You wrote: Students ask “Why am I learning this?” because they feel stupid and small, not because they want you to force a context onto the mathematics.

Yes, my experience as well. This constant call to give them content in a “real” context so that we think we satisfy their question of “Why do I need to learn this” is to be challenged. Middle school students working on percentages aren’t going to become more excited or engaged if we give then problems about mortgages on their homes.

Curiosity and engagement will always trump “real world” applications. Games, puzzles, being surprised or caught off guard with something new and trying to find out why, these are big tools in our teacher toolbox.
Good seeing you the other day.

– video plays through, no questions.
– video plays through, narrator asks questions, no input mechanism
– video plays through, software asks questions, input mechanism.

The second troubled me because there wasn’t any kind of accountability or press. Students would come to disregard teacher questions or take them unseriously.

I was worried about the third (yours) because I figured students would become irretrievably stuck at different moments. But you may have fixed us all up here with the option that lets students continue past an incorrect submission onto the rest of the video. So long as the teacher sees those submissions, I think we’re all in good shape.

– how many times a student is definitely NOT interested in the challenge of guessing the midpoint ? So he/she is way LESS interested in grids, coordinates, axis, equations etc etc. ! And way^2 less interested in knowing the solution but his/her marks in Math ONLY

– how is it possible to *meaningfully* link your Math challenges to those challenges the students see as *meaningful* ? Not simply *real life* challenges but meaningful challenges !

– my second question leads to what I think is the real bottleneck in today’s education: the constraints of overwhelming CURRICULUMS !

– closing remark: is there any *feasible* way in today’s pressured classrooms to go *deep* instead of going *shallow* ?

Thanks so much for your great work, Dan.

This is such a profound statement. Sometimes this frustration turns itself into disruptions and behavior issues (the “If-I’m-in-the-principal’s-office-then-I-don’t have-to-answer-that-question” Syndrome), but for some students it really does surface in the “Why?” question. Thanks for helping me think deeper about my classroom.