Math Examples Matching Students Interests Lead to Greater Success.

A few weeks ago I had the opportunity to supply in a kidslink classroom.  It was a grade 5 class with 6 boys.  Upon my arrival I saw a note on the desk from the teacher explaining what to expect from my day.  The one note on their said the boys love the math project that they are working on.  Kids loving math? You don't hear this statement too often so it really peeked my interest.  The students were working on a baseball project, where they would pick one baseball team and they would follow it.  They would have to figure out players batting averages, on base percentage, balls and strike ratios and many more.  When it came time for math I was pretty excited to see this project in action.  I told the students it was time for math and I was met with some groans and boos.  I thought to myself that this was strange considering the teachers note.  I said to the students "Your teacher told me that you loved math, is this not true?" They responded with their hatred for the subject. I thought to myself, oh well the day must go on.  I asked the students to take out their baseball projects and they looked confused.  One student asked "I thought you said we were going to work on math? Our baseball project aren't math."  I then realized that the students did not see these project as learning projects, they were just having fun keeping stats on their favourite baseball teams.  The teacher had made learning fractions, ratios, multiplication and division fun for her students by connecting her lesson to the students interest.

This made me think back to an experience with one of my relatives.  He really struggled with math all through elementary and secondary school.  It got to the point where he almost did not make it into the college program he wanted because of his math marks.  He was able to get into the program and that's where he math grades made a dramatic turn around.  He ended up having one of the top math marks in his class.  I asked him what the difference was between his college program and high school.  He told me the biggest change was that the examples given related to his field which he was really interested in and which he understood well.  I thought to myself, that can't be the only change.  Being interested in the examples could not have that big of an impact.

My experience in the teaching profession has told me that this is really the case.  If the student is interested and engaged with the examples given they will have greater success.  We as educators need to be able to pick up on our students interests and incorporate them as much as we can into our classrooms.

"Not a Math Person"

While teaching math, one can commonly hear a student exclaim, "I'm not a math person".

I dislike this saying, because I think we all have some "math" inside of us. Maybe I'm an optimist and hopeful for all of my students, but I believe that everyone can do it, they just need to have the attitude and the opportunities to experiment and figure it out with support from someone who knows the answer to guide them along the way.

Another thing wrong with this saying, is the assumptions that go along with it. To most students who say this, they are thinking about the numbers, equations, and representations that they just don't understand. But math isn't just about numeric skills. There's other aspects that contribute to a student's mathematical mind, numbers are only a tiny part of math. For example, seeing patterns, strategy games, and word problems all contribute to a mathematical mind!

This saying also assumes that math is either a skill that comes easily, one that comes with hard work, or one that doesn't come at all! Most students tend to rule out the middle option though ("one that comes with hard work"). They'd rather believe that they don't have the skill than have to work hard for it. Of course, this is a generalization and does not account for all students who struggle with math. Part of this belief is brought about by socialization through a student's family, but also through education and how in elementary years it is mainly about numbers and developing those basic skills in order to get to the abstract concepts in the later elementary years, high school and university.

As teacher's we have to realize that some student's are going to have this opinion about their math skills and abilities. We have to be ready to observe and know how to pin point students that believe this about themselves and help them to overcome this opinion. Math is more than numbers, and everyone has the possibility to be a "math person" and we as math teacher's have the opportunity, maybe even the privilege, to show students the path towards success!

Happy math teaching!