I want to become a teacher of mathematics

When a person leaves secondary school, he understands that the time to choose his future profession has come. It is not an easy task to make the right choice of future profession and a job at once. Leaving school is the beginning of independent life, the start of a more serious examination of man’s abilities and character.

It’s quite natural that before you take the final decision on what you want to do in future, you must consider the possibilities you have and your fitness for this or that job. Some pupils choose their future profession under the influence of their parents or friends, whose advice they find helpful and valuable.

In my opinion the final choice should depend on what you are interested in. For me an interesting and creative job is the most important thing. I want to enjoy my work and get satisfaction from it.

As for me, I made my choice many years ago when I was still at school. I have always realized the importance of exact sciences in modern world.

I am a “would be” mathematician. In high school my favourite subject was Algebra. This year I have passed my entrance competitive exams successfully and now I am a student of the Volgograd State Pedagogical University. VSPU is famous for its high reputation and image. It aims at giving the students the top-level education and to enable them to carry on scientific research work. After completing a course of five years our Department graduates can continue their studies and research and defend their thesis (dissertation) to get a scientific degree in both exact and applied fields of modern maths.

Modern abstract algebra deals with not only equations and simple problems but with algebraic structures such as “groups”, “fields”, “rings”, etc. and comprises new divisions of algebra, such as “linear algebra” and “lie groups”. I haven’t made up my mind yet to choose a field of maths to specialize in. I am going to make my final decision when I am the fifth-year student busy writing my research diploma project and consulting my scientific supervisor.

At present, I would like to be a teacher of maths. To my mind, it is a very noble profession. It is very difficult, indeed, to become a good teacher of maths. You should know the subject you teach perfectly, you should be well-educated and broad-minded. A good teacher develops in his students the burning desire of mastering all branches of modern maths, its essence, influence and beauty.

All our Department graduates are sure to get jobs they are willing to have. I hope the same might be true for me as well. It is for the future to decide whether it would be school, institute, government or business employment.

Exercises

1. Answer the following questions:

· How do school-leavers finally choose their profession?

· What professions are popular with young people who are going to universities?

· Where can young people get information about this or that profession or job?

· What are the advantages and disadvantages of a teacher’s job?

· What qualities are required to become a good teacher?

· What qualities are required to become a good specialist in any job?

· What is your idea of a good job?

2. Make up a dialogue using the following questions:

1) Who in your opinion made the greatest contribution to the mathematics of the 20^th century?

2) What modern mathematicians do you know?

3) How has our life changed since you went to school?

4) Who invented the computer?

5) How did it change our life?

6) Are you connected with the Internet?

7) What do you use your computer for?

3. Working in groups discuss the questions:

1) Why is it necessary for children to study Algebra and Geometry at school?

2) How can parents encourage their children to take up Maths?

3) Are you a computer user?

4) What subject did you like most of all at school? Why?

5) Tell your classmates about your favourite mathematician.

4. Make a project on one of the following themes:

1. I wish I were a world-famous mathematician.

2. My favourite mathematician.

3. Maths in Russia. Its past and present.

4. Computers.

5. I want to become a good teacher of maths.

6. My favourite teacher of mathematics.

I want to be a programmer.

I want to become a computer programmer. Many people continue careers of their parents or grandparents but it is not the case with me. My mother is a teacher and my father is a doctor. But I want to be neither a teacher nor a doctor.

My favourite subjects in school were mathematics, physics, and, of course, computer science.

My hobby is computer programming and computer games. I have a computer at home and can spend hours working on it. It is much easier to do things on computer, for example to write a composition or to find information you need on the Internet.

I think that the profession of a programmer can give many opportunities. Information science with the ideas and message of processing and storing information is of great importance today. Computers are the most rapidly changing spheres of modern technology. We are living in the age of information. That’s why computer technology must be taught in secondary school. At present programming in our country is paid a lot of attention to by the government and much is being done to set up all necessary facilities for its development. The new subject “basic information science and computing machine” was introduced at schools. The pupils teach computers to investigate school problems. Contact with the machine increases the interest in learning, makes them more serious about studying new subject. In schools pupils can explore the Great Pyramid or study molecules from the inside. School computers are used not only for studying information science, but also examination purposes. Young people who finish school must be trained to operate computers.

I think that the future is just filled with computers. Today, in England or in the USA people can work, go shopping or even go on dates sitting at their computers. Today they form part of our everyday life. The latest thing today is Virtual Reality. A Virtual Reality system can transport the user to exotic locations such as beach in Hawaii or the inside of the human body. Already today Virtual Reality is used in medicine. In hospitals surgeons could plan operations by first “ travelling” through the brain, heart or lungs without damaging the body. It is also used in police training schools.

I think that the profession of a programmer can give many opportunities. We are living in the age of information. That’s why I decided to enter the university and study computer science.

Exercises

1. Answer the following questions:

1. Do you use a computer?

2. What do you use your computer for?

3. When did you first start using a computer?

4. Who taught you to use it?

5. Do you use a computer at home or at school?

6. Are you connected with the Internet?

7. How often do you go to the Internet-cafe?

8. What forms of Internet communication do you use regularly?

Read an article “The Wired-up School” about using computers in schools. Be ready to answer some questions.

The Wired-up School

Churchill Community School in Somerset is a place where pupils and staff have mastered the art of getting what they want out of their computers. Like many schoolboys, Philip Eagle and his friends enjoy making paper airplanes. The only difference is that these boys are being given tips by a computer. “It’s physics, aeronautics and education,” insists Philip. He forgets to add that it’s also a pleasant way of passing the time during the morning break. He is currently working on his personal statement for the university entrance form.

He is one of the many pupils at Churchill Community School who have chosen to spend their twenty minutes of freedom in the learning resource centre. Here they can borrow books, do last minute homework, catch up on gossip or take a turn on one of the computers that are always available for them to use.

Students use the computers for a wide variety of tasks. Ian Blomfield, for example, used a CD-ROM of back issues of The Times and Sunday Times, along with the electronic encyclopedia Encarta, to find out about environmental damage caused by oil-tanker disasters. But he was able to go a step further. He used E-mail to pick the brains of campaigners and Friends of the Earth. “There was no other way we could have got such up-to-date information,” he says.

Because of a technologically advanced link to the Internet, twenty-eight computers can remain permanently on life. Cliff Harris, the school’s computer technician, explains that pupils can use the Internet as easily as any piece of software. “A lot of students are likely to have a PC at home in their room,” he adds. “They go home and have conversations with their schoolmates on the Internet.”

Most children seem to use their PC in a way that would please any teacher. Charles Palmer, who can also be found in the resource centre at break-time, says, “I didn’t exactly learn to read using a computer, but it was the adventure game Monkey Island that made me really want to learn. If I couldn’t read what was on the screen, I couldn’t play the game.” Charles also uses his PC for designing his family’s Christmas cards.

Helen Brown finds that her PC is an invaluable home tutor that can offer her that little extra bit of help. “Sometimes there are things in algebra or biology that teachers only go over once, and I don’t understand them. But I can use a program I’ve got at home which explains it again and again until I do understand it!” However, she is not impressed by the possibility of computers replacing teachers. “You can’t ask a computer questions,” she says. “It just asks you.”

Her view seems widely shared. “It would be totally boring,” says Chris Richmond. “You’d switch the machine off, or switch off yourself.” Nevertheless, he is currently using his PC to write an article on passive smoking, and claims that he is being given the chance to write the best essay he could possibly write with the use of his computer.

Pupils without access to a computer at home are obviously at some disadvantage. The school tries hard to make up for this, however. They want all pupils to have a chance to take advantage of this valuable, interesting – and often fun – form of technology.

Questions:

·Who says that students use their PCs to communicate with each other?

·Who used a computer to read old newspapers?

·Who needed to learn to read before he could play a computer game?

·Who thinks pupils can use the Internet without any difficulty?

·Who says that computers as teachers would be very boring?

·Who used a computer to get information about an oil spillage?

·Who uses a computer for extra help at home?

·Who is writing an essay with the help of a PC?

3. Read the texts “I want to be a programmer” and “The Wired-up School” again and say how the pupils in the article use computers in terms of communication, information, education, leisure.

4. Working in groups discuss the questions:

1) Do you have a PC at home? For what purposes do you use it?

2) It is said that computers will replace teachers in the future. Do you believe that this statement is true? Why/ Why not?

3) Do computers help us communicate with others?

 

5. Make a project on one of the following themes:

1) Computers and Modern Life.

2) The History of Computer Science.

3) Virtual Reality.

4) Modern computer technology in education.

5) I want to be a teacher of basic information science and computing machine.

6) The Internet and Modern Life.

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