From struggle to confidence

Natalie explained her past relationship with math: “I always struggled with [math] because I had a fixed mindset. I didn’t believe I could do math, so I was never truly successful.” Despite these past difficulties, Natalie identified a true transformation while at Montclair:

At Montclair State University, the professors really helped me to understand that I can do anything I put my mind to, including math. It’s almost like I had sunglasses on at night and they helped me take them off to see. The professor who made math click for me was Dr. Nina Bailey! At first, I was skeptical about her class because she seemed so lenient. However, I quickly realized it wasn’t leniency she provided us with; rather, she gave us the freedom to trust her and her process. When I was in her class, I never felt forced to learn or forced to like her teaching style. My fondness for math and her teaching style came naturally because, from the start, she guided us and explained everything each step of the way. Nina Bailey helped me discover my love of math.

Natalie even began to apply what she had learned in her coursework to her teaching life: “When I was substitute teaching, I was working one-on-one with a student in math. The problem was easy for me to understand, but to the student, it was very challenging. The new perspective I gained from Professor Bailey’s class helped me to understand why the student wasn’t understanding the problem. I was able to understand what she already knew about the problem to further guide her to achieving the right answer. It was at this very moment I thought that maybe math wasn’t so hard and maybe I could even be successful in teaching it. My feelings of self-doubt about teaching math withered away upon being able to help that student.”