Look, we’ve all been there.  We’ve all heard those words every teacher dreads, “Why do we need to learn this?”  Especially in math.  (Or is it just my kids who for some reason like math the least of their classes?)  We need to find a way to get our students engaged, and that goes double for a subject so many of them are not invested in.  So how can we do this?  What can we do to get them to see how important math is?  Here are some tips to make math more engaging for your students.

Since I teach afterschool and the program is optional, I have to be sneaky about getting math in.  If I ever tried to make them do a worksheet of math problems, they’d stage a revolt.  Y’all, I’m not even joking, I’m pretty sure they literally would.  If they knew what days we were doing math, they’d probably not come that day.  Here are my three favorite tips to make more engaging for your students.

1. Use Real World Math

My first tip to make math more engaging is to use real world math.  By far, this is the best way to prevent the whining and get even reluctant math students to just dive right in and start doing the math.  Connecting the math to real world scenarios helps them see the importance of math and how we actually use these math skills in everyday life.  Make them see the value in it and how it will be useful for them, and they will buy in a whole lot more.  Show them how and when they will need this particular math skill, and give them the chance to actually do it.  Suddenly, math becomes a whole more engaging.

My favorite thing is to use budgets.  Give them a project to plan and a hypothetical budget then let them get to work.  They could plan a holiday, summer vacation, meal prep, a party, really anything could work.  Pick something they’re interested in.

I love to do a Thanksgiving Dinner budget (because you know their lives revolve around food), and it’s a math day that they actually don’t mind doing.  Give them some hypothetical money to spend, give them flyers for grocery stores, tell them what they need to get and how many people they need feed, give them serving size information to help them figure out how much of the food they need to buy, then watch them go.

2. Play Math Games

Games always make learning more fun.  You’d be surprised what something as simple writing an equation on the board and having them solve it on a small whiteboard and holding up their answer can do for making them want to solve math problems.  (If you haven’t tried that yet, you should.  My kids actually asked to do it again!  What?)  Hard to believe something so small and simple can do wonders for making math more engaging.

Play basketball and let them take a shot if they answer a question right.  Math relays are always fun too.  One member of the team races to finish a problem, then the next person solves the next one, and so on.  You know middle schoolers love them some kahoot, so yes turn that practice worksheet into kahoot and see how much more into solving those problems your students get.

Switch it up, make it new and exciting.  Who wouldn’t take that over the same old boring worksheet or copying problems out of the book?  They’re getting the same practice, doing the same problems, but one is a heck of a lot more fun for them.  A small little change in how you give them those problems to practice building whatever math skill you’re working on can really make a huge difference for them and really get your students engaged in math.

3. Give Them Chances to Succeed in Math

In so many cases, students have had many years of struggles in math.  They’ve had years of poor grades and thinking math is too hard for them.  Of course they’re not engaged.  Wouldn’t you be in that situation?  Helping them experience success in math will make it more engaging for them.  They need a chance to learn that they’re not “bad at math”, that they can do it and they can start to get more interested.

It will take some time and it is not easy by any means, but once they start to experience that success or achievement they will be engaged so much more with math.  So, give them those wins.  Build up their confidence.  They’ll be more willing to take on math.  Give them a few easy wins to help them gain confidence in their abilities.  Celebrate their victories to give them a sense of achievement.  In time, they’ll become more engaged in learning and doing math once they start to see they can do it.

Need some more ideas?  Check out Asia, the adorable face behind the Sassy Math Teacher, and her fun ideas for teaching consumer math here.

If you need some other suggestions, my girl Robin from Round Robin Math has some excellent advice in her 3 part blog series that starts here.

Do you have any other tips to make math more engaging for your students?  Is there anything else you can add to this list?  Let me know!