Not once. Not twice. Not three, four or five times but SIX times!! That is how many times I have taught Nella Math. Hard to believe? Here is the list:
Foundations & PreCalculus 10
Foundations 11
PreCalculus 11
Foundations 12
PreCalculus 12
Calculus 12
What did I learn from teaching Nella so many times? Two things:
- Nella loves Math
- I love Nella
I believe that, in twenty years of teaching, I have never taught another student six times. I think the most times I ever had the same high school teacher was twice. I can't imagine having the same person SIX times. Poor Nella must be so sick of me and my goofy jokes, stories etc. Mind you, I am in no way sick of having her in my class. She is truly a fabulous math student: hard-working, responsible, friendly, and polite (thank goodnes! Imagine if she was a challenging student. Six times!!)
I also know Nella as a fellow STUDENT. The two of us took (along with Philips N) a programming course at UBC last summer. What I learned from that experience is that Nella is waaaay smarter than me (I'm not ashamed to admit it). We would be working on some assignment and I'd be calling the instructor over (multiple times) to ask questions. After lots of struggle I'd get my program to work. I'd call out proudly to Nella "I finally got it! You just need to use a second loop", etc. And she would very softly and very kindly say back: "good for you. That's how I did it too". Turns out she had gotten it done (on her own) way before me. This happened multiple times.
But this story points to one of the things I love most about Nella. She is a very humble person. She is not the sort of person to crow about her marks (and she ALWAYS gets good marks). I have seen her helping other students (including me!) on many occasions and she always does so with good humour and patience. She is KILLER good at the daily puzzles but (when someone yells louder than her, for example) she is happy to defer her right to the answer. In fact, when she was in grade 11 (taking PreCalc 12) she seldom called out answers at all (even though she often knew them) so as not to "upset the grade 12's". Hehehe.
Needless to say, Nella, I will NEVER forget you. But it is not just due to the NUMBER of times that I have taught you but also because of the wonderful person that you are. I truly can not imagine what it will be like to NOT have you in my class next year. I am so excited to see what you end up studying and doing in the future. You have so much potential and I know that you will be very, very successful. And you will always be very special to me! All the best to you, Nella!