05 Feb Ms. Stone Helps Me Solve My Math Problems

By Lee Vides

I’ve always hated math. I had bad experiences with math teachers, included being yelled at for answering a question wrong. It felt like we weren’t taught anything, yet our teachers expected us to know how to do the work.

Some teachers were great, but I would get so behind that at one point I gave up and would sit in class, staring off. In math, I was always lost in a forest of numbers, equations, and formulas. To make things worse, I wouldn’t go to after-school tutoring, as it made me feel like an out-of-place idiot. People would say a certain class was easy, and I’d laughingly agree, but, in reality, I was stuck and needed a lot of help.

This went on until my senior year when I took Probability and Statistics. When I first started the class, I was pretty intimidated, given my bad history with math. The teacher, Lindsey Stone, explained that the class would be hard if we couldn’t keep up with work.

I became curious about the subject as we learned about the types of sampling, biases, and the randomization in numbers. It quickly became a math course that I love and understand. It’s the only class that I’ve taken the time to learn what I don’t already know so I can go deeper.

In class, we watch documentaries or videos that provide a percentage from sampling, or use things like video games that generate randomized numbers.

It’s helped me learn that we don’t recognize these things when they appear in places like advertisements for cigarettes or commercials for toothpastes. It gives me a small insight into what’s going on behind the scenes.

Ms. Stone always offers help and asks students who are confused to stay after school for tutoring. I’ve stayed after school from time to time to finish classwork or to ask help with figuring out how to do a certain problem.

I’ve had other teachers tell me to go to college, but they didn’t address what to do if you decide not to or if you feel you won’t make it there.

Ms. Stone, however, is passionate about seeing us through graduation and into college. She encourages us to take the AP test for stats and has inspired me to do so.

It’s motivating to know I have a teacher like Ms. Stone who cares deeply about me graduating and continuing my education. Her support has helped me learn what I have to do in classes, including hers.

I’m glad I have Ms. Stone for a teacher.