Washington High School math teacher Kira Christensen has mastered being relatable, and now she's trying to make math more relatable to her students.
"When people in the community talk to me about what they want to see in their future workers they want to see people that persevere and problem solve," said Christensen. "They want to see people that can reason and make good judgement, people that are accurate."
That's exactly what the Common Core state standards focuses on. In fact, it reexamines what it means for all students to understand and do math in ways that prepare them for success in a rapidly changing world. To Christensen that means using the TV show "Survivor" and M&Ms to teach her students about decaying growth.
Sophomore Riley Klein admits that transition to the Common Core standards, which will be fully implemented in 2015 can be challenging.
"It's not just your one step plug it into your equation," said Klein. "You have to plug it into the equation you learned before that, and the one before that, and the one before that, and the one you're just learning."
But, that's when Christensen uses her favorite word.
"Perseverance. It's hard to persevere sometimes. I need to push through and keep trying, and I'm going to get there eventually," said Chistensen.
Plus, Riley already knows why Common Core math will be much more beneficial in the future.
"You're going to use it in the real world. Like your growth and decay, and compounding is like your back account and your car. How the value of it goes down and how the value of the dollar goes down," she said.
And, that's music to this math teacher's ears.
