This video is something that I may use at the beginning of a semester to engage students and remind them that there is a reason they are learning this all this math stuff. I feel like this is one of the biggest questions I hear students ask in their math classes: "Why do I have to learn this? I'm never going to use it!" As teachers, I think we often get frustrated by this constant questioning and often get lazy in our answers: "Because I said so.... So you can get into college.... You need it to graduate." But these answers won't motivate most of our students, and if they do, they will only do so marginally. I think students need real answers! Some of what they learn in my algebra class, they will never use in their daily lives. Case in point: when was the last time you had to divide polynomials using the synthetic method? However, one of my biggest goals for my future students is that they understand math (in some form or fashion) will apply to their daily lives and will help them be more successful and independent people. Even if you go straight to the NFL after a year at college, wouldn't you want to know that you're not being cheated out of your money?
So that was my intent with this video. Certainly, it does not address the aspirations of every student I will have, and it wasn't intended to. But I would like to start the year off by informing students that I will make every attempt possible to connect this material to their lives and show them why it is valuable for them to study math - if for nothing else than it builds that problem solving and logical processing abilities.
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