Ms. Fried & Me
“Ms. Fried made me love math by the fact that she loves what she's doing. She also made me realize that saying I don't know something without even trying is not the best thing to do, because it is not going to help you in the future.”
Math is nobody's favorite subject and I get why. But is it really that hard when a teacher is doing their job? Since middle school I hated math and nobody would ever try to change it.It was something that made my life miserable just for the fact that I couldn’t understand what was really going on in the class even though I was really trying my best, the teacher never cared, so neither did I.
In every math class I’ve taken, the teacher has never grabbed my attention to the point where I wanted to go to class or felt excited to go to class. Math hasn’t always been my specialty.
When I finally got to high school everything changed, and I'm here to tell you how math became the subject that I love the most. You all might think this is silly because I just said that it was the worst subject ever, but in my own experience a teacher can make you love something, just because they really love what they are doing.
This all started in Algebra 1A in high school. Just imagine being stressed about being new in a school and going to the class that you hated the most in middle school. I wasn't feeling it already, but when I met the teacher I was more comfortable than before because my math teacher was Ms. Fried, my advisor. The fact that she was my advisor helped since it made me more comfortable. She was with me basically all day long and our relationship and bond was growing in and outside of class. This bond helped me grow as a person. It also grew my interest in the class.
My best friend Chelsea was also there in the class that I really thought I hated, but it was also very hard for me because I was used to speaking Spanish, so when I started high school it was a very difficult step in my life that I needed to face. When I first started I was very shy. I didn't want to talk to anyone but my friend, and I know that starting like that is never going to lead you to success, but that wasn’t in my mind at the time. The only thing on my mind was getting out of school and going home where I was comfortable.
At first I didn’t really like Algebra 1A, nor felt comfortable since I knew nobody here and already had a bad past with math, so I wasn't expecting this to be any different. But, after getting deeper into the class, I was one of the students that really started to know the most, and Ms. Fried was really helping me on building my skill. I didn’t feel like I was left behind. That was one of the main reasons why right now I’m taking pre-calculus. It was all because of Ms. Fried.
On September 2nd, when I met Ms. Fried, I was really shy and didn’t really wanna talk or make friends but Ms. Fried made sure I felt welcome by trying to talk to me, and she also made sure she held me to the same standards as everybody, even though my English wasn't the best. She expected the same amount of work as everybody else, but it was still very hard for me because it was the first day. It will always be hard when talking about the first day of school, but I could say that after the days went by our relationship grew. We started talking more.
Ms. Fried started helping me more with math and really making sure that I knew what I was doing, and she taught me that when something gets hard that's when I have to try my hardest. Ms. Fried made me love math by the fact that she loves what she's doing. She also made me realize that saying I don't know something without even trying is not the best thing to do, because it is not going to help you in the future. You should always try your hardest. If you do, you are going to have good outcomes.
In order to accompany this article, I, Anadaly Rosario, interviewed Ms.Fried to get her perspective on how she views Yineiri as a person and student. I asked Ms. Fried about Yineiri, and Ms. Fried said:
“She became really motivated to do well, and she was able to prove her capabilities as a student. She really pushed herself to understand the material, and when she had originally avoided participating in discourse around the material, she started to find her voice and felt comfortable sharing her ideas and thoughts.”
Taking Fried’s class showed me not everything is permanent. One person can change a lot, and Ms. Fried was my person. She is the reason my hate for math turned into love. If I never took her class or had her as my teacher, I don’t think it would’ve been the same. At the end of the day I will forever be grateful for her and the way she has impacted me and my life.
I asked Ms. Fried about her own experience with math. Here is what she said:
“When I was in 8th grade, my math class was chosen by the Smart Board company to be a test class for the first SMART Boards. My teacher, Mr. Ringh, made math so much fun, fully integrating the SMART Board into our lessons. That was when I first started to love math—I could finally see all the ways it could be exciting. I fell in love with problem-solving, discovery, and the challenge of finding answers to difficult problems.
As I got older, my junior-year math teacher, Ms. Marcs, deepened my love for the subject. She pushed me to think harder and, more importantly, to believe that I was capable of tackling difficult concepts. At the same time, I was teaching dance, and since she knew I loved teaching, she was the first to suggest that I consider becoming a math teacher.
My grandmother, who was also a high school teacher (funny enough, she taught at James Monroe), was my best friend and role model. Learning from her and these two teachers—seeing how they shaped me and helped me believe in myself—made me realize that teaching was what I wanted to do.
That’s why I hold such a high bar for my students and push them to really think before saying, "I don't know." If I were to immediately give them the answer, I wouldn’t be showing them that I believe in their ability to figure it out. It’s also why my lessons are primarily discovery-based. I want my students to recognize patterns, derive formulas on their own, and truly engage with the material rather than passively receiving information.
There’s nothing better than seeing that "aha" moment—the spark of understanding when everything clicks. I want my students to dive deep into their potential, just as my teachers once pushed me to do.”