Math Instigators

Cielo S. Lanzaderas
From my experience as a math teacher, being a little creative can go a long way in
the classroom. Humor and connecting math to the real world also helps. Below are
some of my teaching strategies for motivating students to learn.

Game Play-I once taught a high school geometry class with some tough kids in it.
One day, I brought in large colored labels, and had the students move all the desks
and chairs to the corners of the room. I placed two long rows of colored labels on
the floor. Then I asked the most disruptive student to make and throw a paper
airplane, using the labels as a runway for landing it. This was a hands-on lesson on
the locus (set) of points equidistant from two parallel lines.

Assignment?-Yes, they really did! When teaching a unit on Geometry and

Measurement to a seventh grade class, I presented creative, real-world problems at
the chalkboard. We solved one problem on area of a circle by standing in a circle
with a stick and some string. As I went to assign homework from the textbook, the
class eagerly asked if they could create their own problems instead. They were so
enthusiastic that I changed the assignment. The next day, the students proudly read
their problems aloud --even those who rarely did their homework! The
instructional value of this student-created assignment proved to be far more than I
had expected!

Facilitator- After introducing prime and composite numbers through 100, I asked

my class to determine if the numbers 517, 623 and 641 were prime or composite.
Students groaned about having to find all the factors of these large numbers. I
offered to let them use calculators to speed up the process, but they still groaned.
Finally, the class asked if there was a a better way to do this. So I
introduced divisibility tests, and they were happy to learn this new topic!

Seizing- I was in the middle of teaching a math lesson, when a student asked me
"When are we ever going to use this math?" He seemed quite serious, so I stopped
the lesson, and gave an example of how farmers use systems of linear equations to
calculate the costs of cultivating crops. This inspired me to include numerous
career connections on my CD.

Decision- Kids take real ownership when allowed to make decisions. But what
decisions can we entrust them with? At the beginning of each marking period, I
assign students to cooperative learning groups. I choose the partners for each
group, but each group gets to choose a unique group name. Thus, each group has
made its first joint decision.