Where some teachers would see a classroom full of students who have had difficulty learning math via traditional teaching methods, others see a great excuse to start a fantasy football league. The draft is handled basically the same way, but after that, the numbers are crunched much differently from the way lazy slobs like you and I do it. Instead of using a website to track their players’ performances, they look up the numbers in the newspaper and calculate it by hand. Screw something up in your multiplication, or forget to factor in a fumble, and your team is docked points. Seems like an awesome motivational tool to me.

NECN has the full story, which included the video you can find after the jump. To tell the truth, I don’t blame the first teacher’s principal for being skeptical of the idea at first – my first thought was that the teacher seemed like the kind of guy who was mostly motivated by the prospect of getting to play fantasy football at work (not that there’s anything wrong with that). But it seems like it’s a genuinely effective teaching tool. Wonder if they’ll expand it into other fantasy sports after the season.

And check out this website devoted to the use of fantasy sports for math education. Looks like this might really be catching on. There’s also a book for teachers and parents who want to give it a try.  (More …)