You’ve probably heard the buzzwords in math education: make math real, make it relevant, raise the rigor. But if you’re anything like me, you’ve also thought:

What does that actually look like in a real classroom with real students who think math is boring?

When I committed to using the 3 R’s—Real, Relevant, and Rigorous—as a filter for every lesson I planned, everything changed. My students started caring. They started talking. They started thinking.

This shift didn’t require new curriculum or tons of tech. It required rethinking the kinds of tasks I was giving my students—and getting honest about whether they actually mattered.

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Why I Started Using the 3 R’s

It all clicked during my Save for Success Project. My students were:

• Researching careers
• Exploring college options
• Calculating student loan totals
• Comparing different savings plans and investment strategies

They weren’t just solving equations. They were making life decisions and backing them up with math.

And the conversations that came out of this project? Incredible. Honest. Personal. Real.

This has to be the future of math education.

What It Looks Like

Here’s how I define the 3 R’s in my classroom:

• Real = A real-world context or task (budgeting, spreadsheets, repainting a room)
• Relevant = Something that connects to your students’ identities, interests, or futures
• Rigorous = The task meets the intent of the standard (modeling, procedural fluency, conceptual understanding)

I ask myself: What skill beyond the math are they developing here? Where might this show up again—in a job, in a future course, in life?

Why It Worked: and How it can work for All Math Education

✅ It made every lesson easier to defend—to myself and to my students.
✅ Students stopped asking “When am I going to use this?” because they saw it.
✅ It helped me streamline my planning by focusing on what actually mattered.
✅ Students started engaging with problems in deeper, more thoughtful ways.

This lens helped me cut the fluff and focus on the lessons that stick. And isn’t that what we want regardless of the current math education trend? 

Try This

1️⃣ Look at your next planned lesson. Ask yourself:

• Is it real?
• Is it relevant?
• Is it rigorous?

2️⃣ If it’s missing one piece, how can you build it in?

3️⃣ Bonus: Use AI to help you reframe the problem so it meets all three.

Even one tweak—like changing the context of a word problem or adding a real data set—can level up the entire experience.

👉 Download the Gold Standard PBL Planner to help apply the 3 R’s
📥 Join the waitlist for the Modern Math Teacher Membership

Final Thoughts

The 3 R’s aren’t just good teaching—they’re the foundation of a math class your students will remember. If you’re tired of surface-level learning and ready to build something that matters, this is where to begin.

Every lesson is a chance to connect content to context—and to kids. When you teach with Real, Relevant, and Rigorous in mind, you’re not just covering standards. You’re building skills for life.

Ready to create a math class that finally feels aligned with what you believe students deserve?

✨ Let’s make it happen together inside the Modern Math Teacher Membership.