Who did I interview and why?
For my community connection project, I decided to interview my extracurricular math teacher from Spirit of Math, Mr. Nasser-ranjbar. He has only been my teacher for grade nine but he has made a great impression on me. At his own initiative, Mr. N organized extra sessions to help his students improve problem-solving skills, logical reasoning, and abstract thinking. I found these sessions really helpful because it helped me develop skills that are useful not only in mathematics but in other STEM subjects as well.
Interview Questions:
1) Why are you passionate about your job?
For my current teaching position as a maths teacher at an after school program, I did not quite plan for it. I was introduced by a friend of mine who used to work for the organization and knew I tutor students. I am not necessarily passionate about teaching in general; however, I do enjoy passing on my knowledge to those who are interested. If a student expresses enthusiasm for learning and understanding, I am motivated to share what I know and guide them to improve as best as I can.
2) What obstacles have you faced to get you where you are today?
I have not yet achieved my career goal in life so my obstacles are not quite over yet; however, to get to where I am thus far I guess the main obstacle I faced was back when I was in grade 8. My math teacher presented us with a test at the beginning of the year and over three-quarters of the students failed. Despite achieving the third-highest grade, I never experienced a grade that low and initially believed the test was based on material I was not taught. I was quite surprised to find out that I, in fact, was introduced to all the topics even as early as grade 6; however, in the past, I never genuinely learned but rather was just good at identifying patterns and details and memorized well. This was an eye-opener and a bit of a hit to realize I never really learned anything and that is one of the major shortcomings of the education system. As a result, I began to purchase books and started to self-study and re-taught myself all the material I covered since grade 6. It was certainly tough at the beginning as I never had learned to rely on my own reasoning but as I grew, the skill proved to be most useful and quite transferable to all aspects of life, a skill that I wish to pass along to others as well.
3) What advice would you pass on to someone interested in what you are doing?
My true passion lies in medicine, a path I am still on. As for my passion to pass along my knowledge to those who express enthusiasm, my advice is to be open to new ideas and strategies and never stop learning and growing. Always be open to challenging yourself and practice what you preach. Never resort to merely having students memorize solution steps. The most important advice, and probably the biggest challenge one would face in my current capacity, is to encourage students to place a strong emphasis on learning and not on grades and to help students realize relying on logic surpasses reliance on memory.
4) Would you be open to further contact from Riverside students and if so, how can someone contact you?
Sure, if students wish to reach me, they may reach me at Armin.N@alumni.ubc.ca
5) Which math area do you enjoy the most and why?
This is a tough question and I cannot narrow it down to a single stream. Geometry is great because of the creativity it frequently requires to tackle problems and various proofs. It is a great way to be introduced to proofs and understanding why proofs are important. However, for the complexity, I enjoy Number theory but I am not very good at it. Unfortunately, mathematics is quite vast and I have not had a chance to try many fields in mathematics yet. For instance, I believe Analytical algebra to be quite complex and therefore quite exciting but I have not had a chance to explore this field yet. Topology is another branch of mathematics that I have briefly touched on but found it to be quite difficult requiring more extensive commitment if I am to understand and tackle problems.
6) What do you find most challenging when solving math problems?
This would depend on the problem. Sometimes, it is just identifying a place to start. This is especially true with more challenging contest questions such as the qualifying contest questions for various nations used to select members of their IMO (International Mathematics Olympiad) teams. Others, especially proofs, identifying any sources of error or false assumptions that may have been made which can compromise the validity of a proof.
7) Have you ever attended a math competition where you have finished in the top 25%?
I believe I have. I competed in a math competition when I was young back in elementary school which allowed me to qualify to join the Young Mathematicians Society in my country of birth. When I first came to Canada during grade 10, I participated in a number of CEMC contests including Euclid and managed to be in the top 25% if I am not mistaken. Unfortunately, I did not get to participate in many contests after grade 10 as I left school but when I came back at the end of grade 12, I signed up for the Euclid contest and managed to improve my score and placement to top 10% if I am not mistaken. The opportunity I regret not taking was the Putnam contest. If anyone reading this has an interest in mathematics, I strongly advise competing in it. It is a very tough contest in which you can earn a negative score but it is worth it.
What did I learn from this interview? How does this connect to my passions/interests?
From this interview, I learned that you can never stop improving yourself and it is not the grade that matters, but the knowledge that you get. I also learned that Mr. N’s passion is not so much math, but the act of passing on knowledge to others. That surprised me a little because he is a really good math teacher and explains everything very well. On the other hand, I was happy to learn this fact because one of my passions is working with kids and teaching them. We both not only like math, but we like teaching.
Links
First Picture – https://www.spiritofmath.com/
Second Picture – https://www.pexels.com/photo/children-sitting-on-brown-chairs-inside-the-classroom-4019754/