Math (and Life) Advice from Mrs. Elder
Written by Juliane Guo
Edited by Joella Lin
Photo by R Mackay (Adobe Stock)
Math is more than just calculations. It constructs the natural world, such as the factorials in snowflakes and the patterns in musical harmony, and makes everything from computer software to architecture possible (Landow). It leads to finance, cybersecurity, data science, academia, and more (special contributor).
So, why math? And how to be successful in it? Whether you have these questions or not, Mrs. Elder’s inspiring mathematical journey and her straightforward and insightful math (and life) advice may just be what you need to read.
*The interview text is trimmed from the original.
1. What math courses does Mrs. Elder teach?
This year, Ms. Elder teaches a section of the Advanced Placement Calculus, and one section of the Semestered MHF. Her new course is Grade 10 Extended Math. It has “extra material added that's not in the curriculum,” and is designed for math-loving students who want a challenge. “It's a new one for me. That's my new excitement for the year,” she says.
2. Why choose to teach mathematics?
“I loved math in high school,” says Mrs. Elder. It was her favourite and best subject. However, her teaching career wasn’t something planned from the beginning. “In Grade 12, or Grade 13 back then, I thought my economics teacher was really funny,” she says. “No one in my family had gone to university, so my parents put no pressure on me…It was all up to me.” Her appreciation for this teacher led her to an economics program, but it wasn’t going to be her chosen path. Instead, she realized her love for calculus, and her professor suggested that she switch to math instead, something she didn’t immediately realize she could do. “When I grew up in Canada, I never had a female math teacher,” she explains. “All my math teachers throughout my education were male. I guess I didn't think back then that I could go into math.” But she did, and naturally became a teacher for her love of working with kids.
Something she wants to highlight is, “You don't have to have your life figured out in Grade 12.” She thinks there is too much stress around not getting into a school or program, saying: “You know what? Life will work out and you'll end up getting where you should be eventually. It just might not happen immediately.” In her case, she didn’t expect to be a high school teacher in Grade 12, but she had now been teaching for 37 years. She believes what one really has to do is “for the next couple of years, figure out what you're passionate about, what you really love, and what you want to pursue for the rest of your life.”
3. Any advice for students who want to be successful in math?
Mrs. Elder has four important pieces of advice to offer.
“The secret to it is understanding what you're doing.” From her perspective as a math teacher, “too many students fall into the trap of memorizing how to do questions… without really understanding why.” It’s something younger students often do, and they “get into robot mode” instead of realizing what they are doing (such as why one must take the log of both sides occasionally when solving an exponential equation). This trap of memorization especially poses challenges in Grade 11 and 12 thinking questions that slightly differ from the usual. So, “make sure that you understand the math.” And find someone to explain it to you if you don’t.
“Math needs lots of practice.” Mrs. Elder explains it metaphorically: “Unfortunately, it's like riding a bike,”, math also needs plenty of exercise.
“Keep up on your homework.” Or else, learning new concepts would be difficult “because you haven't nailed down the one before.”
“Have fun with it.” Having fun and trying things out is very important. She sometimes finds students hesitant and nervous at taking risks. “They think there's one right way to do a question when there isn't,” says Mrs. Elder, “they have to broaden their thinking to allow for different approaches to problems.”
4. How to choose between math courses beyond Grade 11 Functions?
Mrs. Elder suggests “students who find math really challenging and aren't going to use it” to take Data Management, “because they might end their high school math career on a positive note.” As a math teacher herself, she hates when people say, “Oh my god, I hated math in high school.” She would rather see students take a course and end high school math happily than see them being frustrated.
If students are mathematically strong, they should consider AP Calculus or AP Statistics. However, if someone is taking math for an AP credit, she suggests they take AP Statistics instead, because for AP Calc, “you really need to love math.” The course requires students to “persevere and keep working at it.” In fact, “Don’t take AP Calculus just to get an AP credit” (she requested it to be emphasized). One trap people fall into is taking AP Calc when they don’t love math, leading to some dropping the course.
As for choosing between the full year or semester Advanced Functions and Calculus & Vectors, the full year progresses at a slower pace, providing “more time to fill the gaps and learn the material better because there's a day in between.” For students who are comfortable with a more fast-paced course but do not want to take AP, “semester is the way to go because then you don't have two different courses, and you don't have two exams in June.”
5. Last but not least, do you recommend pursuing mathematics in post-secondary education?
“If they love it, for sure” was the answer. Though plenty of programs require calculus, a few of her students, in programs without this requirement, came back and told her they took math as an elective at university and enjoyed it. One of the most interesting elective math courses Mrs. Elder took during her time in university was “History of Math,” very different from algebra or calculus. Learning about people from ancient times, when houses weren’t invented yet, “figuring out the Pythagorean theorem on walls of caves” intrigued her that “the human brain was that developed back then.” She then humorously added, “[but] students now need a calculator to figure out stuff.”
A math history project was added to the Grade 10 Extended course she is teaching now, where students research a famous mathematician and make a hockey card for them, “just to give them a little taste of what the history of math is like.”
Works Cited
Landow, Sherry. “The mystique of mathematics: 5 beautiful math phenomena.” Phys.org, 20 May 2020, https://phys.org/news/2020-05-mystique-mathematics-beautiful-math-phenomena.html#google_vignette. Accessed 24 November 2023.
special contributor. “Future careers in mathematics.” University of Waterloo, https://uwaterloo.ca/future-students/missing-manual/careers/future-careers-mathematics. Accessed 24 November 2023.