The Extraordinary Educators Podcast

Gamifying the Math Classroom with Matthew Weimann

• Sari Laberis • Season 5 • Episode 44

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Discover the magic of mathematics with a twist of flair as we chat with Pennsylvania's own Matthew Weimann, a math maven and business-savvy educator. This week's episode of the Extraordinary Educators Podcast brings you an invigorating conversation that will reshape your thoughts on math education. Matt takes us through his unique classroom, where he spices up math lessons by introducing real-life business scenarios, from redecorating walls to running a lemonade stand. His innovative methods don't stop there; Matt also dives into how he employs classic games like dominoes, cribbage, and chess to sharpen students' strategic thinking and mental math skills, proving that numbers aren't just figures on a page—they're the building blocks of strategy. But this isn't just a math lesson; it's a glimpse into the heartbeat of passionate teaching. You'll be inspired as Matt discusses how blending generations through traditional games can create a rich, educational tapestry.

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Sari Laberis:

Curriculum Associates presents the Extraordinary Educators Podcast with host Sari LaBerris. Hear tips, best practices and successes to improve your teaching and leadership and drive student growth and learning. Hey everyone, welcome back to the Extraordinary Educators Podcast. It's Sari and this week we are joined by the incredible Extraordinary Educator Matt, who is a math teacher in Pennsylvania. Matt talks to us about these incredibly engaging real-world experiences that he has with his students in his math classroom, so we hope you enjoy our conversation with Matt as much as we did. Here it is.

Sari Laberis:

Welcome, Matt. We are so glad you're here.

Danielle Sullivan:

Thank you. So, matt, I know that you teach math and I'd love to know what are some of the things that you're thinking about top of mind when it comes to mathematics in your classroom.

Matthew Weimann:

Sure, I have a little bit of a unique situation because I teach math enrichment, so I'm specifically pushing kids to deepen their understanding about math concepts that are taught in the math regular math classroom. And I have two go to things that are kind of like my MO. One is games because, like, who doesn't like games? They're just fun, and I'll talk more about games in a second. But the other thing that I really I use math for my classroom and in my teaching is business, and that's for two reasons. One is I have a business background. Actually I ran my own painting business for years before starting this as a second career. My education teaching is a second career for me, so I bring those entrepreneurial ideas into the classroom. And then the other reason is it's business like kids. I'm growing the leaders, the innovators, I'm hoping, of the next generation, and I want to see them practice good business sense and make good decisions for us, for my future.

Sari Laberis:

That is so cool, and how lucky are your students to be able to really see that real life application as they're learning these concepts. So I would love to learn more. I guess we can dive into games first. Talk to us what games look like in your classroom. How do you decide what games you're playing and how has this been received by your students?

Matthew Weimann:

You know what I? Oftentimes they don't like the games as much as I do, and but the games that I present in my classroom are old school, so I teach my students how to play dominoes like the way the old guys on picnic tables in the park play, and for a few reasons. One is as I learned how to play I didn't grow up playing dominoes but as I learned how to play and how to teach dominoes, it's awesome problem solving skills. Also, there's mental math. You're adding at least four numbers at the same time and you're trying to come up with multiples of five. So there's so many different concepts in there.

Matthew Weimann:

You're saving bones. They're called for future plays. It's very strategic. Another old game I play is cribbage, and then there's the classic chess. So these are some games I use to teach math. We use math to play the games, and one of my main reasons for using these old games is so that we can bridge the gap between generations. I want to see my students play with their grandparents and their grandparents friends as they go home for vacations and over some breaks.

Danielle Sullivan:

I love that so much, especially in a time when everything's online and kids aren't used to actually physically playing games with chess pieces and you know and it's also manipulative, like that's so great. Now I want to talk about the second thing you're excited about business. Tell us how are you approaching that, what kind of strategies are you using and what are the students' reactions?

Matthew Weimann:

I think they pretend to like the business lessons a little more, but I think it's because it's about money.

Matthew Weimann:

I bring what I did into the classroom for my lessons and I teach them how to figure out the square footage of walls and they have to figure out how much wallpaper to order I used to do custom repaints and also wallpaper hanging and they have to charge for taking down the wallpaper, for prepping the walls and this is all. After figure out the square footage. Then we charge for tax and they have to save money for their taxes. And that's just the beginning. But those are like principles and using the math in showing them what they might do in the future and it's from my own personal experience. But then also I teach them about running their own lemonade stand, how to charge for shoveling driveways, because I live in Pennsylvania which got dumped with like eight inches of snow. Like one of my students told me that their older brother made $300, him and his friend in a day, and like bringing those stories to the classroom. Like you know, cha- that is.

Sari Laberis:

That is so cool. I'm curious if, if folks are listening to this and they this, you know the light bulbs are going off. Wow, my students will love it. So this makes so much sense making their connections not just connections, but applications to the real world. Do you have any tips or advice or um a place for them to start when, if they're thinking about this, yeah, for sure.

Matthew Weimann:

What I usually do is I will take a concept and then I'll look at what I'm teaching and I'll make it work Like if I'm teaching decimals, multiplying decimals. You can apply that to a million different things. And so I'll just tell them a story about how I used to collect newspapers as a kid and it was recycling newspapers and brought them to a recycling factory is like this actually happened. And then they have to use the principles to see did Mr Weimann make any money? And the answer believe it or not is no, I did not make any money. I made like 50 cents in a month. But take a story and then figure out how to use the math in there, and I always love marrying lots of different math ideas into the same story so you can build on what they've already learned and apply new concepts.

Sari Laberis:

That's awesome. Thank you so much for sharing. And what about? What about the games? How do you plan your lessons involving those?

Matthew Weimann:

Those, uh, well, it depends on the age, right, um, and a lot of. So chess is a lot of just problem solving, but also, with chess, I love teaching really young students like first, second, third graders, because you can, um, you can, and it takes some background, you know, with the games, but they actually have point values to the pieces so you can tell the students what's the better move, add up the points that you could collect after you know a couple of moves, and you're going to capture these pieces we captured, not kill. So after you capture the certain pieces, how many points would you have? And then they are evaluating and analyzing the different moves. Like this is, like you know, true chess thinking, and it gets them thinking in a different way too.

Matthew Weimann:

The dominoes is another second grade, but also, uh, I had my fifth graders learning how to play because, a they didn't know how and, b I wanted them to problem solve and show them that this really simple game actually causes you to have to do a bit of analysis in order to make the best decision. They poo-pooed it, um, and they wanted to do Math 24, which is really fun, and crunching numbers and developing pattern sense, but it's also because they were already familiar with that. I actually had my students debate whether we should learn and practice Math 24 versus dominoes at the beginning of the year. Dominoes won, but that's because my vote counted as 100.

Matthew Weimann:

That's another question for them.

Sari Laberis:

That is awesome and thank you for sharing those tips and kind of your planning and preparation behind that, because I'm sure folks listening are excited to dive in their classroom. So unfortunately that is all the time we have for today, but thank you so much again for being here, Matt. It was great speaking with you and learning from you.

Matthew Weimann:

Thanks for having me. I really appreciate it.

Sari Laberis:

Get inspired by following us on social media and please tag us in your posts on X at Curriculum Asoche and on Instagram, at my Eye, ready. If you have feedback about the podcast, a topic of interest or if you want to be a guest, email extraordinaryeducators at cainccom. Please subscribe where you listen to podcasts and if you'd like to help more educators, just like you, join the conversation and please leave a review. Remember, be you be true, be extraordinary. The Extraordinary Educators podcast is produced by Curriculum Associates, editing by Shane Lowe, social media by Atsiti Hanan, guest booking by Sari LaBarris by Shane Lowe, social media by Atsiti Hannon, guest booking by Sari LaBarris, and production by Haley Browning. This podcast is copyrighted materials and intellectual property of Curriculum Associates.