Here’s a thing I don’t think we think about enough: Your students WANT to be motivated. This is something fundamental to human beings. So, this is what I contend: you’ve never met a student who set out to become demotivated in school. Every. One. Of your students, down in the roots of their will, desires […]
Diving Deeper into Caroline Ong’s “Math is Beautiful” High Horse — In Her Own Words
Today’s a good time to let our colleague Caroline Ong, of “Math is Beautiful High Horse” renown (article about that here), to give us a bit more context on what she’s doing when she takes these opportunities to micro-rant to her students about how lovely and important and useful and beautiful her discipline is. Howdy […]
The Rainbow of Why: Go Jackson Pollock with Those Colors
Last time, we looked at this video of Caroline Ong in her Geometry class going on a “math is beautiful” tangent with her students. I labeled this as an example of a strategy we’re currently contemplating: An Apologist Winsome and Sure. Head here for a brief explanation of what the heck I mean by those […]
An Apologist Winsome and Sure: Caroline Ong’s “Math is Beautiful High Horse” Example
My favorite method for cultivating Value in the hearts of your students for the work of your discipline is called “An Apologist Winsome and Sure.” That’s a weird title — purposefully so — so let me briefly explain what I mean. An apologist is someone who makes a case for something that’s controversial. But this […]
How to *Have Fun* Helping Your Students Value School This Year
Note to readers: This post is an ongoing project in August 2022. I’ll be adding to it frequently. Introduction When students don’t optimally Value school, they’ll say things like this: This is boring. This is pointless. Why do we have to do this? When will I ever use this in my life? When they don’t […]