My name is Benjamin Tyson Dietrich, even though i would prefer to be called Ben. Over this last summer I got married! My wife's name is Nicole Gummow Dietrich and she is actually going into education as well; into Elementary Ed. I'll try and not just talk about my wedding, honeymoon, etc, and my wife, like a "Newly Wed" lol. I love mountain biking but I sold my bike before I got married, so it's good that I love hiking and camping as well. When I say Mountain biking I don't just like cross country kind of mountain biking but down hill, big drops, steep and technical type of mountain biking. I also sold my Dirt bike but at least now I have fewer distractions when it comes to focusing on School. I am a Math/Stats composite Secondary Education Major and I am planning on moving into administration as soon as I can. I definitely lean more to the Math side of the Major but I am getting more into Stats with every Stats class that I take. I am not bias when it comes to subjects within math either. I wouldn't mind if I taught Algebra, Geometry, or calculus, in any different level.
Math to me is something that just makes sense ant that draws into my curiosity and grabs my attention and focus for some reason. Its like a puzzle or a riddle, with an exact answer and yet sometimes many different ways to find it. It is something that without any help, I could come to the conclusion if I just tried hard enough, and spent enough time. Its not something with made up rules and is not just memorization like maybe English. I am not against English though, I love reading and would some day like to write my own book. English just doesn't grab my attention and is not as easily fallowed as math is for me. The question prompted to answer was, what drew me into teaching my discipline. I guess for me it was math itself. It was like a book that always left you without resolution at the end of a chapter so I just always wanted to learn more. Now what caused me to want to teach math was a little different. Because i like math, always wanted to and have been told that I should teach all of my life, I couldn't ever get it out of my head that that was what I was supposed to do, and in essence, what I really wanted to do. I like how Math can be taught, and I have endless Ideas that run through my head about different methods that I think would be very successful in teaching math. The environment of a math class room just seems to fit my personality.
I guess my current definition of literacy, just off of the top of my head, would be: Being able to comprehend, actively participate, complete, and successfully articulate yourself in any type of field, subject, or activity. But who knows, if I wasn't so tired right now I could probably come up with a better definition. I definitively believe that literacy relates to math and especially in teaching and learning math. Many people are smart and can calculate whatever they want in there head but literacy is necessary in the use of math, whether explaining it to others, or understanding others, or in summery, the communication of math.
