I had the most difficult time with permutations and
combinations.
December 2012- My friends from Math 207 and I stayed up very late the night
before our final, panicking and redoing every problem from the semester.
October 2013- I got to help my pre-k practicum students learn and practice
patterns. It was a very cool experience!
August 2014- I began my first math class in a very long time: ELED 434!

Reflection:
From developing this timeline, I learned that I had tons of experiences, good and
bad, with math throughout the years. However, the things that I tended to remember more
were my negative experiences with actual math courses. It made me realize that the impact
that I make as a teacher (not just in math, but in all subjects) is very long lasting!
I was actually pretty surprised by my timeline. For 21 years of being in the world, I
could only remember a little over a page and a half of significant math experiences!
However, I noticed that I remembered more from school experiences than I did from those
at home. I was also surprised to see that, although I always earned As or Bs in math, it has
always been challenging for me, even from a very young age. Unfortunately, math is still not
my strongest subject!
Looking back at my timeline, it made me realize a lot about the kind of teacher I
want to be. First, I know that I do not want my negative math experiences to get in the way
of being a positive math teacher. Although I have not typically been excited about math in
the past, it will be important for me to be enthusiastic about it with my future students to
ensure that they have positive, long lasting math memories. I also hope that I can strive to
be like the great math teachers I had throughout my years; they were always enthusiastic
and eager to help me when I did not understand (which was often)! I hope that will help me
to be a very approachable and patient educator.