Hay loves to help students love problem-solving

Math interventionist Sarah Hay does many things in her new role as math teacher at Minnehaha Academy.

Sarah Hay

“I help students individually when they come to my room,” Hay said.

“I [also] go into certain math classes to help students in those classes.”

A math interventionist is a specialist who helps students overcome math difficulties.

Hay tries to get to know individual students so that she can provide strategies that are a good fit for each student.

“People have ideas that math is hard, or math is easy,” Hay said.

“But it is really up to the individual.”

Hay has a strong love for math and says that she, too, finds some aspects of math easier than others.

“For me, personally I think the easiest part about math is the basic things that I have memorized now, like multiplying two numbers together, or adding them,” she said.

“And the hardest thing about math for me is approaching a problem that I am not sure how to solve, and going through the process of figuring it out.”

She loves helping students un- understand math and spreading her passion for math.

“I think the best part about math,” she said, “is see- ing patterns and solving problems that are interesting.”