How Being a Math Teacher Inspired My Writing

How Being a Math Teacher Inspired My Writing

by Mary Katheen Mehuron

I was a math and science teacher for many years, and I enjoyed it. Though I have a Bachelor of Science and two master’s degrees as part of my teacher training, I’ve never taken a writing class in a college setting. (That’s about to change. Just for fun I applied to the graduate writing program at Savannah College of Art and Design and was recently accepted.)

In my publicity interviews, the host is often surprised my brain can work in such different realms. They seem to think that the opposite of teaching math is writing novels. Like they are opposing skill sets. In truth, they are both forms of communication where you have to organize your thoughts logically in order to guide a reader through your process. Clarity is key.

Before I started writing full time my job had daily deadlines. All the written materials for tomorrow’s classes were due the next morning. I know some teachers write up a program and never change a word, but I don’t think they are very good if that’s the case. One must reflect on the abilities of students in the class and make sure each can access the rigor of the work you are putting before them. Reflection on what went well the last time you taught a topic and what needed revision is important. And all must happen with your tomorrow deadline in mind.

Years of this made me both prolific and efficient.

When my first novel came out I was often asked, “But what made you think you could write a book?” And I would tell them that I was a teacher and, therefore, wrote every day of my life. Many non-teachers are surprised by that. It is my training day in and day out that helped me learn how to create educational products. That is one form of the inspiration.

The second are the insights I gained from working side by side with young people when research began to reveal to us that, as educators, we should move from student engagement toward student ownership. The National Institute for Excellence in Teaching wrote, “Student ownership is when teachers and students co-facilitate the learning.

When students are owning their learning, they are doing more than just engaging: They are actively taking a role in leading their learning. When this happens, the teacher serves more as a guide for students to take them further.” And, “A student is owning what and how they are learning when they can articulate the strategy they are currently using to learn, how this strategy supports their learning, and how they will use this strategy in the future.” This might be when a student solves a problem and is given a chance to formally present to the rest of the class their thinking as they did so. Many times their approaches surprised me. Many times.

I was excited to discover more about the spectrum of methods that existed in one classroom. It’s often said that in math there is only one right answer. That’s often true. But the road to getting that answer is as individual as all of us are. And as the respect for student ownership grew, so did excitement about using carefully crafted projects in a math classroom. For example, in one unit I wrote about using scale values like ¼ of an inch grid on paper represents 1 foot in real life, students designed their dream apartment, drew a scale drawing, built a 3-D model and furnished it. Embedded in the mathematics of scaling is creativity, teamwork, and exchanges of ideas.

Because my role reduced to guide instead of being in charge all the time, I got to learn more about how kids think. And since kids are just people who would be grown in a few years’ time, I got to learn a lot: That no one is completely good or bad; A fearless leader can also be afraid at times; The popular kids tended to be the ones that matured earlier but I could see the potential in what was going to happen for all of them. The child with the most obvious disability can also be the happiest one in the classroom. 

Adults don’t often open up about their deepest thoughts, but my students did because I encouraged them to. And it was that practice that made us understand each other. It is that understanding that made me a better writer. To have insight, along with having learned how to be prolific and efficient moved my productivity to a different level. My new novel, The Belonger, is the best thing I’ve ever written. So far. 

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Mary Kathleen Mehuron is a career educator who made a splash with her first book, Fading Past, an autobiographical novel whose protagonist, like Mary Kathleen, grew up Irish-Catholic in New Jersey. The Opposite of Never is Mary Kathleen’s second book, and to finish it, she traveled alone to Havana in January 2015 in order to experience the city before it became Americanized. Mary Kathleen lives and teaches in a ski town in Vermont where they call her Kathy. This is where she and her husband raised three sons,  and she is an occasional columnist and writes curriculum daily for private math and science students. She takes extended time to work on her novels on Grand Turk Island and in Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom.

Find out more about her on her website https://www.marykathleenmehuron.com/

THE BELONGER

Caribbean-island innkeeper Holly Walker is hunkering down against a monster hurricane. Unfortunately, so is player Lord Anthony Bascombe, a man who excuses his bad behavior by saying he is descended from pirates. Then her grown son, Byron, and his father, Montez—the man she’s never stopped wanting—go missing. Will she ever see them again? What about the many others hurt and dying? And will help ever arrive? With each passing day, Holly’s tumultuous past and the epic storm send her hurtling toward a shattering climax that will change the island—and Holly’s life—forever.

“The warm breezes of the Caribbean, a wild hurricane, and a woman who finds her own power and becomes an unwitting heroine. It will transport readers of this entertaining novel to a magical place where great loss and sacrifice pave the way to an unexpected love and life.” –Kris Radish, bestselling author of Annie Freeman’s Fabulous Traveling Funeral and The Year of Necessary Lies

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Tags: featured, women writers

Category: On Writing