Mathematics Department & Colleagues
This month, on Monday, November 22, Anacapa will be holding its 17th Annual Math Fair from 7:30 to 9 pm. There will be math puzzles of all different challenge levels for all ages, and by correctly answering, you earn raffle tickets for chances to go home with great prizes donated by businesses in the community. Admission is free, and this event offers you a wonderful opportunity to do something fun with your family and your brain! We thought that a fun way to encourage you to attend would be to share a personal “math story” from each of our teachers. We are sure you all have a story that goes along with your own math history and that you can truly relate to one or more of the teachers’ comments below. Enjoy reading through the stories, and we really look forward to seeing you and your family in just a few weeks!
I’ve always enjoyed math, and I have felt most comfortable with the subject. As most of my male family members have been carpenters, I have been around the shop helping with estimates, measuring, and building things since I was very young. In my first career out of college, as an accountant, I really did not care for crunching numbers because I felt the need to interact more with people, thus leading me to my teaching career. But, the most useful way that I use math today would be in the preparation and tracking of our family budget so that we can meet our future goals and live within our means. ~ ~ Bryan
I use math a lot in my daily life. Besides the usual bookkeeping and financial tasks, I use math to have fun. I have to do a lot of calculating for weaving, dying, quilting, sewing, and knitting. When assisting my husband with his various carpentry projects, I help do quite a bit of figuring and geometry. Who knows how to figure cost per board foot? My son uses higher math daily in his work as a geologist. ~ ~ Peggy
Besides watching the budget, our cash flow, and making payroll, the math that I use the most is keeping track of elevation gains on my daily hikes. With my prized Suunto watch with its altimeter function, I keep track of how high I go. I set goals of 400′, 500′, or 600′ each morning, depending on my time availability. The new SB Trails class is getting into watching our elevation gains. They keep wanting to go higher! That’s the spirit! ~ ~ Gordon
In elementary school, I never enjoyed math very much, and I often thought that I would never use it. Then as a teenager I began sailing and racing on my own. Sure enough, time and distance, course lengths, wind speed, and weather prediction all required that I have an understanding of math and geometry. In fact, I became better at math because so many of the things I enjoyed required that I have a better understanding of it. ~ ~ Levi
Math makes me a faster swimmer. I use math every time I hit the water to compile distances, calculate splits, and make realistic projections of how fast I should be able to swim. I use math to set time intervals for each set so I know if a set will be super fast, medium, or just cruise pace. Math helps me take my stress out in the water, rather than in my classroom (which is why all students should love math). ~ ~ Megan
The first time I had to prepare a sales tax report (quarterly) for my business, I actually used algebra! Because only sunglasses are taxable, I had to figure out how to determine which portion of my sales was taxable. I knew the amount of sales tax I had charged for the quarter, but I didn’t have a breakdown of what were sunglasses and what were RX glasses. But by knowing the total sales tax, and knowing the sales tax rate of 7.75% (at the time), I plugged in “x” as the unknown and made up a problem that showed me how to determine the total taxable sales. I’ve been doing that every quarter for the past 23 years! ~ ~ Salli
Why did I start liking math? I can’t remember…I can’t remember… Oh I remember! It is because I could not remember things unless they have a logical flow of connections or cause and effect process. Doing math did not require me to remember concepts but to practice them within their inner causality with or without outside context. For me, the mother of all sciences was a dream in the art of overcoming mental blocks. ~ ~ Rachid
I had a hard time understanding math in the eighth grade; in fact, I failed the class. I was pretty upset; I felt I was blindfolded. I retook math, having my older brother as a teacher; this time, things changed. I could get the concepts, and I felt I had nothing blocking my sight anymore. Now, I have been using math in different situations, from making budgets, keeping track of the money from my music business, or in the past, giving estimates to potential customers. ~ ~ Hugo
For me, math is great because there are right answers! Besides geometry, I get to teach Italian and art and in those subjects there are rarely clear-cut answers—ideas can be expressed so many different ways that translations are often quite flexible, and there are so many variables in art that art critics have an infinite number of opinions. Life itself is filled with challenges that have no single, understandable answer—for instance “How do I know this girl (guy) is the right one for me?” So I find it very refreshing to work with math, which lets us have an unambiguous problem and an understandable answer. I even have a poster, which a dear friend created for me, which says, “Enjoy math! For once there are answers!” ~ ~ Suzie
We saved our favorite math story for last!
My affection for math probably comes from my days doing homework with my Dad. He was a brilliant engineer, and he enjoyed all kinds of math games, crossword puzzles, and painting, too. Thank goodness my Dad had a great deal of patience when it came to helping me with my math because he passed on his appreciation of it to me. Through him, I learned to appreciate and enjoy the challenge of problem-solving, whether it’s playing games and puzzles, cooking new recipes, paying bills, or helping my daughters with a problem. In my life, I have always tried to live my Dad’s philosophy—there is always a “solution” to a “problem.” ~ ~ Paula