Greetings Christopher and visitors to the Math Corps' video and discussion! This project is nothing short of thrilling on so many levels, congratulations! I think for me the most exciting news is over in your summary to the right, that next steps are to begin replication beyond Detroit- starting with Cleveland, Philadelphia, and Utica, NY. Wow!! 

Christopher generously offers above to respond to comments or questions, specifically regarding the nuts and bolts of the Math Corps. The website both co-presenters link to is also informative. I look forward to learning what others notice or wonder as they view this video or explore the website. 

Do you have complementary work going on to support the classroom teachers (e.g., professional development), so that they can learn from your work or so that they can maybe connect to some of what you do?

I also totally dig the mentorship model here. Kids teaching kids. How did the first generation go? I'm wondering how you got this started and recruited the first round of kids to teach. 

What an amazing program! I am curious to hear/see your lesson plans and how you are able to deliver math in such an intriguing way. I am a math teacher myself and often succumb to the chalk/talk method. I would love to hear how you engage students educationally and also emotionally - clearly you are teaching them more than just math. WOW - what an accomplishment!

Steve, thanks for your reply.  I see the problem...just curious...do you have an advisory board or external council who can help build bridges with local schools.  it seems a shame to lose that momentum you are building during the summer--and you are clearly a local resource that could and should be tapped by the schools for PD for the teachers--or at least it seems obvious to ME!

Thank you, Karina.

I'm so glad that you noticed that the Math Corps is more than just a math program...in fact, some of the most important aspects of the program have nothing to do with math. 

Right now, the focus of the program is the six-week summer camp that runs throughout July and August. This is the structure that we are currently replicating in other cities (Cleveland, Philadelphia, and Utica, NY). In the past, we have run a very successful Saturday program during the school year.  This was a fantastic way to stay in touch with our students during the school year and to begin the training of the next class of high school Teaching Assistants in an apprenticeship setting.

The middle-school students go through an application process that includes a short essay.  There is no other requirement beyond going to a Detroit public or charter school.  At each site, there are 120 middle-school students and 60 high-school Teaching Assistants.  The TAs are typically former studetns, although there is always a handful of TAs that come to the camp without prior experience as a student.

The camp is a mix of school mathematics (i.e. "the basics"), extension topics designed to capture the students' imaginations (e.g. fractal geometry, infinite series, topology, etc.), and math-based activities such as art based on modular-arithmetic and coding/robotics.  The TAs also study the basics as well as college-level courses (logic, proof writing, transfinite set theory).

With the support of the NSF, we have been working on answering the question you've posed about the settings and structures of the new sites.  We'd love to connect in order to talk more your particular setting! 

Thanks, Breanne.

In the past, we have tried to stay connected with our students during the school year with a Saturday version of the camp (usually 20 Saturdays throughout the school year).  This was very successful in many different ways.  We have also experimented with having Math Corps instructors push into local middle schools and high schools, bringing the curriculum and philosophy of working with kids with us.  This has also showed promise--especially when there is a larger number of Math Corps faculty at one school.  We are still working on figuring out how best to work with and within schools in a way that allows us to stay true to our principles as well as respect the strengths and challenges of the particular school settings.

Thanks, Joni.

New members of the Math Corps are immersed in a culture of compassion, care, and kindness from the moment they walk into camp.  Our senior staff serve as models of this, to be sure; but the best ambassadors are the high-school TAs (mostly former students from the previous three summer camps).  All of the TAs debrief together after each camp day.  They share their collective successes and challenges, and they offer suggestions for helping each other to overcome those challenges.  These discussions are facilitated by senior staff members who look for and emphasize instances of kindness and care that have been capitalized on by the TAs or other staff.  College-student mentors (we call them College Instructors) and the senior staff debrief after that; and again, get the chance to share highlights and concerns.  All of the discussions serve to reinforce the philosophy among the staff members, and allow us to ensure that each of our students is being given all of the nourishment (mathematical and otherwise) that we can offer.

It is funny that you mention the first day skepticism.  It is so common.  By the end of the first week, though, most are hooked.  We try to be as welcoming as possible and inject a great deal of humor into everything that we do.  But, above all, the students quickly realize that the Math Corps is a place filled with people that care about them and believe that they have greatness inside.  This year we had 39 out of last year's 40 seventh-grade students reapply to return to the camp.  That reminds me...I've got to call that student who didn't apply!

Yes!  There is some traditional pedagogy, but the real magic occurs during the other periods that you've noticed in the other comments.  After a short (30 min) lecture delivered by a senior staff member to a class of 20 students (2 teams of ten) and their teaching assistants (TAs)...and you're right, each TA has two students in his/her care for the summer...the team goes into "Team Time".  Team Time is an hour long, and it is where the triad of TA and students go over the previous night's homework, review and extend the concepts from lecture, and revisit concepts that students struggled with on their pretests.  The team time is facilitated by a college student (we call them College Instructors, or CIs).  The TA-Student relationship is the key relationship, in my opinion.

The hand waving :) is a set of signals that we use that allows students to express a variety of feelings or statements in a silent way...which makes them perfect in a classroom setting.  The one you see the most often, with both hands shaking/rotating back and forth (like you're changing two light bulbs very quickly), is the "agreement" symbol.   Another one that you see, and the most powerful in our opinion, is the signal for "support" ,"I'm with you", and/or "you can do this" .  It looks like you're winding up yarn in front of yourself.  When someone is struggling with mathematics, or sharing something very personal or difficult to express, you'll often see a sea of support signals.  I can tell you from personal experience that feels so good to know that others have your back, and are pulling for you as you try something that is difficult for you.

Thanks Steve and Christopher. The emotional connectivity and empowering each child with the message that "they count" sounds key. That is something to document, share, and promote in the classroom. One of my all time favorite papers written by Andrew Hargreaves is "Emotional Geographies of Teaching". https://ww2.faulkner.edu/admin/websites/jfarrel...

Your project reminded me of this work! Thank you for sharing it in the Video Showcase!

Thanks Joni for the reference. I'll check it out.