My Introduction

Hello! My name is Rachel and I am from Homer Glen Illinois (which is a southwest suburb of Chicago). Why am I here at the U of I to become a math teacher ? Well that is a long story, but I can give you the short version. To tell you that this was always my dream would be a lie. To tell you that I always loved math, would also be a straight up lie. In fact, math used to be my most dreaded subject. Fortunately I had a great math teacher my 7th and 8th grade year, who changed my mind about the subject. I was moved up to the honors track, and soon, math became the only subject that came easiest to me.



Now it's time to answer the part of how did I decided on becoming a math teacher. While I was walking down the Quad one day my sophomore year, I thought to myself, what the heck am I going to do with a math major?! I panicked and called my mom, and of course she told me to calm down - that I had plenty of time to figure things out. So I started to think of possibilities, and that's when I realized that I have always enjoyed helping people. So I took Math 199, which gave me the chance to tutor Urbana High School Students in math. It was a great experience, and made me realize that this could be the path for me.



So here I am now, in the education program offered here at the U of I. I'm excited for the experiences the program will offer me and will hopefully help me on my way to becoming a great math teacher. I want to be the kind of teacher that makes math interesting, fun, and engaging. But more importantly, I want to be able to convey to my future students how math is applicable to their everyday life and IS important.