My husband shared this video with me this morning and believe it or not I had this EXACT conversation with a student yesterday. If you ask my father, he would tell you that he has also had this conversation with me on multiple occasions throughout my educational career. There are so many different strategies and programs available to teach math and there are lots of different kinds of learners. Teachers have to choose the best math program and then decide the best way to teach it to all the unique students in your classroom.
Yesterday I was helping a student speculate on a money math problem. This student has sporadic moments of math lucidity although I haven't yet figured out how to evoke them yet. If I try too hard, he will cry. If I don't encourage him enough he doesn't try. I suggested multiple techniques (that he knows how to do) to resolve the math problem yet it was as if it was the first time he had ever heard of them. I believe if I can find a way to motivate him to learn the concept (besides bribery) I will have won half the battle.
One of the teachers in our school had a dinky dollar day where the students brought trinkets to school to sell to each other. Everything was a dollar. The money was applied to books for the classroom. The kids enjoyed this and looked forward to it. Maybe having a special week of dinky dollar days during math (but price items $.85, $.75, .$60, etc. instead of $1) might just give them the motivation they need to learn.
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