Building a Team

[nsguy1350]

Last year, I remember wanting to start a good team, and I like some of the ideas I had. However, I see that my ideas did not work like I wanted them to. I need new ideas.

There are 3 Math events, and I have 4 days to practice them (I'm not sure if anyone would show up on Fridays.)
This year, we had no practices on Monday, NS on Tuesday, Calc on Wednesday, and Math on Thursday.

Next year, my coach and I want to change things up. Any good ideas?

Right now, I think I'm going to try to mix Math and NS, but emphasize NS mostly, at the beginning of the year. I want people to excel in NS, and then as they learn school math over the course of the year, we'll switch our focus to Math, but keep NS on a separate day. Do you think it's a good idea to neglect Math like this at the beginning, then switch to it later on? I'll still cover it, but I'll be doing non-school things, such as number theory, weird tricks, etc. in favor of trig, calculus, etc. that people will learn in school. Once our NS team becomes decent, I think an overall switch to Math might be a good idea.

I am willing to type on worksheets and lessons as well, assuming I have time.
I want to require everyone make an account on the forum as well, and people will have to show up to a minimum amount of practices to be eligible for the District team.
I don't want people to slack off like they did last year. How can I make it so that people will be # to get their scores relatively high?
I also don't want to sound too pushy, as I am sure I do, but I really don't want another year of failure.
Wow, that sounds harsh, but our punishment will be harsh in competition if we don't change quickly.
I also plan on being NS/MA/CA/CS captain as well, so I should be able to manage this. I won't care too much about CS, but instead focus on Math events.
Also, Thursday is Science, so I don't know how we can arrange a conflict pattern if someone is more serious about Science, but still wants to do Math. I'll have to talk to my coach.

EDIT: I'm also going to try to find a way to get people to do Zetamac seriously as well, for NS. This will not be an easy task though, lol.

[DentonKnight]

[nsguy1350]

Thanks! I'm not saying that Zetamac is fundamental, but I'm sure it could help. I really want their speed to get up, quickly, so we don't do what we do now, where I can't teach any nwe tricks because most people aren't getting past #25. (pitiful, I know)
Good idea on the practice tests. I don't think that kicking people out would be a good idea, because that would bring even less people into practice, but I'm sure we can put some weight onto tests completed for the District choosing.
I didn't mean that about the number of practices. I see your point, but if you have a legitimate excuse, we could let it slide. Instead, I was thinking of a sign-in sheet, and whoever came and stayed the entire practice would be able to sign at the end (to prevent premature leaving.) Then, we can see who showed up, and those that showed up often enough could be eligible. I still have to work around the Science conflict, though. I think making Calculator and Science conflict might be a better choice.
Great! I'll definitely try to focus on NS more, unless I see some unfixable problem appear due to delay in Math. I can sacrifice Math initially, and then strengthen it later.
And I will practice, but if I'm at the level I want to be, I don't think I'll have to practice as much as the beginners. I'll be very busy as a junior anyways, but I'll still try to set an example. During the summer, I want to work on UIL when I don't have to be doing other things as well.
I hope this will encourage the juniors/seniors to show up more next year. This year's juniors and seniors don't show up to Math, NS, or Calc at all, or at least very rarely.

[Capybara]

I gave my freshmen and sophomores weekly number sense packets, and require them to post scores on a shared google document. If they do not finish the packet by the practice time next week, i kick them out of my room.

[FabensMath]

That's awesome. I wish my coach got a little more disciplined, he lets things slide quite easily and he doesn't put any pressures on anyone, because he says "it's voluntarily". If i ever wish to teach something, he sometimes thinks it's too hard for them, and doesn't really let me take over. For example, that's how it was with the simple linear regressions, and he postponed them throughout the year until last week. I wanted to give my team the study-list solutions, but he thought they were too hard for them so he didn't bother, that's why we don't have a strong team. :/

[nsguy1350]

:O Excellent! Can I have permission to use your idea?
I don't know how harsh we'll get with the "kicking out", but it seems like it would do the trick. I hope everyone wouldn't quit if we did that though! The # score posting is an excellent idea as well.

[redhawk2015]

Our coach doesn't even hold practices...he's more of a "sponsor/meet supervisor". Fortunately though, he is at least a math teacher...

[Capybara]

don't blame on your coaches though, because they dont make any extra money while spending hours and hours after school and saturdays, and a ton of paperwork behind the scene, and may not even get any support from administration. so if your school at least has someone that occasionally takes you to competitions on saturdays, you really should be very grateful.
and the for the score posting thing, everyone needs to have a gmail account, and just create a spreadsheet and share with everyone, so everyone can access at home. write everyone's name in the spreadsheet, and label the test numbers, so they can just enter the scores. they can even ask questions there.

[nsguy1350]

Oh, no, I don't blame anything on my coach. It's just that we have a hard time getting people motivated; I guess the program is a little too lenient. I hope we can make it more intensive next year.

[saeben]

As a Number Sense coach, I hold practice every day. Not all of my students go every day, though, because they are in other school activities. I do require that they attend at least two and sometimes three times a week. We start practice after school (around 4:15 pm) and go for as long as the students want to stay. Believe me, I have had students who stay beyond 6 pm. Because of budget woes, we've had to cut down on the number of meets we can attend. We used to go to at least 15 practice meets before the district meet. This year, we have only attended 7 (plus TMSCA this week and we had to raise the funds to go to it). At my school, sponsors get a stipend ($700) for the year plus $75 per meet attended. Also, all senior UIL participants get a scholarship when they graduate and provided they have participated all four years. We have to keep a sign-in log of all our daily practice sessions to qualify for the sponsor stipend.

[nsguy1350]

You hold practice everyday? How would you balance between Number Sense, Mathematics, and Calculator then, along with other UIL events, and activities such as Band (we don't have to worry about sports much at our school)?
15 meets a year? Insane, we can only get enough money for 5, maximum. However, we really do waste a lot of money on people with scores of < 50 in NS, < 100 in Math, < 50 in Calculator, and bad Science scores, not to mention all the other events, that don't practice much.

Also, we can only hold practice for an hour, but maybe we could extend that. I doubt it though, because I don't think anyone really will spend that much time, and buses leave an hour after school ends (4:15- 5:15).

I want to get them to do a lot more at home.