Math Mentors/Coaches FAQ

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What is this Team Battelle Math Mentors/Coaches (TBMMC) Project?

This Team Battelle project is a way for Battelle staff, family members, and retirees to volunteer their time to encourage an interest in math amongst local area students. See the main page for a summary description or view a detailed description. Contact the Project Director if you have additional questions.

What is the time commitment?

There is a wide range of levels of effort for volunteering under this project. There are roles that could be as little as an hour a year up to as much as several hours per week. The types of roles are described on the TBMMC Project Details page, but the list below shows roles and a typical level of effort. Regardless of which role you take, I would ask that volunteers follow through and meet the responsibility that they take on.

Mentor/Coach for Math Club/Team (Lead)
2+ hours per week
Mentor/Coach for Math Club/Team (Assistant)
1+ hours per week
Mentor/Coach for Math Club/Team (Periodic Assistant)
1+ hours per month
Tutor
1+ hours per week
Contest Proctor/Scorer/Supervisor
4-6 hours per event
Event Helper
1+ hours per event
Guest Speaker
½-2 hours per event
Problem Writer / Solution Writer
1+ hours, as desired

What is the difference between coaching and tutoring?

Coaching involves working with students to learn concepts, practice for math contests (such as Math Is Cool), and do enrichment. The mix of contests and enrichment (movies, games, ~hey this is neat~ discussions, etc.) depends on the coach and what best suits the students. Materials that a coach covers tend to be fairly broad because contests touch on many math topics; the school's math curriculum generally doesn't play a role in contest preparation.

Tutoring is working in a one- or two-student setting to help the student(s) understand math concepts in the context of their math class curriculum.

Both activities would be nominally once a week. However, coaching activities basically run the duration of the school year (depending on whether you are a periodic assistant coach), whereas tutoring is on an as-needed basis, with requests for tutors typically starting mid-way through the first quarter (i.e., as mid-term grade reports make their way home). The other distinction is that math clubs typically meet after school (~2:30-3:30) or sometimes before school (~7AM). With our current approach to tutoring, tutors would meet with the student at a time convenient for both the tutor and the student (e.g., evenings/weekends).

What are the requirements of which I must be cognizant?

There are several types of requiements for Team Battelle volunteers working on the TBMMC project.

First, it is important that volunteers tell the project director how many hours they volunteer each month. If you are reporting for several people, indicate the number of volunteers as well. To facilitate tracking your time, a activity record form is provided, on which you can record your hours (and number of volunteers) as well as information about what you were doing and how many students were involved.

Additionally, staff must adhere to company policies (e.g., appropriate use, managing time, contact with media, use of Battelle or PNNL name, etc.), which are described in interally available documentation.

Finally, volunteers must follow applicable policies specified by the school district in which the volunteer is working. School district policies relevent to this volunteer effort include background checks, dealing with registration/money/ASB, and dealing with transportation to contests. Confer with your school contact as to specific requirements.

What forms must I fill out and how often?

To volunteer in schools, you will need to fill out a volunteer form well ahead of your volunteering activity (Pasco in particular seems to require a very long lead time). Typically volunteer forms must be completed once per year, apply across the school district (but check with the school of interest to confirm), and require basic information for the purpose of a background check. While our volunteers have specific intent and have made contacts, the forms tend to have a generic flavor to them, so some of the questions may seem less relevant; fill them out as makes sense and ask the front office for help, if needed. Links to forms for Richland and Kennewick school districts are listed below (for Pasco, contact the school).

Richland School District
- https://richlandvolunteers.hrmplus.net/
Kennewick School District
- http://www.ksd.org/Resources/Community/Volunteer
Pasco School District
- http://www.psd1.org/page/443

I'm ready to get involved—where do I go from here?

Identify your interest with respect to role, locale, and grade level
Obtain contact information for a school representative (i.e., teacher) from the Project Director
Contact the school staff member and discuss the nature of the interaction (club/team, enrichment, tutoring, speaking engagement, etc.), the logistics (when to meet, how often, etc.), and school district requirements for volunteering
Arrange to advertise the Math Club
1. Have the school contact person put a blurb in the daily school announcements/bulletin (perhaps noting that you'll bring food to the first meeting)
2. Make a flyer that you can send to teachers & school administrators (to tell their math class students about, to make available at schedule pickup/open house nights, etc.)
3. Make posters that can be hung up in the hallways
4. Send information to the PTSA/PTA/PTSO for their newsletter
5. Offer to come speak to a class (perhaps on why math is "cool" or how you use it in work), slipping in a plug for math club
Prepare for meetings with the students (identify activities, games, movies, practice problems, discussion topics, etc.) – come prepared with things to do/discuss and get material that needs to be copied to the teacher beforehand
Conduct the meeting
Follow up the meeting (grade tests, submit scores, e-mail material to students, etc.)
As needed, prepare/organize registration forms, field trip forms, etc. for contests (submit through the school staff member/front office)
Keep in contact with the Project Director about hours volunteered as well as questions/comments/ideas

Where/how do I start as a math team coach?

Okay, you've made your contact with the school and figured out the logistics. Now you have to figure out what to do and how to prepare for meetings.

Start by reading the Team Battelle Math Mentor/Coach Introductory Guide, which is a good starting point for working with a Math Club that will participate in math contests. This guide provides general considerations, contest recommendations, an example syllabus, and discussion topics with pertinent example problems (and solutions).
Follow up by checking out the resources listed in the Introductory Guide, in particular, the resources on starting a math club and the organizations that sponsor math contests.
Review the information on the resource CDROM. Scan through the documents in the "Coach's Notes" folder, which include everything from simple formula sheets, to study guides, to glossaries, to test preparation documents. Between all of these is a wealth of material that you can talk about—just assemble material in a logical fashion and find/create example problems to go along with the topic.
Review prior year test and related information available on the the various competition websites. Of particular note are the AMC-8 Math Club and Teacher's Manual information, as well as the MATHCOUNTS annual contest handbook. Such resources should give you a feel for the nature of the material at a given grade level and some ideas on Math Clubs.
If you are working with a middle school, get that school registered for the MATHCOUNTS Club Program right away (it's free). This program provides a number of activities and practice problems.
Seek out prior year tests from the competitions that you are targeting (although contest materials tend to be nominally equivalent in nature). Use these prior year tests for example problems or as the basis for a meeting where you do test practice. It is always a good idea to have solutions for the problems, so you don't get mired down solving a problem “on-the-fly” when you go through answers to the practice tests in the meeting.
Attend the monthly Team Battelle meetings where we discuss upcoming events and any issues/concerns that arise. Also, keep in the loop via the RSS feed for the project's "News" web page.
Contact the Project Director or other project participants for discussion of ideas/issues.
Participate in a Workshop put on by TBMMC volunteers to discuss running a math club and problem solving techniques.
Using the resources listed above, prepare materials for your Math Club meetings. One approach would be to start out the year discussing math topics (algebra, geometry, probability, combinatorics, etc.). Try to make it interactive (not just a dry lecture) and challenging, while making sure that all students understand the concepts. After getting this basis in the math topic areas, start practicing with prior year math tests. Have students do the tests under "test conditions," then go over the solutions for ones where they had trouble. Spend some time talking about strategies for improving speed/performance/score. Continue through the year doing practice and actual competition tests, but periodically throw in enrichment type activities as well (math games, math-related movies, math carols, math history, etc.).

How do I know what is going on with TBMMC?

It is important that volunteers take an active role in communicating (with the project director, school staff, parents, etc., as appropriate)—you have indicated an interest, so be sure to follow through. There are several ways to keep informed of what is happening with TBMMC and related math activities.

The Current Opportunities/Activities page lists opportunities and a schedule of events; this information is updated periodically (every month or two), but will still be useful.
A nice way to keep informed is to utilize the News/What's Happening page, which is updated every week or two, depending on what is going on. You can automatically receive News via the RSS feed, which can deliver an e-mail to your Outlook whenever an item is published.
The project director also holds TBMMC project meetings roughly every month during the school year. Meetings are aimed at conveying news as well as answering your questions and discussing issues that arise. TBMMC meetings are publicized on the News page and our internal lab newsletter (on the day of the meeting usually) and meeting notifications are sent out, though folks volunteering in a “one-off” capacity are not always included on the notice (unless there is an opportunity of potential interest to them).
Of course, you can always check in directly with the Project Director (by e-mail or telephone) to see what is happening.

How do I set up the RSS feed with Outlook?

Outlook seems like a pretty convenient way to receive the News via the RSS feed and it is not hard to configure. In Outlook 2007, select the "Tools/Account Settings..." menu item, go to the "RSS Feeds" tab, select "New," enter "/TBmath/TBmathFeed.xml" and click "Add." You can then adjust properties and/or click "Ok" to finish. I'll recommend that you set the destination to your Inbox instead of the default “RSS Feeds” folder (which, if you are like me, you would probably forget to check).