- Appeal to your students' interests. Create math lesson plans based around things your students enjoy. If your students are avid sports fans, teach averages by using baseball statistics. Introduce fractions to a class interested in music by citing meter and time signatures. Disguising math lessons as interest items attracts students' attention while allowing them to easier understand new math concepts.
- Teach your students that math isn't just useful within the classroom. Cite examples where people use algebra in their daily routines, such as calculating gas mileage, buying a car and even following a recipe. Students often don't value math because they believe it won't be helpful to them. This method teaches them that it serves many real-life applications guaranteed to show up in their lives.
- Create math games to teach your students important applications. Use flashcards to teach them multiplication. Have them answer the questions on the cards as fast as possible. Use candy to teach word problems with addition and subtraction. For example, "Mike has 14 M&M's. If he gets an extra eight pieces from his mother, how many does he have now?" Let the students solve the problem using actual M&M candies. Allow them to eat the candies after getting the right answer. As with Section 1, math games appeal to what students like; therefore, they are more likely to pay attention and learn at the same time.
- Allow your students to choose which math concepts they want to learn every now and then. Students who have control over what the class will learn about are more likely to feel involved in the learning process, increasing their interest and motivation to perform well. Make sure not to do this too often; you are still the teacher, and there are certain concepts students must learn, whether they want to or not.
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