A Day in the Life of a First-Year Teacher

Monday, June 4, 2012

Why can't there be a math field trip?

I've spent the entire year telling my students about how math is actually useful in the real world. Shopping! Eating! Sleeping! Transportation! Roller coasters! Movies! (insert job here)! (insert another job here)! (insert another job here)!...

But while my students can physically see how science/social studies/English/Spanish, etc. are useful in the real world, they can't physically see how math is - well, except for taking my word for it and in the word problems we do in class. The reason why my students can see how science, social studies, English, etc. are useful is because they either 1) speak it and know people that speak it and 2) have been on FIELD TRIPS.

I sincerely believe that my students can gain a better appreciation for math if we had a "math field trip". I'm thinking maybe a "math in the City" day during the last week of school. We did several scavenger hunts in school during the winter for certain units, but the students know that Miss Rodriguez and I planned and created the entire hunt. To be honest, my students probably put up with math/pretend they actually enjoy it mostly because of me as a person and me as a teacher. But when they move up to Integrated Algebra and higher, they may not have a teacher that they respect as much (or actually teaches). They need that inner motivation. What's that word? Oh yeah, intrinsic motivation.

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