Mathlete Lesson Reinforcement and Reward Philosophy
Dear Mathlete Parents and Students:
Each Saturday I will post the previous week's lesson on my website at www.mathletenation.com. This week's recap is on Polyhedron Nets at http://mathletenation.com/content/nets-polyhedron-cube-tetra-octa-and-icosahedron.
Why do I post recaps of each lesson? Why do I encourage the children to do reinforcement work between Mathlete classes?
This mission statement is my attempt to answer these questions but it is not The Answer. In the words of a former mentor of mine, "It is just one person's opinion." But, this person cares deeply about your children's education.
When I ask my students how many of them went onto my website www.mathletenation.com, many say that did not know it exists. My hope is that read (or review with their parents) the recap every week. A handful of children every week, usually the same children, say that they were "too busy" to do the reinforcement exercises or "I forgot my folder or the cleaning lady threw it out." The latter reasons, I believe, ONCE. The "too busy" mantra is a function of our programmed society and children hear this excuse from adults all the time; I am no exception. Of course, better planning and organization is an obvious fix but there are at least two other things going on here: 1) "grit" versus IQ or talent is a better predictor of both academic and professional success -- it starts at a young age (watch the short TED Talk at http://www.ted.com/talks/angela_lee_duckworth_the_key_to_success_grit.html); and 2) when children lack confidence, they will do the opposite of what they should do (which is to work harder); they will avoid the work, which of course, puts them further behind, and the downward spiral begins.
Part of the solution is my job to inspire them to take their own curiosity and turn it into a love of math and masterfully sticky skills (see the discussion of Mathlete Dollars below). Mathlete work is different from school "homework." Homework they have to do; Mathlete work they should want to do. I have listed my objectives below so you can help your children between Mathlete classes:
<!--[if !supportLists]-->1. <!--[endif]-->RECALL KEY POINTS: If the children choose to do their reinforcement work during the week, they can read the recap to help them recall the key points from the lesson (history, vocabulary, formulas, methods, real life applications, etc.).
<!--[if !supportLists]-->2. <!--[endif]-->PARENTS KNOW WHAT CHILDREN ARE DOING: Since parents might get very little from their children after class as to what they "did," it allows parents to get an idea as to what their children are doing.
<!--[if !supportLists]-->3. <!--[endif]-->COMFORT LEVEL AND BEYOND: Children should only work to their comfort level and then when they have mastered a particular skill, they can chose to go beyond their comfort level to challenge themselves.
<!--[if !supportLists]-->4. <!--[endif]-->IMMEDIATE FEEDBACK: Answers to the challenges are posted so children and parents can check their work; immediate feedback is key with math.
<!--[if !supportLists]-->5. <!--[endif]-->USE ANSWER KEYS TO FIND PATTERNS: I also encourage children to explore answer keys, which may inspire them to see patterns. For example, with this week's lesson on polyhedron nets, they might just want to try to copy the diagrams for some of the octahedron nets (there are 11) or copy "some" of the nets for the icosahedron (there are 43,380 possible nets, and yes, I have attached a link to a 434 page file; parents may want to supervise their child's use of the site so they do NOT print all 434 pages; my recap tells them how to select a few pages to print).
<!--[if !supportLists]-->6. <!--[endif]-->PARENT COLLABORATION: Many parents will not help their children with the reinforcement exercises and some will practically do it for their children. This is entirely your choice as parent; however, my "best of all worlds"(Panglossian) scenario is that parents would first read the recap with their child and then decide what the child wanted to try this week. The parent would say, "show me how you do this.... teach me" and their child would begin the work. As the parent senses the child hitting a wall, the parent gives the child a light push in the right direction; the child tries again on their own until they hit a wall, and so on.
<!--[if !supportLists]-->7. <!--[endif]-->SHARE METHODOLOGIES: Often times, both parent and child will try the lessons side by side and compare answers and methods (if you are looking at the pdf on Nets of a Cube (11) you will see that there are 20 possible nets on the page of which nine are erroneous; how does your child see 20? we want them to get away from counting by ones soon after kindergarten; a little better if they count by twos; even better if they see the dimensions of the array 4 by 5 or 5 by 4; or they might just know their 4 times 5 fact).
<!--[if !supportLists]-->8. <!--[endif]-->HOW TO DEAL WITH FRUSTRATION: I tell the children of my mother's philosophy of how to deal with frustration; 1. stop before you get angry; 2. have some hot chocolate or some other comfort snack; 3. take a short break; and 4. go back to it with a positive attitude.
<!--[if !supportLists]-->9. <!--[endif]-->COLLABORATION WITH FRIENDS, TEACHERS, GRANDPARENTS: Children can work on the Mathlete work alone, with a parent or both parents, with a sibling (older or younger), with a non-Mathlete friend on a play date, with a Mathlete friend, with a teacher at school or with classmates, and my personal favorite, grandparents or uncles/aunts. My grandfather always told me: "I may not be smarter than you, but I have more experience."
<!--[if !supportLists]-->10. <!--[endif]-->MISSED LESSONS: if a child is sick or has a conflict and cannot attend class, this is a great way for them to get the materials and get a sense of what we did.
<!--[if !supportLists]-->11. <!--[endif]-->PAST LESSONS: children new to Mathletes might have heard from their friends about a previous lesson that was fun. Here they can go back almost four years to see past lessons.
<!--[if !supportLists]-->12. <!--[endif]-->KRAMER LIST: during the week, children should develop a Kramer List. These are questions they wish to ask me in class or are just curious about. It could be something they learned at school that they want to explore further. I cannot always attend to every question a child has each week but I will always get back to them with an answer (or another question).
<!--[if !supportLists]-->13. <!--[endif]-->WHAT IF I AM NOT FINISHED?: often children will not produce their work at class because they did not finish. There is no such thing as "finishing" when learning math is a lifelong pursuit. Bring in your work no matter how much or how little work you completed.
MATHLETE DOLLARS: Why do I reward children with Mathlete Dollars?
<!--[if !supportLists]-->1. <!--[endif]--> Teachers will use any means to motivate students to do as many reinforcement exercises as possible with a goal toward "skill mastery" and "skill stickiness." The first has short-term benefits, but the second lasts forever ("Give a person a fish and they eat for a day; Teach a person to fish and they eat for a lifetime").
<!--[if !supportLists]-->2. <!--[endif]--> It is fun for the children to see how their hard work pays off; it is not always about getting it done perfectly; just make the effort.
<!--[if !supportLists]-->3. <!--[endif]--> Of course, in June at the last Mathlete class, the children turn in their Mathlete Dollars for prizes. The children with the most Mathlete Dollars in a class get to choose first and so on, but everyone gets a prize, usually two. Most of the prizes are small but I usually throw in an iPod (last year there were two iPhone 3s).
<!--[if !supportLists]-->4. <!--[endif]--> Some children are only motivated to do work when they get an immediate reward and some would do it without the reward. Again, the reward makes it more fun. It brings out their inner competitiveness.
<!--[if !supportLists]-->5. <!--[endif]--> Each denomination on a Mathlete bill has a famous mathematician on it (Einstein $1, Archimedes $5, Plato $20, Kepler $50, Pythagoras $100, etc.). Most of the math concepts we cover originated with one of these mathematicians.
<!--[if !supportLists]-->6. <!--[endif]--> Every year, a student solves an extraordinary problem and I put their picture on a Mathlete Dollar (last year, a kindergartener got her picture on the $50). This is the ultimate prize for any mathematician.
<!--[if !supportLists]-->7. <!--[endif]--> Many of our challenges are the subject of prizes for mathematical achievement. There is no Nobel Prize for mathematics. The most prestigious prize is the Fields Medal followed by the Abel, Wolf, Bocher and many others. Each brings a prize of $100,000 to $1 million. We talk about the prospect of one of our Mathletes winning an award someday. When Einstein was asked why he was smarter than all of the other geniuses in history and he answered that he “was not smarter, he just stayed at problems longer.” Again, the subject of “grit” (watch the TED talk).
"See you in 167 hours." I say this to children at the end of each class, but last week, a new Mathlete started calculating 24 times 7 = 168 hours. And then, that aha moment, she said "you see us at the beginning of the hour. That is why it is 167."
Best regards,
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Mr. Kramer
