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Leung 1

Lilian Leung
Professor Mitchell-Wagner
STACC English 1A 32476, 3:15pm-5:20pm
01 May, 2015
A Road to be a Successful High School Mathematics Teacher: A Road to be a Future Creator
Introduction
A teacher is a discourse community, also same as mathematics teacher and high school
mathematics teacher; they are all different but also the same discourse communities. Discourse
community is a group of people who share the same language, values, genes, goals and more.
Any kind of teachers are needed in this society because they are the one who are passing on their
knowledge to the next generation and the future. A mathematics teacher do not just input
numbers and formula to the students brain, but also help them to critical think and apply
mathematics to their daily life. These might not be most of the mathematics teachers way of
teaching but it should be the common goal for them because it is important to have the students
to learn instead of memorize. The responsibilities of being a high school teacher are huge
because they are dealing with students who are stepping into the next stage: going to college or
working. Beside the counselors, high school teachers are also one of the important mentors for
the students to get through the challenges by giving them life lessons and advices instead of just
teaching. Although the requirements of being a high school mathematics teacher is not as
difficult as other professionals, the teachers responsibilities of their jobs are bigger than others.
They are the one who are creating the future by helping their students, the other professionals,
and the future, to be successful. The high school mathematics teachers seem like an ordinary
professional but besides just teaching numbers and formula, they are the one who are building up
this world and society.
Word Count: 270 Words
Method

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In order to understand the prompt of this research paper, I will need to first identify the
terms, discourse community. I read and annotated three different articles: John Swales The
Concepts of Discourse Community, Johns Ann M.s Discourse communities and Communities
of Practice: Membership, Conflict, and Diversity, and Elizabeth Wardles Identity, Authority,
and Learning to Write in New Workplaces. I then researched high school mathematics teachers
as my professional discourse community; I scheduled appointments with my high school
mathematics teachers for interviews: Ms. Wang and Ms. Zhang. Both of them have different
personalities and pedagogies; for example, Ms. Zhang is a very nice mathematics teacher who
has a strong accent and Ms. Wang is an innovating teacher with very challenges classes. Both of
them creates interesting questions for me to research. After the interviews, they showed their
lesson plans, emails, and notes between the school board members and other teachers. I then
started to research in the Pasadena City College database, EBSCOhost, and Ted Talk about how
to assimilate a successful member in the teaching discourse community by looking at the
common factors, goals, personalities, traits, values, and etc. they are sharing. I also look closely
at the requirements needed in order for me to become a high school mathematics teacher. For
example, which particular college has the best teaching program? How many years do I have to
stay? What do I do after I get my bachelor degree? There are lots of important subjects to
research about in this project which actually help me to get a step closer to my dream career.
Word Count: 264 Words
Facts and Discussion
There are different subgroups in the teacher discourse community and each of them have
different requisites in order to assimilate into the specific discourse community. For example, in
the state of California, the requirements for teaching are different than the others states. In order
to become a high school teacher in California, he or she must earn a California Teaching
Credential. The California Teaching Credential is basically a license to prove that a person is

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qualified to become a teacher after completing a bachelors or higher degree, certain subject
tests, and some internship fieldworks. All the California high school mathematics teachers are
require to finish all the requirements of the California Teaching Credential within the maximum
of five years.
For high school teachers, students are usually major in the subject of which subject they
want to teach; therefore, for a high school mathematics teacher, he or she is require to major in
mathematic. There are students who decide to study in a community college after graduating
from high school in order for them to spend more times to decide which subject they want to
teach and major in before transferring into a four years university. For those students who are
major in mathematics, they must complete up to the highest mathematics class, like Math 55,
some sciences classes, and computer informational science class. After they transfer to a four
years university, the students are needed to take classes which involve with leadership,
communication skills, speech and other different classes that help the students to become
successful teachers. An Arcadia High School mathematics teacher, Ms. Zhang, states that,
speech and communication skills classes are very helpful for students who want to become
teachers because they are going to overcome the fear of public speaking, like myself who is an
English language leaner (Zhang). After graduating from a four years university and completing
all the requirement classes, students can either keep on studying high degrees or start taking
some basic educational skills tests. The California Basic Educational Skills Test (CBEST) are a
standard basic skills tests that all the potential students are require to take. The test include basic,
mathematics, writing and reading skills portions to testify the students basic knowledge of
teaching. This is the most important test to take before going on to the next step of earning a
teaching credential.

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After completing their bachelors degree and finish taking the CBEST, there are lots of
ways to complete the teaching credential. Some of the California State Universities provide
different teaching programs which help the students to earn the teaching credential in the most
efficient way. For example, the California State University of Fullerton provides a great
credential programs for students who want to become a teacher. There is a specific credential
program just for high school and middle school teachers calls The Single Subject Credential
Program which is the only nationally-accredited program around the area. According to the
official website of The Single Subject Credential Program Of California State University of
Fullerton, The Single Subject Credential Program is interdisciplinary, involving the Department
of Secondary Education, academic departments, and local school districts in providing the
subject matter preparation, pedagogical training, and field experiences necessary to prepare highquality teachers. [This] program recruits and supports candidates in developing the disposition,
knowledge, and skills needed to enable them to meet the needs of the diverse learners in
Californias schools. (par. 1). This program helps a lot of students who might be lost about how
to earn a teaching credential after getting the bachelors degree because this program provides a
step by step process on how to earn a credential. The program also expands the students network
by gaining their experiences and developing their knowledge with other students who are also
going into the same discourse community. There are also online program, like the
CalSateTEACH, which is for graduated students who are either want to become a teacher but
they are not able to attend a traditional classroom-based teaching credential program or students
who are teaching but without a credential. Both of the programs are very helpful to the students
to pass the California Subject Examinations for Teachers (CSET) of the certain subject they are
teaching, in this case, it will be mathematics. After they are done with the entire program, they

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are require to have experiences of teaching by working as an intern or substitute teachers at some
high schools to fulfill the last section of the teaching credential.
There are lot more challenges are coming through after completing the teaching
credentials and getting a mathematics teacher position in a high school. Each school district have
their own system; most of the teachers are require to teach the lowest level of mathematics and
work up to the highest level or the level that they want to teach. Another Arcadia High School AP
Calculus teacher, Ms. Wang, shares, the first two years of teaching are the hardest period of
time because you never know what is coming to you: the students, school administrators,
parents, and much more. I almost lost the passion for teaching because I never know teaching is
that difficult, especially in a lower level of mathematics classes (Wang). She also talks about
how students who are studying in lower level of mathematics classes tend to be more rebellious
than the students in a high mathematics classes, like AP Calculus. When things do not go what
they are expecting, for instance, no one is respecting and listening in class, the teachers start to
judge their own abilities of teaching and leadership and start to give up. Dan Meyer, a Ted talk
high school mathematics teacher speaker, argues that, your first year teaching is about growing
as a teacher, sure, but it's mainly about getting to know yourself (Meyer). It might be difficult
and challenging for the first two years of teaching career, but everyone should know that it is not
an easy job to teach because teachers are the one who is creating the future.
Most of the teachers understand that teaching is not really about the making the money
because compare to other professionals, teachers have a lower salary. According to the US News
and World Report, the median annual salary for high school teachers was $55,360 in 2013. The
best-paid 10 percent in the field made approximately $86,720, while the bottom 10 percent made
$37,230 (par. 1). Although teachers do not earn much, there are some benefits that they are
getting but not the other professionals can get. For example, teachers are able to have their

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summer off just like their students. However, some teachers will choose to teach during summer
to earn more money. Even though teachers do not need to work during the weekend, winter
break, spring break, and other holidays, they actually have to work on the grading in their free
time. Usually all the high school teachers are only pay for the hours that the teachers are in class
teaching; they do not get pay for all those hours that they are grading outside of class. It is
obvious that when teacher are working, most of the time they are giving out a lectures and they
do not have time to grade any tests, quizzes, and homework. Some of them have teacher
assistances who can help out, but some of them do not; therefore, the jobs of a high school
teacher is not an easy job to handle at all.
There is one great system, tenure, which benefits for all the high school teachers who are
qualified to secure their life time job. California is actually the first state in America that adopts
the tenure system. It is a policy where after the two years of their jobs, which calls the probation
years, the high school teachers are now secure with their jobs. This mean the schools are not able
to fire the teachers without a reasonable reason. However, there are also lots of people who are
opposing toward this system because they believes that the two years of probation cannot decide
if the teachers are apple to handle the jobs. Therefore, one of the governors, Arnold
Schwarzenegger, who tries to pass an act to change the two probationary years to five years. But
in both ways, these are great benefits for the teachers.
There is also an external benefits that most high school teachers love about, the students.
Sometimes, students can be the pain of the job but it is also the most important motivations of
their jobs. Although Ms. Zhang has an English accent, she never loses the passion for teaching
because she loves what she is earning from her students. She recalls that, students learn from
the teachers and teachers also learn from the students. My students correct my English
mispronounce vocabularies and it is actually getting better with the helps from them. Sometimes,

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your students are like your own kids (Zhang). Some teachers cannot wait till summer comes just
like most of the students, but some hate it when summer comes, because it is the time where the
teachers have to let their students to go on to the next step. And then September comes by really
quick and the teachers are once again facing different challengers but they are not afraid because
their students are their motivations to work better in their jobs. It actually really seems like there
are lot more benefits beside the salary and holidays that they have from teaching.
It is no doubt that the educational systems needed improvements in all different ways,
especially the way teachers teach. Every teachers have similar goals and one of the important
ones is to teach and help the students to be successful. There are lots of mathematics teachers
from different levels of mathematics who think that memorizing is a way to learn. Memorizing
can be a one way of learning for some students but it is not the best way to learn. Therefore,
when teachers are throwing out formulas for the students to memorize without explaining how to
apply; it is the cause of why many students hate mathematics. Meyer, during his Ted Talk, shares
that:
I encourage math teachers I talk to use multimedia, because it brings the real world into
your classroom in high resolution and full color; to encourage student intuition for that
level playing field; to ask the shortest question you possibly can and let those more
specific questions come out in conversation; to let students build the problem, because
Einstein said so; and to finally, in total, just be less helpful, because the textbook is
helping you in all the wrong ways: It's buying you out of your obligation, for patient
problem solving and math reasoning, to be less helpful. (Meyer)
Meyer shows some of his videos during his Ted Talk to prove that math can be fun when the
teachers put some efforts in it. For example, Meyer decides to make a video with a daily life
example for his one his mathematics work problem to show it to the students in class. The
students then can solve the application problems by critical thinking and also applying their daily

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life to answer the question easily. However, Ms. Wang argues that, most of the teachers do not
really have the time to make videos since we need to deal with grading, communicating with
parents and schoolboard members, and others stuff (Wang). Although, Ms. Wang personality
thinks that most of the teachers are not able to spend extra times to create video using
multimedia for their lesson plan, there is no doubt that it is a great learning style for the students
and if the teachers really want to change the teaching style, they should be able to spend some
time during the summer to create a better lesson plan. Teaching is not just about passing the
knowledge to the students, it is all about applying the knowledge into their students daily life for
them to success in the future.
Word Count: 2003 Words
Conclusion
Being a teacher is an important professional discourse community in the world where
their job is to help their students to be success in the world. In other words, their job is to make
the future world success because students are the future of the world. They will eventually work
and contribute to the communities using their knowledge. Therefore, teachers have a very
important role in this whole world. High school teacher tend to be a little bit challenging because
it is the period of time where the teenagers like to rebel a little because they are under control but
free at the same time; between middle school and college. In order to become a good high school
teacher, it is not easy. It is hard for everyone to listen to the teacher in class and get a good grade.
Some people will think most of the teachers are purposely failing their students, but who will
want to their students to be fail? Their job is to help their students to success instead of fail.
Sometimes, it is hard to watch their own students to fail in class when they acknowledge that the
students are smart. A lot of people complain about how high school teachers make very little
money but they are actually just focusing on the salary when they are finding their career goal.
Sometimes, it is important to know who and what they want to be instead of how much money

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they get. Sometimes, money could not buy happiness. There are a lot of cases where people
make a lot of money but they are not satisfy with their life and when they change their job, they
would finally understand what happiness is.
Some people judge that it is too easy to become High school math teacher because the
requirement is only to complete the teaching credential. Almost everyone can take the exams and
apply for it. However, if this is the case, why is there still a shortage of teachers? It is, again, all
about the money. If everyone only want to be who they are by the salary they are getting pay, one
day there will be less and less teachers in the world. There here is the questions: Who will be
able to pass on the knowledge to the future kids? Therefore, I think teacher is a very important
professional career because if there is no teachers, how could there be also other professionals
like doctor, lawyers, and etc. without someone teaching them? I always think that the teachers
should be dedicated in order to qualify to be the creator of this world, because there are lot of
teachers who are not really putting an effort in. If I become a high school mathematics teacher, I
will, like Meyer, starts to change the teaching styles and input some multimedia to the lesson for
the students to learn better. Instead of giving out formulas for them to memorize, I would explain
to the students how we apply the formulas in our daily life. Mathematics is necessary for
everyone in the world; no matter what your job is, accountants, doctors, salesmen, waiters, and
etc. mathematics are needed. Math is basically apply in everyones daily life. So now, you tell
me: Is math important? Is math teachers important? Is high school math teachers important?
Word Count: 557 Words

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Work Cited
Dennis, Jennifer, and Mary John O'hair. "Overcoming Obstacles In Using Authentic Instruction:
A Comparative Case Study Of High School Math & Science Teachers." American
Secondary Education 38.2 (2010): 4-22. Academic Search Premier. Web. 24 Feb. 2015.
Johns Ann M. "Discourse Communities and Communities of Practice: Membership, Conflict,
and IDiversity." Text, Role, and Context: Developing Academic Literacies. Cambridge,
New Yoric Cambridge UP, 1997.51-70. Print.
Meyer, Dan. Math class needs a makeover. Ted. Mar. 2010. Lecture.
"Secondary Education." Secondary Education. College of Education, 4 Mar. 2015. Web. 24 Mar.
2015.
Siegfried, Tom. "A Mind From Math." Science News 181.13 (2012): 26-28. Academic Search
Premier. Web. 24 Feb. 2015.
Swales, John. The Concept of Discourse Community. Writing about Writing. Downs and
Wardle. Boston: Bedford ST. Martins, 2011. Print.
Wang, Sharyn. Personal interview.10 Feb. 2015.
Wardle, Elizabeth. Identity, Authority, and Learning to Write in New Workplaces.
Enculturation 5.2 (2004): n. page. Web. 18 Feb. 2010.

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