Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
[MUSIC PLAYING]
I can honestly say I'm successfully going to be
taking a statistics class this summer in accelerated form,
which I never thought I would ever be able to do.
It gives somebody who doesn't like math a new spin on math.
Because it really isn't just about math.
It's critical thinking.
So now with this course that is telling me how to apply it
in the real world, that's what I call a revolution.
Because now I can see where these skills that I'm
learning, or that I'd learned in the past,
are going to be applied.
I'd been so anxious about math.
I just really wanted to relax.
So this is my final semester here.
So this semester, totally different story.
And it's because of the class I took last semester.
And that's why I decided to come, because it made a big
difference.
It's going really well this semester.
The students notably act different in this class.
They realize that it's a different kind of class.
They interact differently with me, with the material.
It's really been a great experience so far.
And for me, a big part of it is students often say things
like, why do I need to know this?
You hear this all the time, especially in algebra.
Why do I need to know this?
It seems to me that we finally actually started to listen to
them, and thought about each topic.
I was doing the numbers, and I was doing
everything I was told.
But inside of me, or in my mind was like,
what is this for?
What am I going to be using this for?
If you challenge them with good critical-thinking
problems that they see and can believe are real, they're
immediately more engaged.
They're very appreciative of the fact that we're not just
running them through the same cycle of symbol manipulation
that they've seen before and they remember being
unsuccessful with in previous math courses.
They hear from employers the students lack problem-solving
skills, ability to work in groups.
And those were things that our new math literacy course was
specifically designed to address.
They'll be more prepared for college-level thinking,
because they've been wrestling with
difficult things all along.
And we also, in this course, touch on some of the more
specific topics that they need in those courses that don't
get addressed in a traditional algebra class.
My retention was amazing.
I was able to remember things.
I was able to associate things together, make sense out of
the problems, I guess you could say.
I have an A in my stats class.
I do like math now, actually.
And it really is surprising that I think I'll be able to
apply it now to my life.
I've seen the reactions of students.
When you put a whole class of students together that are all
non-STEM and, again, typically for me that would indicate
that these are going to be a group of all of the weaker
students I would have typically had in a traditional
intermediate algebra course, and put them all together and
challenge them with problems that they can actually relate
to and actually see value in, and see them come alive--
it's just eye-opening.
It's worth it.
If there's 30 people in there, and there's one person I would
really affect, then it makes what I do worthwhile.
And I look at this project, and I look at this new course
area and this movement and I think, this is a chance to
make a difference for thousands of students.
I absolutely do not think this is an easy
A. You have to work.
You have to dedicate time.
You have to do a lot.
But I promise, it's worth it.
It really is.