Guest MINDSETTER™ Rogachefsky: The Importance of Making Math Fun
Wednesday, May 03, 2017
“We’re all going to college!” shouted a boy from the back of my geometry class. He was in tenth grade. He’d arrived from Columbia three years ago. He was a soccer player, involved in a local gang, and dreamed of going to Rhode Island School of Design to pursue a career in men’s fashion. And he, like the rest of my class, worked incredibly hard all year to get his math skills to a college level. As Math Awareness Month comes to a close, I reflect on my own struggles in math and how I use this to connect with my students every day.
My path in education began when I joined Teach For America. I’d always loved learning and mentoring, and I looked forward to working with students who didn’t always have equal access to educational opportunities. I was a little surprised when I discovered I would be teaching high school math – it hadn’t exactly been my favorite subject growing up, and fifty percent of my incoming students had failed Algebra I the year before. How was I supposed to engage kids who have learned to despise math when I wasn’t math’s biggest cheerleader myself? I had to earn their trust.
The first day of class, I told all of my students that I would not let them fail my class. I learned to struggle with them through lessons, and I did what I could to make class more engaging. We did scavenger hunts, debates, murder mysteries, brain puzzles, and tons of skill-building games. I put them on teams and made them compete against each other. I remember one particular afternoon when I was working with a student from a different math class. After she was finished with a problem, she said, “Aren’t you Mr. Rogachefsky? You’re the one who makes math fun!” Surprised yet pleased, I chuckled, “You’re probably thinking of someone else.”
By the end of that year, my classes had averaged five years of growth in math and 90% of them passed my class. It wasn’t all fun and games, of course; I initially struggled with classroom management and weekends consisted of rethinking procedures and finding relevant examples, but eventually I worked to bring in guest speakers, take my kids on field trips, and teach life skills such as coding and financial literacy. I can’t help but think how much math can truly transform young lives.
As we are finally recovering from the fallout of predatory lending practices, as we continue to become a more computer-dependent society, and as big data has become the forefront of business, we need now, more than ever, an emphasis on math education. Showing kids just some of these possibilities is crucial to ensuring that we hand our future over to responsible young minds.
The last two years, I’ve made it my goal to expose students to their future by organizing six different field trips centered around college and careers. On a recent trip to the University of Rhode Island, one of my kids asked a panel of 30 college students a simple question: Have you ever thought about dropping out? More than half of the panel raised their hand. It is so difficult for students to progress when they don’t see an end. Many of my students have challenges at home, but math gives us hope that every problem has a solution. And my students give me hope in the future leaders of tomorrow.
Teach for America has exposed me to a problem that has been unsolved for centuries: how do we overcome boundaries of race and class to unlock the potential of every child? By having tireless, mission-driven leaders in high positions of power, we can one day hope to develop an equation for success.
Marty Rogachefsky was a 2014 Teach For America – Rhode Island corps member and teaches math at E-Cubed Academy.
Related Slideshow: The Power List - Health and Education, 2016
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