Seventh-grader Emery Gonzalez knew she wanted to join the Math Team last year. She has always been good at math, a talent she shares with her dad. So, when Mr. Drenth, her sixth-grade math teacher, suggested she join the Math Team, she didn’t need any convincing. Even better, her best friend, Tatum, also signed up, allowing them to participate together.

Emery has always excelled in math class, scoring high on standardized tests and finding math fun. She likes “adding and subtracting, multiplying, dividing—all of it.” As math starts to get more complex, she remains engaged and is looking forward to attending high school next year for Algebra. This opportunity is offered to high-performing eighth-grade math students to ensure they are continually challenged. No one wants a bright math star to be bored in a class covering material they already know.

Her dad has significantly helped her with math over the years, especially when completing online assignments through ALEKS, an online tutoring and assessment platform. Emery does these required assignments but much prefers being in a classroom, in person, with her teacher Ms. Phillips and her friends.

When it’s time to prepare for a Math Team competition, like the recent one at Momence, they do a lot of drills. For speed questions, they are shown a problem on a projector and then have 30 seconds to answer it. Emery hasn’t participated in speed events yet because she performs better when she has the time she needs to answer. Knowing she’s on the clock just makes her nervous and sometimes causes her to blank out, even on simple things she knows. Her favorite event is the relay. In this five-person team event, the first person solves a problem and passes the paper to the next student. The first answer connects to the next problem in the relay until all five parts are completed. It is crucial that the first person gets the right answer, or all subsequent steps will be based on incorrect information, and the team will lose.

Emery is modest and seems to understate her own abilities and value to the team. We discuss how different people process information differently and how having team members with various strengths is beneficial. It’s not always about being fast or performing under pressure, which can alter how we process information. She admits that while she doesn’t like to brag, she is smart.

We asked Emery to share a problem or concept that was difficult for her to grasp over the course of her mathematical studies and how she eventually overcame it. “So with the negatives and positives... I couldn’t understand that negative. You have to put the negative into the positive and you have to change the signs and stuff. So I didn’t really understand that,” she explains. This confusion was exacerbated by the remote learning environment, but once back in the classroom, “it really helped because then the teacher was explaining it, and it was more like, I can finally do it now.”

Having direct experience with remote versus in-person learning and seeing the value of being taught by a good teacher in a classroom setting may have influenced Emery’s current career aspirations. She wants to be a second-grade teacher. She has fond memories of JeNeir Elementary School and thinks it would be amazing to teach there someday. Exploring other interests, Emery also likes robotics and is in the school’s club. She had been wanting to join for a while but had some issues with forgetting and missing deadlines. We playfully tease her that a calendar is a great mathematical tool. Emery lets out a soft giggle and promises to get a calendar soon. She’s going to need it as she moves through high school and on to college—hopefully at nearby Olivet. And then, she’d love to end up back in Momence because she thinks it’s a special community. Future JeNeir School students will be lucky to have future second-grade teacher Ms. Gonzalez—and we have no doubt that she will encourage them to have fun with math!