Calling all Math Teachers?

I will be student teaching in the fall and I will be teaching in the mornings. The school uses a block schedule so I will have prep period 1st period and an Algebra 2 class 2nd period. I asked my cooperating teacher how she incorporates teaching for social justice and multicultural education into her curriculum. She just said word problems. In all of my college education courses, the answer to this for the math people is always word problems. I want to make a good effort to incorporate these into my lessons this fall. This is an Algebra 2 class with juniors and seniors mostly. Any ideas will be appreciated.