Making Math Class Suck Less

Let's face it, math class can be boring. Taking math. Teaching math. All of it can be just plain boring. Math isn't a favorite for most kids and, after teaching math for a few years, I can easily see why. Every day is pretty much the same routine: paper, pencil, procedures, problems. Wash. Rinse. Repeat. It's a hard fact though, that kids need to practice the skills they learn in math class in order to develop fluency and ease with computations. However, with the increased attention to and pressure from high stakes standardized testing, math class can easily become an endless routine of problem-strategy-solve over and over and over. Students need to learn the skills...and they need to practice the skills...and they need to apply the skills in order to be successful on these tests AND to know how to do real-life math. Which is really the goal, right? We want students who can walk in to buy a car and not get taken advantage of. Students who can budget their money and calculate tax. Students who can build and create and manage and do all the other life skills that is touched by math every day.

They need to know these skills and they need to practice and apply their learning. So, how can we make it better. How can we do our job but make math class something that students don't dread. I don't have the magic bullet answer, but I have been trying to implement some new things over the last couple of years to make it a little better. None of these are groundbreaking and none will revolutionize your classroom, but maybe you can take one or two and try it to mix up your class a little bit.

1. Lose the Paper

Sometimes they draw a Pokemon. You just have
to let it go.

All day every day our kids are doing worksheets. All the time. My favorite way to mix it up is to go paperless for a day. Here are some ways to do that. If you have small, personal whiteboards and dry erase makers, let students do their work on the whiteboards. This saves paper and is more engaging. It also allows you to do a quick check for understanding. You can pose a problem, students work it out and then hold their whiteboards up for you to check.

Don't have personal whiteboards? Use the big whiteboard. Partner students up and give them a problem to solve. One person writes while the other coaches and checks. Don't have enough big whiteboard space? Use the windows. I'm lucky enough to have a wall of windows in my classroom and my students love doing their work on them.

If that isn't enough, most desks and tables can function as dry erase boards, but make sure you check. Not all desks and tables are erasable and it can make quite a mess....not that I'm speaking from experience or anything...

2. Lose the Pencil

Window writing. A great way to mix-it-up. 

Chuck the pencil out for a day, or for part of a lesson, and have kids just talk it out. Pose a problem and don't let them use their pencils. Let them talk about it, verbalize their steps or what they need to do. A teacher told me to try this and I honestly thought she was nutty. Turns out, it's great!
 Often students just grab a pencil and write down the first number and operation they see without thinking. Not allowing them to write makes them stop and think about what they need to do.  

3. Gameify

Create more games! Turn stuff into a game. If students are solving a problem, make it a race. For multi-step problems, turn it into a relay race where one student does a step and then they pass the marker. Anything to encourage competition! I created an "Olympics" type game for our unit on rational numbers and for an end-of-year review. Students are practicing the skill, but aren't just doing problem after problem. Trick them with competition!

4. Real World application

Middle school math has the great advantage of lending itself to real life more than any other subject (except maybe Science, but whatever). Bring real life into your math as much as possible. Percents, Tax, Discounts and Decimals, Integer Operations with football and elevation. Use Google Earth, use newspaper ads. Challenge students to find examples of math in real life. I offered extra credit or homework passes to students who took a picture of math in real life and wrote a short paragraph explaining how that photo represents math in real life. It cost me nothing, got kids thinking, and helped answer the "What can I do for extra credit?!?" question that comes up near the end of each grading period.

5. Get 'Em Moving

Scavenger Hunt around the room. Answers lead to the next question.

Get kids up and moving! Scavenger hunts are a great idea and so easy to create.  For multiple choice questions, post a big A, B, C, and D in four corners of the room. have students solve the question and then, after a countdown, have them go to the answer they chose. This is great to see who gets it and can also be really good for discussion. (Take caution with students becoming embarrassed for getting the wrong answer. Have a plan to help those kiddos by maybe doing this activity in "strategic partnerships")

6. Technology

Ah yes, the buzzword--technology. I don't cringe at that suggestion like I used to because I've seen what it can do to my math classroom. Even if you aren't one-to-one with devices, or your kiddos can't bring devices to school, there is a lot you can do with the technology already available in your classroom. Put a QR code on something, use apps and websites already available that make the job easy. Here are a few of my favorite ways to engage technology and use it in my room.

• Quizizz
• Socrative
• QR Codes
• Google Earth

7. Mix up the Voice

Have you ever recorded your own video lessons? This is a great way for kids to work at their own pace and have the ability to pause or rewind if they don't understand something.

With apps like ShowMe and Explain Everything, making videos is easy. It may seem like a lot of work, but after a few tries you will be a pro. If you have a team, you can split the work and each make a video for a different topic or question. This shares the load and allows your students to hear another voice! Here is a quick tutorial to using Show Me to make video lessons.

Video lessons with ShowMe.

I hope those were helpful to you as you finish out the school year and look ahead to the next and thinking of ways to make your math class suck less.*

Do you have any other great ideas for how to engage your students in learning math?

*not that your class sucks. Mine does sometimes and I'm hoping to make it better.