In my lessons, I have incorporated sports such as tennis to teach the coordinate plane, football to teach the additive properties, weight lifting to teach solving equations and pool to teach angles. Students will be asked to apply their knowledge by simulating a budget, constructing a coordinate plane and finding the surface area of various sports equipment. Students will be asked to explain what they've learned in their own words. Critical thinking will be emphasized throughout the curriculum. This question is echoed throughout every school in America.
Most students are only concerned with the material that is directly related to what they experience.
Our job as teachers is to provide our students with the material that will allow them to make connections between school and the real world. The California Framework emphasizes that teachers need to incorporate real life experiences and student familiar settings in order to create optimal learning in the classroom. I decided to present a two week thematic unit called The Real World.