THE Video: Math Class Needs a Makeover

Yes, this TED talk has made the rounds and I have seen it not once, not twice, but at least five times at different professional development meetings. Still, I am inspired every time I view it. And, even though I know the lines (almost by heart), I watch the whole thing from beginning to end, laughing at the line "I teach high school math. I sell a product to a market that doesn't want it, but is forced by law to buy it. I mean, it's just a losing proposition."




This is also not the first time I have used this video in a blog post. Last year, before I flipped my classroom, I decided I wanted to write a blog to keep a diary of how my year went. Along with changing my classroom, I also underwent a style makeover as well. And so "Flipped Classroom/Flipped Wardrobe" was born. In my third post I included this video and how it led me to my classroom theme "Patient Problem Solvers."  While I did not keep up with that blog (I think I made a total of around 20 posts in a whole year...) this post with this video was one of the more popular posts.

Meyer suggests that math classes need a makeover. Meyer encourages math teachers to "use multimedia, because it brings the real world into your classroom in high resolution and full color; to encourage student intuition for that level playing field; to ask the shortest question you possibly can and let those more specific questions come out in conversation; to let students build the problem, because Einstein said so; and to finally, in total, just be less helpful, because the textbook is helping you in all the wrong ways: It's buying you out of your obligation, for patient problem solving and math reasoning, to be less helpful." He goes on to discuss how we have the technology in our cell phones and tablets (and so do our students!) to create our own math curriculum that is based in the real world. A curriculum that creates patient problem solvers.

Since viewing this video the first time I have become a Dan Meyer aficionado. I have his website as a favorite on every browser on every computer I use, I follow him on Twitter, I've used some of his lessons in my class. I would love to be a student in one of his math classes. He is the type of math teacher I want to be. I hope, with the new Common Core State Standards for Mathematics, that this is the direction that all math classes are headed (my own included). 

This truly is an exciting time to be a math teacher.