Cleveland High School math teacher Ian Maurer has recently gained over 100 subscribers on his YouTube channel, surprising the community as a whole. The channel’s name is “Ian Maurer Math,” which first surfaced in 2020 as a tool for students during distance learning.

Over quarantine and the year that followed, Maurer gained around 70 subscribers, primarily students. Even though most of his videos are under 10 minutes and have five to 10 views, the consistent weekly uploads really boosted his channel. The persistence paid off because just a month into the 2022 school year, he had finally broken the 100th subscriber mark.

“I wish I wasn’t as happy as I was when I broke 100 subs,” laughed Maurer.

Very soon after, his channel blew up within his new math app classes and carried itself up to around 140 subscribers. The video titles are based on math targets learned in class, letting students easily figure out what they need to watch. Maurer also keeps his content barely edited to showcase that even he makes mistakes when doing math. He now firmly holds the title of the most subscribers for a math-related YouTube channel in our school.

“Begging students to subscribe with a pouty face got me about 10 subscribers in a single class,” said Maurer.

This tactic was a main benefactor in his recent success this year, as students started subscribing after seeing how much it meant to him.

However, not all of his audience is from our school. Maurer was able to see the demographics of his channel, and around 10 percent of subscribers are from India. This shows promise to his “second career” picking up outside of our community and around the world.

“The dream is that other people who are not taking my class will subscribe just to learn something,” he said.

Maurer hopes that more people outside our school will comment on videos about new ideas and concepts that they want to see. This would make a more interesting connection between him and his fans, instead of students only watching to get a better grade.

Ellen Maiden Mcglothen is another teacher who also creates math help videos for her students. Her Youtube channel is named “Ellen Maiden Mcglothen,” and has six subscribers with an average of 30 views per video. She started her channel in Lima, Peru, after her school gave teachers iPads in 2017. Compared to some of Maurer’s videos she has more views, but students are rarely ever subscribing.

“We should make an award, I don’t at all see it as a competition,” she wrote in an email.

Maiden has a good outlook on the subject and is only interested in providing math help specifically for students. She doesn’t care as much about the statistics of her channel and internet fame, a good thing for Maurer because less local competition and more supporters is just what his channel needs for maintaining this traction.

Maurer is toying with the idea of handing out a small item to thank recent supporters who have helped him on his journey to 100 subscribers. Make sure to check out both YouTube channels, and keep a look out for a potential subscriber merch drop from “Ian Maurer Math.”