Until next year!

Hello friends! It's been quite a while since I last posted on this blog. I really apologize for not having a better and more timely conclusion, but this is my temporary break from this blog. It's the summer so not much tutoring has been going on. I have had a really amazing time writing for it and I hope just one person got something out of it.


I am wrapping up my year of service with the Massachusetts Promise Fellowship, Boston Partners in Education, and AmeriCorps. Next year I will be taking on another Mass. Promise Fellowship position at Tutoring Plus in Cambridge. I will be working on a different project to individually support students and help manage an afterschool program in the Cambridge Public Schools. I'd really like to thank Boston Partners in Education for making my first year amazing. I wouldn't be continuing on with AmeriCorps again if I hadn't gotten so much support and learned as much as I have learned.

Don't forget math is still everywhere, I'll keep an eye out for you all :)


I am hoping to return to Boston Partners to volunteer again with Math Rules!, in which case, I'll be updating this blog again. Thank you for visiting, thank you for commenting, thank you for reading along.

Until then, Math Rules!





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Wrapping up

There's less than one month left in the Boston Public School year (we're running a bit late because of "snow" days), but Math Rules! will be wrapping up in the next few weeks. I've been working on end of the year surveys for our teachers, volunteers, and students. I also helped put information together for a report. From both of these, I have some good news and good data to share with everyone.


Teacher at the Eliot School - Jennifer DiSarcina (center), winner of Boston Partners in Education's Educator of the Year

This year in Math Rules! -
In raw numbers, we finished the year with 47 volunteers in over 50 classrooms helping almost 250 students throughout the year. Math Rules! volunteers provided an estimated 2000+ hours of academic mentoring and math support for Boston Public students and teachers.

Compared to last year -
*We served 38% more students than last year
*Helped out in 27% more classrooms
*Recruited 25 new volunteers
*Retained 23 volunteers from previous years
*90% of nominated students have a volunteer (up from 70% matched students last year)


Me and my students at the Orchard Gardens

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I also took excerpts of volunteer responses from the volunteer surveys and compiled them, all of them are stunning reports of awesome math students!

“G- is an independent young man who knows his stuff. I worked with him one day and not only did he know how to do the problem, he explained it to his classmates. Then he asked if he could move and do work with a buddy. He's a kind boy and I hope he opens up to me more.” – Volunteer at Tobin

Sometimes interesting math poses will help with your math
“He has generally shown his ability of constant focus on the daily tasks. He usually encourages neighboring colleagues to concentrate on the work and is not easily distracted by others. He has a good attitude and a good helper to his friends.” – Volunteer at Tobin

“...the students know me a lot better now. They are always excited to see me, and they've shown more interest in maths as compared to before.” – Volunteer at Tobin

Mr. Marcus requested I take a picture, so studious!
“I can tell that M- tries to remember the details of what I teach him each time we meet. He is getting faster and more accurate when solving math problems. I think math is becoming more fun for him now that he is getting better at it.” – Volunteer at Tobin

“I feel that D- has a lot of potential. I feel he is very sharp young man. I feel that he improves in each class which is very exciting for me.” – Volunteer at Marshall


“M- is very smart. She needs the occasional reminder and follows right on cue. She thinks out the process of the math strategy and then she practices the strategy until she has mastered it.” – Volunteer at the Orchard Gardens

“I've seen B- transform over the months. He used to be really resistant to having a tutor, but he's one of my best behaved students now. He concentrates, separates himself from distractions and tries the hardest problems in the packet. I wish I had more time to devote to him during our tutoring sessions.” – Volunteer at the Orchard Gardens


“N- is a very confident, and beautiful young woman. She is a hard worker. She does struggle but after practicing, the obstacles become less and less of a challenge and she zooms through her math.” – Volunteer at the Orchard Gardens

“…in the last three weeks I've been there I've noticed them becoming more independent and focused.” – Volunteer at Orchard Gardens


“L- is a capable student who is always sure to ask questions about topics she doesnt understand, and keep me informed about her social life. She doesn't always grasp concepts from the start but can work through them with help and works well independently” – volunteer at Quincy


A big thank you to all volunteers and students for participating in Math Rules! this year. It looks like a lot of you all did really well this year. These survey stories are just a brief glimpse into the great work and quality time spent for both volunteers and students.


If you're a Boston Partners volunteer, we hope to see you all at the Volunteer Recognition Event on June 8th!


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Tricky students

Today's volunteer sessions went pretty much the same as usual. My 5th graders worked on division problems. It was asking two ways to divide and I was stumped to help them with their worksheets. The long division or the standard algorithm we got through very quickly. The second way to solve a division problem, we used partial sums to get back to the answer. If anyone has any other solutions for division problems please let me know!

The last part of working with the 5th graders was a pop quiz division question that the students were supposed to do by themselves. I asked the kids to spread out and work on the problems. Two of my students whipped through the problem and two had a very hard time focusing. Once I asked one of the slower students to move, he finished the problem by himself pretty quickly. I think he has trouble focusing when others are distracting him. My last student sat for a long time and didn't work on her problem. When I asked her what's up, she told me "I'm thinking" which is code for "I don't know what I'm doing." She then made up excuses that the other kids knew what they were doing, and that she forgot everything, but when I nudged her and sat down next to her, she got it done. I sometimes wonder if she needs extra attention to be able to work. I know she knows her math, but she doesn't think so and gets distracted, then she distracts the other students.


My 3rd grade students were working on line graphs of different cities and their monthly temperatures. Ms. Ph later commented that the line graphs were too complex to start with, and the workbook has much simpler graphs after this first one. The three students I was working with were a bit behind on their workbooks so I was trying to help them get through the last few pages. A student aid told me not to help one of the students and I got confused - I was there to help that specific student. The student aid later told me that some of the students are tricky and want you to give them the answer instead of making them work for their own answers.

I didn't want to let her know that I already know this trick, and since I started tutoring last year, I haven't given away answers. I've gotten tutor training that has trained me to stop doing the work for the students and leading them towards the right answer by asking follow up questions that get the students to reread the question, firmly understand what the question is asking, and then figuring out how to get the answer.


Please disregard this line graph, it's a joke.
Haha! I'm smarter than 3rd and 5th graders and won't fall for their tricks. I still have to reward/bribe my 5th graders because I owe them from a few weeks back...More updates next week, have a great weekend!

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Volunteer surveys

We're working on getting volunteer surveys out sometime this week. This year we're trying to get more feedback from all involved parties in Math Rules! (students, teachers, volunteers, site coordinators, schools, and staff) so we're trying out more surveys. We're hoping for a significant response rate so we can continually improve the program.

I want to start promoting the blog as soon as possible so we can reach our volunteers and possibly even get other volunteers to blog as well, but I think we'll have to wait until survey activity dies down a bit before we can start promoting the blog.

1st day

Yesterday was my first day of volunteering with Math Rules! and it was both nerve-wracking and relatively comfortable at the same time. I've signed up to help in four different classrooms at three different schools, which seems like a lot but it wasn't too bad.

To start the day off, it was miserably rainy, windy, and cold all at the same time. My downstairs neighbor also parked behind me and I had to wait for him to finish his shower before I could go to my first class. Who's late to their first day of anything? Apparently, I am, but the site coordinator L was just happy to see me show up. She's a super nice woman who escorted me to and from both my classes.

My first two classes were with newer teachers at a school down in Dorchester. I was nervous to step into a class I wasn't familiar with, and sure enough all ~25 pairs of eyes were on me as I came in. But as the students started working, I walked around and helped them with their work and then they took an assessment test. I found three of my students while walking around, and a few other students asked me to help them as well. Not quite what I was expecting, but 1st days usually don't go as planned. Ms. H was quite welcoming and I'm sure I'll enjoy working in her classroom.

The second class was Mr. C's class. This one didn't go so well. There were noise issues and Mr. C was in and out of the class because of meetings. It was harder to connect with any of my students, I will have to talk to Mr. C about it next week. The students were working on dividing irregular polygons in half, and I had some problems with the work, as did many of the students. I think the layout of the classrooms makes it difficult to work with that small group of students, but I'll try to ask for space next week.



After catching up with L, the site coordinator, I rushed to my next school and managed to show up just a little late. Luckily for me, the students at the school were making flowers for the principal, it was her birthday. Mrs. M was super nice to me and made sure that I wasn't wasting my time even though class was behind schedule. Mrs. M's class was incredibly well behaved and I really enjoyed the class meeting they had. We finally jumped into angles of simple shapes and the students were really great at doing group work/note taking. I unfortunately had to get to my next class, but I'm looking forward to working with Mrs. M's class next week.

The site coordinator at my last school doesn't have an office anymore, so she met me in the main office. The students in this class were working on estimation as a group, then broke apart to do subtraction and checking with addition. There was a horseshoe table where I got to work with my four students. Finally! A class that sticks to what the program is working towards. It was really nice to work with the four students because one of my boys doesn't seem to be motivated to work. After he saw the other students working diligently, he finished up his work as well. All four of my kids not only finished the work on the board, but made up their own problems to solve. One of the girls managed to convince me to bring them treats next week. I might have to devise a reward system for them.

In summation, my first day of volunteering started off hectic, but ended well. It's hard to insert yourself into a classroom and pretend like nothing is different, but I hope the kids will warm up to me as the year progresses. I'm looking forward to seeing the differences by school, classroom, teacher managing styles, students, grades, etc. I hope getting this first-hand experience of Math Rules! will help in the future. I should also get around to promoting this blog as a resource for our volunteers as well. We're having a program meeting this afternoon, I'll see what we come up with.

Math Rules! Blog

First week of volunteering! I met with one of our first new volunteers JD today at one of the schools. Our volunteers will be starting all of this week and next week, I'm trying to meet with most of the new volunteers so they know where to go and who to contact.

I'm going to start volunteering on Wednesdays, I'm both excited and nervous. Being the new kid in class is tough. What if the kids don't like me? What if the teacher doesn't like me? What should I wear? I hope I don't forget all my math! I'm also going to three different schools and four different teachers, a whole day of math tutoring. I'm looking forward to being out of the office for a while. It's a shame I'm going to miss the Math Rules! training at Boston Partners though.

As Math Rules! Coordinator at Boston Partners in Education, this is part of my AmeriCorps and Massachusetts Promise Fellowship year of service. The blog is meant to be a resource for the Math Rules! volunteers, as a forum to document the Math Rules! volunteer experience. I hope other volunteers will find it useful, but we'll see.







More updates to come!
-MN