Motivating the Class

[Music] [Music] [Music] it was a big day for Bill he arrived in class early that morning to make sure that everything was ready and he was a little nervous most of my student teachers are when they take over an actual class for the first time but I wasn't worried about Bill as his supervising teacher I knew him to be capable Earnest and eager he had the makings of a fine teacher he had a good understanding of theory now what he needed was more practical experience if anything bill was a little too eager I sensed that the moment I walked into the room that morning who's this guy uid anyway oh hello Mr Vance how do you feel now the big day is arriv fine a little nervous maybe no I don't think so I've got my lesson plan pretty well worked out along the lines that you outlined to me the other day yes but today I want to spend the period getting the students interested in the broader aspects of math sort of an orientation to our work this term you know I'm glad you said uh getting student interested that's really the teacher's first job if we as a teacher College haven't helped you do that then we've really failed good morning I want you to feel that this class is yours I'll be in the back of the room but pretend like I'm not there for mathematics is mathematics is the queen of the Sciences it is not only one of the oldest Sciences in human history even the ancient mathematicians and philosophers such as euklid Pythagoras and Archimedes and many others who solved many problems were ignorant of the present day easy arithmetical methods of adding subtracting multiply dividing we can't expect to learn them all in one year or two or even three I've written them down because I think you should have some idea of the vastness of mathematics of the many ways it influences our daily lives around this way as I was about to say mathematics is an exact science you can depend upon mathematics am I boring you fellows no sir I suppose you boys are taking down notes of this discussion let me see that paper is this some new kind of tic tac toe you boys have learned to play no sir it's a basketball ball play we're working out for Friday's game I hardly think that a mathematics class is a place for that sort of thing do you as I was saying mathematics constitutes an exact science L you [Music] this illustrates the reliability of numbers as compared with the reliability of our senses our senses tell us that this line is longer than this line but in this case our senses are misleading the only exact an is by actual measurement we find that both lines are exactly the same length of course this is an optical illusion it fools us but it doesn't fool the ruler it's important you see that we depend upon numbers I suppose your girls are on the basketball team too oh I'm sorry these are costume sketches for the school play let's try to keep our minds in mathematics shall we as I was saying I becomes the unknown factor which in algebra is usually expressed by the letter X you better get used to that letter X it represents the unknown it's the ultimate goal in any mathematical Adventure it's the amount of stress a brid will stand it's the amount of heat in the atom bomb it's the cause of cancer that little letter xes come there it is [Applause] [Music] a good knowledge of arithmetic is necessary in order the interest equals a principle time the rate time the time to repeat the interest equals a principal time the rate time the time the interest equals principle rate time good knowledge of algebra is for an understanding of geometry however our is more mod War a good knowledge of arithmetic is necessary good knowledge of Al however arithmetic is more than either algebra or a good knowledge of arithmetic is necessary in order to understand good knowledge of Al understanding of geometry however [Music] so this is teaching I feel as I'd been rung through a ringer you look it and so do most of your students I I don't get it I tried to make this stuff interesting maybe I'm just not a good teacher that depends bill you know your subject and you're enthusiastic about it but don't forget you have to teach boys and girls too you have to make math their interest what do you mean well let's sit down over here for a minute I uh I'll analyze it for you the way I did from the back of the room first you have to ask yourself why are you a good mathematician bill why I I'm just interested in it yes but why are you interested in it well for one thing I hope to earn my living with it I had hoped to then as you know my father is a math teacher and well I just like the order and beauty of math the Precision of it those are sound enough reasons you're interested in math because you're going to make money at it you want your father to be proud of you it appears your need for order and Beauty those are basic human goals Bill and your interest in math helps you to achieve those goals but what about those students in here today what did you do to help them achieve some of their basic goals nothing on the contrary my boy you bored some and frustrated others take those two basketball players it happens one of those boys is the team captain they're tremendously interested in that game basketball or any sport helps them to achieve some of their basic goals and take those girls they were interested in costumes appearances that's an important goal for teenage girls Bill and you frustrated those students too and when those airplanes went by you were annoyed because students jumped up and ran across the room but why shouldn't they run for nearly 40 minutes they had been barricaded in their seats it wasn't just curiosity that made them go to the windows another goal was simply to move around and you frustrated them too the price of frustration was irritability and impatience you felt it yourself you were frustrated by your failure to get class interest but think how badly they were frustrated what's the answer the answer is to interest them to motivate them to set up goals with their help which they all want to achieve between now and tomorrow Bill give it some thought I'm sure there are many things that you can do for instance the next morning I watched Bill carefully knowing that he'd probably been up half the night thinking over the many things we had talked about and now I was very eager to see what he had figured out so he remembered the airplane incident yesterday it had worked against him today he would use it to Advantage yesterday some of you wondered how fast those airplanes were going well you know that's a mathematical problem if I ever heard of one what is the speed of sound does anyone know I was right bill must have been up half the night and he had come up with something with this simple device he caught the imagination of the class now they were interested in the days to follow Bill held their interest he incorporated into his lesson plan many practical illustrations of mathematics that were equally meaningful to his students the other day some of you fellas were doping out a basketball play you were expressing concrete things in terms of symbolic letters in in algebra we do pretty much the same thing we use symbolic letters to express concrete things the students now began to find some personal interest in the subject bill was doing a good job of relating mathematics to their daily experiences last week we talked a little about optical illusions we said that numbers don't lie well perhaps they don't lie but they can be disguised Alice Betty with the help of Alice and Betty I plotted a trick to show you a practical way to disguise numbers Alice here appears to be tall and slim while Betty appears to be short and plump actually they are both the same height and have the same waistline thank you girl Bill showed them that numbers weren't as cold and formidable as they appeared to be moreover he gave them many opportunities to participate in demonstrations working together they developed a number of interesting projects they went Outdoors they enjoyed what they were doing and they learned mathematics all all at the same time Bill found some good Motion Pictures that he worked in with his lesson plan the projector itself provided opportunities to explore some practical problems in ratio the work became increasingly meaningful to the students yes it was an interesting class you could tell that much just looking around there was a lively Spirit of competition which kept the students on their toes they helped to build models which sharpened their ability to visualize it gave them a chance to work with their hands as well as their heads a subject area which had seemed remote and dull became alive and real there was group Spirit too the Young took pride in their progress and were encouraged to keep it up there were other goals too without boring them Bill let them know that mathematics would help ensure a secure future he repeatedly appealed to their need for beauty and Harmony the room took on a new appearance it became a place where the pupils found the necessary incentives to be well balanced successful students just looking over the room I knew that Bill's method of motivating the class would have worked equally well in any subject area thinking of joining the math club Mr Vance It looks interesting enough my your pupil certainly have responded they keep me in my toes the fellas are waiting for you down the gy see what I mean who is this guy ID anyway [Music]