Hello. Let me introduce myself. I am Susan E. Bernard, author of the “I’m Not Afraid... Anymore!” series. In 1981, I graduated from the University of Oklahoma with a teaching certificate in business subjects and English writing. I began my first teaching job that same year. As my family grew, I decided to teach my children and several other kids at home. In the 12 years that I homeschooled, one of my favorite subjects was math.
By 2001, I decided to return to teaching in public school. I spent six summer weeks studying full-time for my “big test” – the one that would certify me to teach math, the subject that I had grown to love teaching. It was a challenge, as most worthwhile tasks are, but I succeeded and earned certification to teach high school math. Soon after that, I authored “I’m Not Afraid of Math Anymore!” A Guide to the GED® Math Test.
In 2009, I furthered my education with graduate work in Adult Education at the University of Oklahoma and continued with one writing project after another for adult students. Now several math books are available for GED® and HiSET® Math Tests as well as materials for the other high school equivalency subject areas. It has been my joy and privilege to lead students out of the land of fear and into the land of high school equivalency graduates. It is my hope that the “I’m Not Afraid... Anymore!” series will help you to learn all the new things that you need for success in your education and in life.
Many GED® preparation books use “textbook” language! When I first began teaching a class of GED® students in 2002, they were often frustrated when they couldn’t understand their traditional GED® books. It was almost impossible for some of them to accomplish much on their own because they would “get stuck.”
One day, I needed to go to a teacher workshop, and I created a math worksheet for the substitute to give the class while I was gone. When I came back to class, my student, Cristie, asked me to write more. I soon realized that I needed to write an entire math book in the language that Cristie and my other students could easily understand. That was the beginning of “I’m Not Afraid of Math Anymore!” I didn’t have any fancy math book writing software, but I had a desire to make learning math better. My curriculum has continued to grow from there. Now students like Cristie get help every day!