March 2015

 

Feeling successful in math can be a big challenge for any student, but especially for many transfer school students who may not have had positive experiences in previous classes. That is why the math department at Harlem Renaissance is focusing on helping students use strategies for problem solving, like “tinkering,” a way of approaching a problem even if one is unsure how to solve it. This month we spoke to a group of students at the transfer school to hear about their experience with math classes in the past, and how the new focus of the math team is changing their perspective, confidence, and achievement toward a challenging subject. The interviews have been condensed and edited for clarity.

Emily Ilarraza

What is different about Harlem Renaissance?
hrhs-emilyThis is my second year here. Here there is extra help, and I get to graduate on time—August 2015. In my math class the teachers break things down more for us, help us understand problems more than they did at my old school. And the class is always quiet. I can focus here; in my old school people were going in and out and screaming.

How have you grown as a math student?
In this math class I’ve grown a lot. I’m getting better at math than I used to be. Actually, I’m getting better at algebra—it’s now the easy part and trig is the hard part. Now, my mindset is that I stay here and try it out first before asking the teacher. For example, one of the things we just did was the quadratic formula. In here we have to try it on our own, and it’s different when you can do it on your own. Then you know that you can succeed and it becomes much easier to you.

What do you want to do after you graduate?
I want to go college, and I want to go into business. I will probably go to a community college first, and then if I’m ready, I’ll go out of state. I want to build and run my own family business: my sister does hair, and my brother can do tattoos. No one from my mom’s side of the family went to college. My dad went, but didn’t finish. I want to finish my high school diploma and go to college to get a job. Now you can’t get a job without a high school diploma.

Emmanuel Nyarko

What is different about Harlem Renaissance?
hrhs-emmanuelI’ve been here since September, so I started senior year in this school. I found out about this school because a couple students from my school transferred here, and they said it was better because they don’t put so much pressure on you. At this school, I feel like you get better opportunities and better chances of passing because you get a progress report every Friday to see where you stand in certain classes, which is actually pretty good because in my old school you would never get that. At the end of the semester you would find out how you’re doing and by that time it’s too late.

How have you grown as a math student?
Math is not really my subject at all. At my old school I never got math at all. I kept trying to excel so I didn’t have to take algebra and geometry anymore, so I skipped over to algebra 2 and trigonometry, but I never passed the class. But when I came to this school, I was balancing it out. I failed a little bit, but learned from it and started passing. For instance, I’ve been trying to get the concept of quadratic equations; it was pretty good that I got it. I felt good that someone who wasn’t good at math can see that when you really try to do it, you can really get it. I was really excited that I was able to power through the problem by doing it the way I wanted to do it. Doing problems independently is great because whenever you slack or find trouble, there is always somebody who wants to help you or who’s willing to help you. You basically never get no as an answer. So there’s always another strategy you can use to find the way out.

What do you want to do when you graduate?
I graduate in June. I’m looking into computer technology. Desktop support and things like that. Because I learned how to use a computer when I was four, I believe, that’s when I started to get all interested in it. And when I turned 13, I deleted a virus off my computer for the first time ever, and I never knew I could do that. So that’s when I found out that maybe doing something computer-related would benefit me in the future.

Derick Gordon

What is different about Harlem Renaissance?
hrhs-derickThis is my first year here. What’s different here is the caring teachers, teachers that are willing to help. I can say in Ms. Cruz’s class I always call out, and she’s ready to come and talk to me. I remember my old math teacher; I had a problem with her. I would ask her for help and she would say, “Figure it out on yourself, you have to use trial and error.” But it wasn’t helpful. And then I came here; Ms. Cruz is helping me, and I had Mr. Cordero before; he would help me too.

How have you grown as a math student?
I came here knowing that some parts would be hard, so all I knew was if anything came up, I would ask for a little help and guidance, and then, from there, as soon as I learned it I would just be able to fly off on my own. My favorite part of math class is when I learn the subject or I learn the material and I’m able to do it by myself. I’m taking honors chemistry now, so math helps with certain things that we need to know, basically learning from algebra, which we have to take into chemistry class, with the formulas and the calculation of heat infusion.

What do you want to do when you graduate?
I want to be an automotive engineer. Math will help. You need to know a lot of math and science to do engineering for cars.

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