Slope, slope, slope, slope, slope, slope, slope, slope

First, I have to say I can't take credit for this myself.  The mysterious "Andrew" left a comment on this post

and it was too awesome to ignore.  It didn't seem like he had a blog, so I figured I'd post this because it worked really well.

Second, I swear that my classes aren't all songs and dances.  I just wanted to post this now because I know teachers will have just done slope or are starting it soon, and it went really well.

Andrew's suggestion was to use the tune to Flo Rida's "Low" but with the following words:

The difference of the y and the difference of the x

Also known as rise over run

Divide the two

And then reduce

Then you got slope, slope, slope, slope

I added the following verse in between chorus' to add a little excitement:

"When I'm sittin' in math and I'm tryin' to find

How to get the the slope, the slope of a line

I think about the rise, and the run all the time

Then I think of this song, and I'm gonna be fine

1/2 slope come on

1 slope come on

2 slope come on

now that's three slopes

You think I'm a dope?

I'd gotta say nope

I am gonna find that slope!"

So, I easily found an instrumental version of the song by searching google and played it in the background.  I had a student from another class help out the first time to introduce it.  This is how it went(the 3rd time through):

I cracked myself up today

I was looking through my lesson on slope from last year, and there were a bunch of frames with this skateboarding guy to help show how to think about slope.

So I'm flipping through the frames and I come to one where I was trying to explain how the slope of a vertical line is undefined, which I completely had forgotten about...

 

I laughed pretty hard.  Chalk up a positive for having a terrible memory.

(Now with 100% less titlefail!)