Mrs Jain has always had an affinity for mathematics and sciences, particularly because of her exposure to chemistry and maths through her father, who worked in this field. Despite her mother having a background in literature, it was the maths and science that ruled the house. Already in Grade 9, Mrs Jain decided to choose a very STEM based academic direction, and she enjoyed thoroughly learning maths and all three natural sciences; biology, chemistry, and physics. Mrs Jain always excelled in chemistry and biology, scoring just one point away from full marks on her exams. Maths, on the other hand, took a bit longer to grow on her but once it did, she found it interesting and fun to pursue (you read that right, maths is fun). Specifically, Mrs Jain, “enjoys how logical things are, that there are no grey areas,” as well as the way maths can be combined with so many other aspects of life. As part of the Analysis and Approaches HL course, each year, she gets to witness her student’s reaction to discovering the connection between physics and calculus; for example, differentiating velocity with respect to time yields acceleration.
Despite having also taught Chemistry, Physics, and English, Mrs Jain decided to shift towards mathematics as she did not really enjoy doing lab work. Today, she reflects on this decision positively, saying that, “moving to maths was the best thing I’ve done so far”.
Thankfully, there was nobody to discourage her throughout her journey, but it was still an uphill task. Very often, students who are first beginning her course will face a stumbling block, going from finding maths to be an intuitive and easy subject to suddenly struggling with it, a struggle she also had to go through when she was younger. “I see myself in a lot of the students, I also faced that block. Because I went through it myself, I think that makes it easier for me to help the students in my class overcome it,” and that is why she is very passionate about making students understand and enjoy the subject.
Over her years at SIS, she is most proud, “that my students feel they want to connect with me,” even after their graduation; she continues to be motivated and encouraged by SIS alumni who reach out to her with updates on their own journeys.
