I stole a great activity from my colleague for my Math Lab this week. It involved making collages to represent the things that we need in our lives and the things that we need to learn math. Students were first asked to select things they need in their lives from a list of words containing things such as “security,” “play,” and “be to understood.” Then they cut pictures out of magazines and decorated their collages.

Most students enjoyed the activity, some even asked if we could do more collages. However, there was a group of boys that did not want to do the activity. Perhaps it was peer pressure or the fear of looking appearing “good” or studious in front of their friends that prevented them from working. This group has so far not participated much in class.

There seems to be one girl who is in this circle of friends. She was one of those who enjoyed the task and asked to do more. After class, she happened to linger in the room and I took the chance to chat with her briefly. I asked her to be on the look out for ways to engage the boys in her circle of friends in class. She seemed to be on board. Stay tuned…