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The official speech
will be in black and my side comments to you will be in red.
When they come into the
classroom on the first day of school, I have this written down
on the board (or overhead):
Take out a piece of paper and write
down your dream.
Elaborate...
What do you want to be? Do you
want to have a nice house someday? Picture it and write it
down.
Tell them that you
won't be collecting it -- that's it's just for them. Have
them close their eyes and just picture the dream for a couple of
minutes. (I also tell them, that, if they don't have a
dream, they can just copy their neighbor's!) This puts
them in the right frame of mind. The first day, we don't
want them thinking about math (or the associated stress), we
want them thinking about success.
Let them know that you
won't be doing any math the first day, so they can all relax!
How many
of you want to be successful?
Of course, most will raise their hands.
Tell them you want them to write out a list of things. You
want them to have this list right in the front of where all
their class notes will be so they see it all the time.
Highly
successful people have 6 things:
- Creativity
(Of course, give them a second to write headers down. I
always elaborate with some examples on these. I'm sure
you'll have your own examples.)
Creativity isn't just for the arts… In business, engineering,
science, medicine, those at the top are creative. They think
outside the box and do new things. Donald Trump even wrote
a book called "The Art of the Deal."
- The ability to
think and figure things out
Thinking and figuring things out isn't just for science…
Creating a dance routine requires planning and thinking.
Writing requires planning and thinking ahead.
- The ability to
self-teach
When you're close to the top or at the top of
your profession, there's no longer
anyone around to teach you what you need to know next Those
who make it to the top and stay there are the ones who figure
out what they need to learn next and learn it on their own.
This is especially true for someone setting out to create
something that's never been done before!
- A positive
attitude
Bloom where you are planted.
(Most kids
have never heard this quote before! You may want to
explain it a bit.)
I'm sure that this class isn't
where you want to be or what you want to be doing with your
time… But, there comes a time in life when you have
to decide what kind of person you are going to be – Are you the
type to gripe and complain the whole time? Or are you the type
to make the best of the situation and find a way to use it to
your benefit?
When life gives you lemons, make lemonade – and
sell it!
- Confidence
Some people just naturally have this, but most of us need to
build it… And we build it through hard work, accomplishments and
conquering fears.
- Drive
Successful people
know what they want, set their goals and aim high… They want it badly and work
very hard to get it!
(This is my college speech, so you may
want to rephrase the "majoring in" stuff below.)
How many
of you are majoring in science or engineering? In the real world, you're going
to need about 25% of what we're going to
do in this class.
(Really, a huge chunk of the
math we teach is artificial textbook math -- like factoring.
Factoring is NEVER used in the real world.) Of course,
you'll need ALL of it to survive all the other math classes
you'll be taking.
How
many of you are business majors? Can you add and subtract? Can
you work with decimals and percents?
Then you're good to go! You already have what you need in
the way of math for business. Again, you'll need ALL this
stuff for your next math classes.
How
many of you are going to be elementary school teachers?
You need all of this. Not that
you'll be using it, but you need to know
where your kids are headed math-wise so you can prepare them
properly.
How
many of you are majoring in something else?
You're not going to need any of the math we'll be doing this
semester... Except for compound
interest where you'll learn how your money can grow!
Yes, it’s very true that math is THE language of science and
money… But, I know that lots of you won’t be doing these
things. (Students
are very wise to the fact that most of them really won’t ever
use this stuff… and that’s it’s usually our game to make them
believe otherwise. I’ve found that they really do better
knowing the truth on this.)
So,
where does this put us? Why are we even here?
It's
not about the math.
(Make them write these three
sentences down.)
This is NOT a math class!
(Write that down!) This is a class in success training.
I'm going
to teach you how to be successful. You're going to learn how to
be creative, how to think and figure things out and how to
self-teach (this is the most important one). You are going to
build confidence because you ARE going to conquer this class.
It just so happens that the subject I'm going to use to teach
you these things is Algebra.
The
positive attitude and the drive are up to you. These are things
that have to come from deep inside YOU! These are your
decisions… All you have to do is to decide to have them and
they are yours… and no one can take them away!
How
many of you think you are bad in math? (About 80% of my students raise their hands on this one!)
NO!!
That's not right! You're NOT bad in math -- You just had
bad experiences with math in the past. It's doesn't mean you can't do
it. It doesn't mean that you aren't good at it! (Write this
down: It's not that I'm bad in math, it's just that I've had
bad experiences with math!)
- Albert
Einstein was four years old before he could speak and seven
before he could read.
- As a boy Thomas Edison was told by his teachers that he was
too stupid to learn anything.
- Werner von Braun flunked ninth-grade algebra. (One of
our most important rocket developers from 1930-1970.)
- Winston Churchill failed the sixth grade.
- Leo Tolstoy flunked out of college. (War and Peace)
- Louis Pasteur was rated mediocre in chemistry when he
attended the Royal College. (He later discovered that
“germs” cause disease -- got hospitals to become
sanitary, invented the pasteurization of milk and cured
rabies.)
- Paul Orfalea, the founder of Kinko's, failed the 2nd grade
twice and was actually labeled as “retarded.”
- Walt Disney was fired by a newspaper editor because he had
"no good ideas." (Yeah, Disneyland and cartoons were
really bad ideas.)
- Me --
Karen, the creator of
Coolmath.com,
(Yeah,
not like I'm putting myself in the same list as some of those
guys above!)
had
to take prealgebra THREE times (7th, 8th and 9th grade) and
barely squeaked out a C in Algebra in the 10th grade.
Now, I run one of the biggest educational websites in the world
that teaches math to over 150,000 kids a day!
Success is
a series of walls that you'll need to climb. Some are higher
than others. Each of the math classes you need to take is a
wall to climb… and these are going to be higher for some of you
than for others.
As you
climb these walls, there are going to be people on the ground
below you:
- One type will be pushing your caboose up that wall
- The other type will be throwing rocks at you, trying to
knock you down
There will
be the people next to you who are also trying to climb the
wall… These are your fellow students… They are there to
encourage you... Hey, put your foot there, this is the best way
up!
There are
two types of people standing on the top of the wall:
- One type steps on your fingers when you finally get your
hand at the top…
- I'm (that's YOU) at the top
of the wall and I'm the other type – I'm reaching my hand down to pull you
up!
It's your job in life to let the rocks from below bounce off
of you, encourage the climber next to you and climb toward the right person
at the top.
Each wall
you make it over will strengthen you and the next wall will be
that much easier to climb.
Now, how
many of you are going to be successful in this class?
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