When you were in school, do you remember how you felt about math? For a majority of the population, those feelings are not positive. I am trying to change that for my students.
My students come from a low-income community where there is not a lot of spare money to be spent on games.
The student population at my school is identified as 81% socioeconomically disadvantaged. Many of them don't see education as a way to improve their future. The classes that will benefit from this project are students that have been identified by their main math teacher as a student that wants to succeed, but needs a little bit of help getting there. These students will spend their elective period in my class building those skills that they are lacking. The use of games lowers their math-related anxiety and allows for deeper learning.
With this project I am hoping to provide an opportunity for students to build a classroom community through playing together and build a love of math along the way.
My Project
I often hear from students how boring they think math is, and based on their previous experiences with math, I agree. They often have seen math as worksheets with 30 problems that look almost identical, with just a few numbers switched around. This method of teaching has led to large groups of students that refuse to even try to learn new math.
I will be using these games to build a love of math skills without making students feel like they are "doing math." Number fluency games like Absolute Zero, Tenzi, 24, and CountDown will help students build their foundational skills using operations on positive and negative numbers.
Clue and Proof! will help students build their logical reasoning skills. Many students do not realize that pattern recognition and logical reasoning are two huge math skills they will need to be successful in math. By supplementing my lessons with these math-focused games, my students will not only be having fun, but they will improve their math skills while doing so.
I am also excited to use games with my students to build a positive classroom community where all of the students interact with each other. This classroom culture will help students feel like they belong to the class "family" and create a positive attitude toward learning.
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As a teacher-founded nonprofit, we're trusted by thousands of teachers and supporters across the country. This classroom request for funding was created by Mrs. Brown and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.
