March MATHness > March Madness

It’s April, and this article should have been out at least a week ago, but that’s besides the point.  If the NCAA Basketball Championship can be played in April despite “March Madness”, then I can recap the true creative “madness” that was my CY team’s efforts in March nine days into April.  And unlike the televised crap-a-thon that was Butler’s loss to UConn Monday night (3/31 on 2 point FGs?! 18% shooting?? Sorry UConn, but Butler lost that game), March MATHness did not disappoint.

The Pirate Flag of RL Stevenson MS

Before I go into March MATHness, which was March 31, let me describe some of the other events that the team and/or myself were involved with this month:

• Teacher Appreciation Day II
• SoloLion – My code name for making sure I did a 1:1 with every one of my teammates, and I got that done by March 10 (and missed the very next day to illness, my only full personal day in March)
• Human Rights Unit in Stevenson After School Heroes (SASH) – I did Freedom of Speech
• Half of my team finding out their immediate future in City Year
• Pi Day
• Community Meeting – Pirate Game Show Network
• Antonio Villaraigosa, mayor of LA, comes to Stevenson
• A late night to learn how to do taxes, thanks to Deloitte
• A new zoning plan at Stevenson that spread us out throughout campus in the morning, during nutrition/recess, and student lunch
• A team day – we finished LifeLines at Denny’s, traveled to my place, Camie made a game very similar to Taboo, and we started a team CD that will feature everyone’s “theme” song
• Lakers/Clippers game – tickets through City Year, so Camie and I were point on corps members passing out Blue Goo after the third quarter on a Friday night during a close game
• Data Talk – basically, a CY partner teacher re-orientation done over two afternoons (8th grade day, then 7th grade day five days later)
• A field trip with 14 of our SASH students after school to the Downtown women’s shelter on Skid Row
• The start of the Culmination Project – an after school project during homework zone that is focused tutoring for struggling 8th graders
• Me driving. A van.  In LA.  In the rain.  For work.  I haven’t driven anything since late July, I’ve only driven in LA once before (and that was around the same block downtown for ten minutes so Willie didn’t have to park to make an office stop for us), and before this month I had only driven twice in 2010.  This was for a botched in-kind pickup/inquiry in Whittier, CA.  I wound up keeping the van long enough to drive back to Stevenson to pickup people then drive them back downtown.

My friends, that is Gabe Lopez, the math coordinator on the CY team serving at Stevenson MS.  The original idea of March MATHness was rolled out officially to the rest of the team five weeks prior to the event.  Here is Gabe’s original idea:

Thursday March 31st in the student cafeteria and some of the adjacent outdoor space to the west of the cafeteria. It will be an all day event and I project we will engage between 400-450 students.  There will be 6 unique and fun booths:

In addition to the booths, Gabe enlisted Chelsea G. as the logistics coordinator, Daisy as the Outreach/In-Kinding point, and Brittany, Amanda, and J. Mason as the point on look and feel (aka the BAM team).

Just a sample of the look and feel coordinated by the BAM team.

While Gabe and Chelsea worked with the math coach and the 6-8 grade math teachers to get their classes signed up for the event, the BAM team gave the team small look and feel tasks early in the month to ensure a steady, manageable work rate.  Every booth had a master poster at least, and some booths had some additional pieces to make the look and feel stand out.  They worked during off periods, after hours, during weekends.  They worked at Stevenson, at the CYLA office, and even at Gabe’s house.  Even with all of the prep, we reserved the night before the event to work late in setting up the cafeteria for the big event.

Look and Feel Party!

The Outreach department scored several supplies for the event (including some prizes for a raffle at the end of the day), but I will always remember how Jasmin and Chelsea F. found a way to get me to drive around LA.  I was supposed to go to Trader Joe’s, a connection Jasmin called up.  It didn’t quite work out the way I thought it would, underlining the complications of in-kinding and resource coordination, but it was still a great experience.

The way Chelsea G. managed and organized the run of the day should be a case study on advance logistics.  Chelsea and Gabe presented to the teachers before giving them preference sheets.  From the preference sheets, a schedule was created.  We would have three classes for the six periods of the day (a day at Stevenson MS: 1, 2, Nutrition, 3, 4, Lunch, 5, 6).  The classes were split in two so that every booth had a group and they rotated every six minutes.

Chelsea: Part Ad/Lo, part Dodger ringer.

We didn’t have our Program Manager Arthur for the day, but I was around with Camie, plus five CY guests: Ana Maria (City Heroes), Audrey (Young Heroes), Sarah B. (External Relations), Jazz (Service and Training), and Lily (math coordinator at RFK’s New Open World Academy).

Audrey at the SSA (Stevenson Sports Agency).

By 8am Thursday morning of March 31, we were ready for March MATHness:

Fraction Football

Fraction Football

Chelsea F. and Daisy ran this station.  Two teams got four throws (four downs) to rack up as many points as possible.  The holes had fractions of a point.

Math Racer

Math Racer

Amanda and JD ran this booth.  We got hooked up by the technology department with more than a dozen iPads hooked up with an application called Math Racer.

Stevenson Sports Agency (SSA)

Stevenson Sports Agency (SSA)

Abiha and Claudia ran this booth.  City Year members acted as the sports agents while students were future sports legends.  Students had to calculate how much money they had to pay their agents.  The agent is entitled to a certain percentage of the salary.

Abiha, one of the top agents of SSA

Ratio Relay

Ratio Relay

Jasmine and Brandon ran this booth.  Students went outside to the “track” and had to reduce ratios into their simplest forms and solve proportions.

The track of Ratio Relay

Integer Basketball

Integer Basketball (NBA: Nothing But A's)

Brittany and Lucas ran this booth.  First, students had to solve a math problem, then students got four “free throws”.  Incredibly fun, because those “baskets” were legit.

Algebraic Baseball

Baseball

Chelsea G. and Katharina ran this booth.  Individual students first solved an algebraic equation, and whatever their answer was (e.g., x-2=3, x=5), they had three pitches to pitch to a corresponding numbered hole.

Through it all, March MATHness engaged 425 students and several teachers over a 7 hour period of time.  It was a fun way to prepare for the CST in May.  It will probably go down as our only whole day event for the entire school.  It was an incredible success, and we were incredibly tired by the end of the day (we still ran SASH that afternoon).  I am incredibly proud of my team… and relieved that March is over!

Camie!

-1SKILLZ