Make class fun

“What we learn with pleasure, we can never forget.”
Louis Mercier

As you have probably already determined, I have a fairly optimistic way of looking at the world.  I believe in making life enjoyable and that all but the most somber situations can be made so.
You already know that I taught math, which can be deadly dry and dull.  I didn’t grow up with the deep desire to be a math teacher.  I actually ended up there by default, because my parents wouldn’t pay for college for what I really wanted to be – an actress or a pilot!

So here I was at twenty-two years old with a degree in secondary mathematics and a new husband who was just beginning college after a stint in the military. I was the primary breadwinner, so it was up to me to bring home the paycheck.  Math might not have been my passion but it was up to me to make it work. Instinctively, I knew that I had to make class enjoyable not only for my students but also for me.  After all, it was my own life I was creating and if I didn’t choose to make it worth living, who was going to? 

I sought ways of making class fun.  I collected rebuses which I used as bonuses.  I found a math game called Krypto (now available on Amazon and other sites) which I modified to use for the entire class.  (The kids liked it so much that they became ‘Kryptomaniacs’ and wanted to play constantly.)  I even turned factoring – a process in Algebra – into a bingo game.  Students did more math problems in one game than they ever would have done as homework.  Because it was fun, they eagerly did the work and improved in the skill dramatically.

I used humor wherever possible, anything to make the kids enjoy being in the class.  I told them early in the year, “You might not like math, but I want you enjoy the class.  We’re on the same journey for the next 180 days, so we might as well enjoy the ride.”  I know this worked, because to this day, I still hear from former students who tell me how much they learned in my class and how much they enjoyed it (Thanks, social media!)  I got to enjoy it, too, which makes sense for a job that’s undeniably very challenging.