There are students who are currently struggling in math class, especially Algebra 1. It’s a tough topic to learn and to understand what the subject means. Calculating x’s and y’s just seems very difficult, but there’s a teacher who loves the concept of math and she knows every concept of all Algebra calculations, plus she’s a math goddess, this teacher is Ms. Lindsey Ponder.

This is her first year teaching at Battle, having taught her previous five years at Georgia, and Ponder loves her experience so far. Battle is big and bright for her teaching career ahead. “Everyone is creative and innovative than any other places I’ve worked with,” Ponder says.

Not to mention, Ponder applies herself tirelessly to her students, and to the school. She puts great effort into building the best math material and her teaching readiness for all her students. She even stays late or wakes up early in the morning to plan her material and her math intelligence for all the great kids she likes to teach to.

“I like the aspect of getting to do challenging things everyday,” Ponder says. She has multiple thoughts and feelings for her job. One thing is that she wants all her students to pay attention and follow close directions. Nothing else makes her mad other than lack of attention, that’s what challenges Ponder everyday, all day during school. “Just as long as they are trying.”

Ponder wanted to become a teacher because she likes the interaction with students, she enjoys helping students and she has the high tendency to cooperate with students. Math became her focus because it was her favorite subject. “With other schools don’t have the right program for you, math came close and drew me more close,” Ponder says.

Going back to college days, Ponder attended the University of Missouri to learn how to teach middle school math, and after she graduated from MU, Ponder finally got certified to teach high school math. “School has always been a challenge for me, so when I see students with a bad grade, I can relate. I was never a straight A student myself. So I think that makes me relatable to my students, for me English was not my strong suit, so I did okay in math, but English was a struggle for me,” Ponder says about her own experience.

Looking over her career, Ponder always uses past experience on what she did right or wrong, how student teaching made her feel comfortable in front of students, so that when she became a full time teacher she had things to reflect on. Her favorite moments are when at the end of the school year, students are graduating or moving into a higher grade, and really excited to be done with the school year. The less work she has to do, because at the end of the year, it’s time to sit back and relax summer. She expects her students to say things like “hey I passed this class.” Then for the worst moments, Ponder doesn’t enjoy looking at students who are not trying to do math and have attitudes like “it’s too hard” or “why is math so complicated.” This is a big nightmare for every teacher, but Ponder uses her perfect teaching senses to make the student do the work and later on her students are going to learn why they did something wrong so they say “I can do math now.” That’s the big change Ms. Ponder wants to see out of her students.

Outside of school, Ponder has a little dog that she likes to play with at home. Taking him to the park or on walks. Softball is her favorite sport, unfortunately she wasn’t able to coach softball for Battle because she started working after the school year started. She’s married and enjoys playing ping pong with friends.

Before she picked teaching as her full-time career, Ponder almost went to school for pastry chef and she could’ve been a good cook. Baking all sorts of cake. She got accepted in several different schools, but when it was time, she picked MIZZOU. Being as pastry chef could have been an awesome job for her, but math never left her heart.

“I think a lot of my students think of me as cheesy,” Ponder says. Playing fun games like Kahoot can really get the class on a groovy style and it makes the class feel like they are learning math.

Ponder has one goal, “my goal is to make sure all of my students can do the math.” Every student has to try solve the math problem and if they are struggling, Ponder is there to help them. She has a loving heart for all of her beloved students in her class, but she can’t let them go away until they do the math. It sounds like a big goal for her, but it is very important for her and her students.