With my math classes, I have found that students generally come into class with very polarized views of the subject. In their prior education the have either found that they enjoy the topic and learning additional techniques and methods or they have struggled with the topic and have determined that they really will have no practical application for the material we are going to be covering. In order to keep the entire class engaged, I find the Motivator role of the instructor very important. Within this role it is important to engage the students who begin the class with a self-induced barrier to really engaging in the class for fear of failure ("This material isn't really useful to me" is a clear signal that someone has struggled with it in the past and is rationalizing). Keeping the tone of the class "light" and acknowledging the progress students are making as well as giving examples in their everyday lives that the concepts can be applied really seems to help dissolve the "distancing" some students do at the start of a quarter.