Discussions

Your Name and Title: Meera Vaidyanathan, VP of Content

School, Library, or Organization Name: TenMarks Education

Co-Presenter Name(s): Rohit Agarwal, CEO and Jessy Irwin, Social Media Maven

Country from Which You Will Present: USA

Language in Which You Will Present: English

Target Audience (such as primary school teachers, high school administrators, students, etc.): K-12 school teachers, principals, administrators, students

Short Session Description (one line): Math is Global -- TenMarks Collaborates to Build Community

Full Session Description (one paragraph minimum):
For students to understand that the world is bigger than their local community, that math is everywhere, and to build an appreciation for the various processes and strategies used worldwide, they first need awareness. In March-April 2012, TenMarks conducted a Math Madness contest -- more than 5,000 classrooms in North America participated in the 6-week event.

During this event, students solved millions of problems each week, competing for accuracy and consistent performance week over week. Over the 6-week period, students competed head-to-head against classrooms 1000s of miles from each other, tracking their weekly progress in the leaderboards. Using both social media and forums, teachers shared ideas on how to keep students motivated as well as innovative teaching ideas. But the most telling effect of the contest was the awareness among the students of their place in the world.

In the words of one teacher, “the competition... helped my students see themselves as actors on the national stage. I can't tell you how much and how profoundly that affected them and their parents. Over and over again, kids and parents would say to me, "We're in the top ten in the COUNTRY?? Really?" One of my valedictorians brought it up in the culmination speech. My kids' world is so local. Though they live in LA, many of them don't travel five miles beyond their neighborhood. The competition made them feel like they were part of bigger worlds and could compete in bigger worlds.” Another teacher described the infectious spirit of his students, who, while they felt that they had little chance of winning the competition, were addicted to checking for the competition results each Monday. Inspired by their enthusiasm, the teacher promised to make pancakes for the class that completed the most math problems throughout the contest. By the end of the contest, these students had built an incredible bond through collaboration, encouragement and through a bit of friendly competition.

Using contests like Math Madness on TenMarks, we believe we can facilitate partnerships between classrooms in different parts of the world. This will result in meaningful sharing and collaborations between teachers, including teaching strategies and problem-solving methods, and applications of those methods in their own real-world scenarios. Build awareness, build community, and teach math. The TenMarks way.

Websites / URLs Associated with Your Session: www.tenmarks.com