Maths

While this is not strictly related to teaching, I had a fantastic conversation with one of my Grade 12s today. Johnson appeared in the staff room to ask for Maths help back in week 1, and occasionally brings me fun Matric paper questions as well as just coming bye to ask how we're doing; he's a really nice guy as well as being extremely academically able.

During a conversation about what he wants to study - he's hoping to go to Varsity to study Chemical Engineering - we got onto the fact that I am not actually studying to be a teacher, but that I'm two years into my Undergraduate Maths degree. This lead to a discussion on what we actually do studying Uni level Maths and how different it is to being at school. As well as the fact that Maths is not just a stagnant subject about which we know all there is to know.

While I don't think I changed Johnson's mind about the fact that Maths is only really good as a tool for other sciences, it was really fun to discuss some of the more recent areas of Maths and it's applications - he was really quite enthusiastic about fractals, after I explained the one on the back of my Maths Society hoody, as well as medical applications of Mathematics.

Above all, it reminded me of how much I am actually enjoying my degree, which is something that I very rarely pause to consider.

(Dear Tanja - if you are reading this, I am terribly sorry, sis. I will attempt to refrain from letting my inner geek out for any future blog posts!)