Math Competition Set-up!
The day is finally here - Our second annual, district-wide elementary school math competition is tomorrow, hosted at my high school! Last year was the first time this competition happened, and it was held at the elementary school that organized it. All of the 33 elementary schools in our district were invited to send teams of fifth and sixth graders (4 to 5 students per team). The high schools were invited to send 10 students each to come volunteer by passing out supplies, grading work, reporting scores, and getting to know the younger kids. Each high schooler was assigned to a team. The event was a huge success, and this year, even more schools wanted to send teams. We have close to 200 students coming to participate in this fun and exciting event and about 50 high schoolers helping out. The competition has individual and team rounds, and the questions are based off of the nation-wise Math Olympiad questions.
Today was the day to set up everything. I convinced seven of my students to stay after for an hour and a half to help set up for the event tomorrow. Together, we set up forty 6-foot tables and twenty 8-foot tables, opened up 200 chairs, and laid out all of the materials that will be needed. It looks great! I also tested out the big speaker and microphone to make sure the playlist I created is ready to go. We will have the speakers playing fun pump-up songs for the students as they arrive by bus and gather outside in the courtyard for the welcoming announcements.
PLAYLIST HERE!
As a thank you to those eight students who spent their afternoon carrying, opening up, and organizing tables and chairs, I made goodie bags to hand out tomorrow with some snacks (oreos, granola bars, gatorade, fruit snacks, chocolate, goldfish) to eat during the competition.
Together, we were able to fit all of the tables on the rubber floor of the gym, so we won’t have to worry about scratching or ruining the brand new wooden floors of the basketball court. In the corner of the rubber floor area, there are side tables set up for the high schoolers with:
Clip boards - each high schooler will pick a random clip board that has a team name and number of the back (as a sticker). This will be the team of 4 students they are in charge of for the day
Certificates - each high schooler will get a certificate of volunteer service at the end of the day, printed on nice resume paper
Big yellow envelopes - for the individual and team rounds, the high schoolers will get an envelope that contains the questions, blank answer sheets, and an answer key to use when grading
The main organizer of the event is a math teacher at the elementary school that began this whole idea, and he is amazing to work with. He is extremely organized and loves planning things like this. I’ve learned a lot through working with him over the past year.
The ten students I brought to last year’s event left a really positive impression on some of the elementary school teachers, so the organizer asked if I wanted to start a partnership between my high school’s math team and his elementary school’s math team. I immediately said yes, so for this past school year, me and a co-worker have been traveling once a month to this elementary school. Each visit, we bring ten high schoolers to tutor and work with the elementary students at their practices to prepare for their Math Olympiad competitions. We typically brought the same students, but there was some variation if a student was not able to miss class a certain day (this travel required us to miss two full periods). Our high schoolers have done an amazing job this year and I am so proud of them for being great role models for the younger kids. I am excited to continue this partnership into next year (and hopefully beyond)!
Here is me with a group of them during one of our visits:
