Maths Facts for Motivation!!

Do you ever have those days where you just can't get motivated, or the students are as flat as pancakes?

You just need that simple hook to wake them up or capture their attention?

Last year I was presenting some workshops at a conference in Melbourne, and to capture the attention of the teachers as they entered I had this short clip playing.

It was amazing to see them take notice of some of the facts and statements, and some even started to challenge them. This was something I actively encouraged, because it meant that they were taking notice of them.

I must admit I have a slight bias towards a certain AFL football team and this becomes obvious as you watch it. This was intentional as I was trying to demonstrate how we can use our own passions and interests to make our lessons more engaging for both us and the students.

I also used my passion for sport to demonstrate how numbers, scores, totals and records can be used to initiate engagement and to enable us to teach within rich contexts.

So, if you decide to do something similar, it need not be as lengthy as this.

Try these ideas...

• Just have one amazing fact on the screen at the start of the lesson.

• Keep an ear out for what the students are currently interested in, and come up with facts around their interests. You'll be astounded with their reactions!!

• Focus on your passions and interests and include them where possible. This keeps you interested and more prepared to be engaged yourself.

• Be aware that if you only use your interests, they may not be seen as relevant to your students.

• Have the students on a roster to provide the daily fact, or get each student to add a fact to a class slideshow.

• Relate the facts to the content you are teaching - eg Area- find facts about country sizes, the size of houses, stadiums etc. How many boxes of matches would cover the playing surface of the Melbourne Cricket Ground?

• Use examples related to people, places etc in the news at the moment.

• Use some that are just stand out ridiculous!

• Use local facts and figures - ages of people , populations, sports scores, agricultural facts (I'm teaching in a farming area at the moment, so I use lots of animal facts) geography, weather etc.

I've had cases where the interest in just one statement can change the whole course of the day, meaning the lesson that was planned has gone out the window and that I've tapped into the interest shown in regards to the statement shown. This requires flexibility on your part, and sometimes cannot always be done as we have an expectation to cover the required curriculum.

In these instances, you can still do your planned lesson, but leave a little time at the end to investigate and honour their interests.

I find it very disappointing when students become enthusiastic about investigating a mathematical concept and are not given the opportunity purely because their teachers do not "have it on the planner".

So, Have a look through these facts and statements, and try to guess what they may be about.

There is one particular slide that says 2:01:39, and above it is another number, but crossed out. Rather than just tell them what this one is about, I leave it for them to investigate. Once again, it is related to a passion of mine, but they don't know that. It is open ended enough for them to think that it could be related to any number of concepts.

I'd love to hear what you think about this approach, and what sorts of facts you include.

Above all, it is not limited to the upper grades, this applies to all levels from the first year of school to the the last.