{"id":3865,"date":"2015-01-19T07:34:26","date_gmt":"2015-01-19T15:34:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.familymathnight.com\/blog\/?p=3865"},"modified":"2015-02-01T07:37:48","modified_gmt":"2015-02-01T15:37:48","slug":"developing-math-passion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.familymathnight.com\/blog\/?p=3865","title":{"rendered":"Developing Math Passion"},"content":{"rendered":"

I was talking to my youngest son over the winter break about the college courses he had signed up for this next quarter. \u00a0What he answered surprised me.<\/p>\n

“I signed up for US Constitutional Issues<\/em>. \u00a0I’m SO excited to take this class. \u00a0The professor is amazing! \u00a0I took his American History Pre-1865<\/em> class last quarter and loved it. \u00a0He’s so passionate about the material and makes it exciting because he tells it as a story. Plus, he relates it to what’s going on today. \u00a0I don’t even mind getting up at 6 for the 7 o’clock class.” \u00a0(That’s 7 o’clock AM!)<\/p>\n

By the time he was done describing the class I felt gypped by all the history classes I’d ever taken.<\/p>\n

But here’s the thing. \u00a0My son is a Business Major. \u00a0And he still plans on graduating with a degree in business. \u00a0And yet, the class he is most enthusiastic about has nothing to do with his major. \u00a0Not that he doesn’t enjoy his other classes. \u00a0But this one stands out in a big way. \u00a0So what is it about this<\/em> particular class that gets him so excited to get up at 6 in the morning? \u00a0Two things.<\/p>\n

The first is the professor. \u00a0His passion about history oozes out of every pore. \u00a0It draws the students in.<\/p>\n

The second is his teaching style. \u00a0He doesn’t simply follow page-by-page the scope and sequence of the textbook. \u00a0To be sure, he’s clear about what he needs to teach but then he draws on ideas and examples that aren’t found in the textbook. \u00a0And by doing so, he makes it more interesting and relevant to the students’ lives.<\/p>\n

Wouldn’t it be great if we could teach mathematics this way?<\/p>\n

We can.<\/p>\n

It starts with passion. \u00a0Although it would be great for every teacher to ooze the Pythagorean theorem out of every pore, the key is to simply be passionate aboutteaching<\/em>. \u00a0The math part will follow. \u00a0Especially if you….<\/p>\n

…periodically put down the textbook. \u00a0Replace it with hands-on projects that are tied to concepts students are learning. \u00a0The more open-ended, the better, as this allows for more outside-the-box thinking. \u00a0An example that I’ve done for many years during my volume unit is to have students re-design the soda can<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Including these types of hands-on projects in your curriculum takes time. \u00a0Years, in fact. \u00a0But what you’ll begin to notice is how excited and engaged the students become. And when that happens, discipline issues drop, student learning increases and a passion for math begins to blossom.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I was talking to my youngest son over the winter break about the college courses he had signed up for this next quarter. \u00a0What he answered surprised me. “I signed up for US Constitutional Issues. \u00a0I’m SO excited to take this class. \u00a0The professor is amazing! \u00a0I took his American History Pre-1865 class last quarter and loved it. \u00a0He’s so passionate about the material and makes it exciting because he tells it as a story. Plus, he relates it to…<\/p>\n

Read More Read More<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[76,51,44,184],"tags":[102,104,81,21,202],"class_list":["post-3865","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-family-math-night-2","category-kids-and-math-3-5","category-kids-and-math","category-elementary-mathematics-2","tag-common-core-state-standards","tag-elementary-math","tag-family-math-night-activities","tag-karyn-hodgens","tag-teaching-math"],"yoast_head":"\nDeveloping Math Passion - Karyn's Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.familymathnight.com\/blog\/?p=3865\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Developing Math Passion - Karyn's Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I was talking to my youngest son over the winter break about the college courses he had signed up for this next quarter. \u00a0What he answered surprised me. “I signed up for US Constitutional Issues. \u00a0I’m SO excited to take this class. \u00a0The professor is amazing! \u00a0I took his American History Pre-1865 class last quarter and loved it. \u00a0He’s so passionate about the material and makes it exciting because he tells it as a story. 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