The teacher with a point(er)

The teacher with a point(er)

Dave Hewitt has a fast paced metronome style that keeps his math class hopping in his video of grade 8 and 9 math classes. Students are motivated to follow by this peppy style that has students going forward and backwards and skipping over numbers on a number line that stretches all around the classroom. The tapping sound of his yard stick or pointer makes for a quick review of all students' prior knowledge so that he can expand on the number line to include Algebra.

Mr. Hewitt's subtle way of introducing algebra by saying that "I am thinking of a number ..." when he stops at a spot on the number line has students thinking, "What is it and how do I find it?"

This introduction of the variable "X" seems so natural that his students view it as the words, "I am thinking of a number ...", rather than just a meaningless letter! They are intrigued by the stop in the action, which allows them time to think, and understand that there is a relationship between the words in the problem, and its short form symbol representing the unknown, which pushes the students to want to get the answer so that the almost hypnotic rhythm will start going again.

Little did the students know that they just created their first word problem to algebra to solve for the unknown variable "X". This subtle clever introduction could be used for other math, and the game-like way that it was introduce would be very memorable for the students.

Math in action seems to be a good strategy to engage students in learning with the musical rhythm and tapping inspiring learning with understanding.

The pointer was a bit scary at first but his students seemed to be fine with the motion, tapping, and rhythm. If your students get upset it could be that they have a bad experience with a stick and possibly having been hit, so you may have to have a private talk with these students to assure them that it is a fun way to learn.