hELLO!   i'm Teresa Brown

Hear me out... From a young age we learn to combine symbols, called letters, into words. We use strings of words, combined with grammatical symbols, which serve as clues for piecing together sentences. We recognize pattern and flow in passages and poems. We decode unfamiliar words and sounds using context clues and our past experiences, but it takes practice and time. In the end, we piece it all together to derive meaning. It's the very essence of our existence as humans. Everyone agrees, we're all language people.

But you see, math? It's also a language.

We combine symbols, this time called numbers, into combinatins and images that hold meaning and represent value. We use strings of numbers combined with new symbols into expressions, which serve as the clues to make sense of the numbers. We recognize patterns in not just numbers on the page, but the existence of math in every angle of the world, from the fibonnaci sequence present in flowers to the rhythm of music. We decode new math using context clues and our past experiences, but it takes practice and time. In the end, we piece it all together to solve a problem, the very essence of going through life as humans.

So you see - there's no such thing as being a "math person" or "not a math person"

We're all humans; we all tell stories. Math is a story.

My passion lies in helping others to realize the curiosity, the practicality, and the joyful nature of mathematics - to help our students, and thereby our society, eventually escape the stigma associated with being "a math person" or "not a math person." You know what I mean - you might even experience it and unknowingly pass it down to the generations that follow you. Someone hears "fractions" or "algebra" and immediately shutters, mumbling- "Oh, I'm not a math person."

Except you are - you just needed someone to help you understand math the way you were taught to understand words. 

That's why I'm here, to help teachers help students experience the beauty of math instead of fearing it,

because if I, a student who hated and feared math, can grow to embrace it, you can too.