Math Professor Pranks Class, Video Goes Viral [Video]
Did you ever think that math class was dry? Perhaps boring? You probably wouldn’t if you had Professor Matthew Weathers of Biola University in California. Apparently, he likes to keep things interesting and is known for pranking his class on April Fools’ Day, according to Yahoo.
This year, on April 1, the trigonometry professor played a video demonstration of himself on a projector, explaining a math problem. Then, things became bizarre. Weathers shouted out to his video persona, saying his alter ego was making errors. The video version of the professor curtly responded with the following.
“Why don’t you come over here and say that to my face?”
Then, things intensify. The 3-D professor then appears to “enter” the projection screen, seeming to “fight” with his video counterpart. He then becomes trapped in the YouTube video.
The two versions of himself fight with computer icons, which go soaring, some flying out of the screen into the 3-D world, according to Business Insider.
The professor owned up to the prank, writing the following on YouTube, according to the Huffington Post.
“I played a trick on my math class for April Fool’s Day. In this one, I’m showing a ‘homework help’ video that gets some trigonometry wrong. How embarrassing!”
Apparently, Weathers has become known for similar interactive videos to help teach what is otherwise often though to be an uninspired subject matter: math. According to the Huffington Post, the professor has been described as noteworthy. The school publication, The Chimes described him in a 2010 article in the following manner.
“[Weathers is a] professor that brightens your day during class by bringing color to an often not-too-interesting subject.”
It’s apparent that, as some commenters of the video stated, the professor loves his job and tries to keep his students interested in the subject matter. He has posted to YouTube other amusing, interactive videos that he uses as learning tools, with varying themes, and with live action playing against a video version of himself. He even has his own YouTube channel, the MD Weathers Channel, which lists over 18 thousand subscribers.
There are teachers who try to motivate students and use techniques that are appropriate to do so. Unfortunately, there are some who use inappropriate methods, such as bullying, to reach a desired goal. Hopefully, they are few and far between. A student in Florida wanted to document one of her teachers bullying another student, so she grabbed her cell phone and captured audio of the teacher saying horrible things to the student, according to an Inquisitr article. Unfortunately, the school chose to suspend the girl for “violating the teacher’s privacy.”
[Photo by Christopher Furlong/Getty Images]
