That Least Favorite Subject

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That Least Favorite Subject

  • June 4, 2025
  • Posted by: Caitlin McCallum
  • Category: Wow Story
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~ written by JoAnn Burke, LSEM teacher at Trinity Lutheran School in Monroe, MI ~

As I reflect back over the many years of teaching and the numerous subjects that I have taught children, I would have to say Math has always been my favorite subject to teach. There have been countless times I have heard a student say math is my least favorite subject! I often wondered why since we use math everyday.

The more I worked with students the more I started to understand their frustration. Math is one subject that carries over every year. You need to remember everything you’ve learned from your first day of school. I started to find tricks to learn how to remember steps, operations, and word problems. The students seemed to remember the steps with the tricks. This made teaching math more delightful for me and for the students.

Last year, I came upon a student who was struggling with math concepts. She didn’t want others to know that she was not understanding what was being taught. She had a foundation of basic skills, but she often got lost in the steps that she needed to remember to solve her problems. The more confused she got, the more frustrating math became and things were moving faster than she could keep up. I tried to offer to help her, but she didn’t want anyone to know she was struggling and declined my help.

It wasn’t until her parents called me asking for my help. I started working with her and found out quickly she struggled with self-confidence. She felt so defeated when it came to math. She had good days when things seemed to click and other days when she felt totally confused. We worked to help gain her confidence back and by the end of the year she had made improvements in her math skills.

This year I was able to start the school year with her and decided to try something new with her. I began frontloading the next week’s lessons her teacher would teach to her and the class every Friday. Learning the concepts before it was being taught to the class gave her the confidence to answer questions correctly during instruction. She was able to understand what was being taught and why it was being taught.

Her grades this year have improved to A’s and B’s in math. She was getting D’s the previous year. I actually had her tell me that she really liked math this year. There is nothing more rewarding than hearing those words come from a student who was so fearful of math that they hated the subject! Sometimes students just need to be taught a different way to help them be successful. I am so blessed to be able to teach for a ministry that allows me to do this!