Chief Quant, Director of Analytics at Math Academy. Posts about learning, upskilling, math education, Math Academy, and more generally, stages 2-3 of Bloom's talent development process in hierarchical skill domains.
New on JustinMath.com - How a Laptop Changed My Life; Skill Debt; Cognitive Weightlifting
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Hey! You're receiving this email because you requested to be notified about new posts at JustinMath.com. Here are 3 new posts: How A Laptop Changed My Life
~200 words • It was the gateway to a math addiction and ground zero for compound growth in serious upskilling.
And a new podcast: Role of Teachers in the Math Academy Classroom - Math Academy Podcast #8, Part 1
What we covered:
– A lot of schools have recently begun using Math Academy in their classrooms. And one of the biggest benefits of using Math Academy is that it automates all the mechanical parts of teaching, like writing questions, keeping track of what students know and what they don't know, monitoring student progress, assigning extra practice when needed, grading, all that grindy stuff.
– None of these tasks is enjoyable. They suck. Just ask any teacher. I mean, we grinded through all that back when we were teaching ourselves, and it takes so much effort just to get even a halfway decent approximation of doing it right. And there's just a limit to how well that you can do it if you're doing it manually. It's the whole reason why we built the system.
– And what that system does, what Math Academy we does is it frees up teacher bandwidth to focus on the human elements of teaching: building relationships, connecting what students are working on to their own unique interests. Those kind of things that enhance the learning experience, but that really can't replace skills practice.
– I mean, in-class projects can be great, but only if students have the prerequisite knowledge to be successful with them. If they don't, then projects are frustrating, and the students who understand the material will end up doing all the work and carrying everybody else, who will learn next to nothing. It's inefficient and frustrating all around unless students have their skills in place.
– Ultimately, if students don't master the math in each class, they'll be unprepared for the next one. And in a subject as hierarchical as math, these gaps compound quickly. True empowerment isn't simply telling students they have potential. It's making sure they actually have the real skills to move forward and realize that potential.
0:00 - Introduction
2:56 - What is the teacher’s role alongside Math Academy?
5:37 - Math Academy frees up teachers to do the human parts of teaching
7:03 - Projects are great if students have the prerequisite skills
7:42 - Drills without context are boring
8:43 - Games without skills are inefficient
11:14 - Build fun activities on top of a solid foundation of skills
12:15 - Teachers can tailor the class to the students’ preferences
13:28 - Implementing mastery learning is too much work for a single teacher
15:27 - Doing projects without prerequisites is frustrating
16:57 - True empowerment is giving kids the skills they need to succeed
19:30 - Missing skills compound in hierarchical skill trees
24:06 - Lack of automaticity in lower level skills slows down higher level tasks
27:14 - The MA team builds and improves courses through experience
29:21 - The MA team targets tasks with low pass rates for additional scaffolding
31:03 - Alex built knowledge graph intuition through years of experience
37:40 - Social media enforces hyper-accountability
39:19 - Differential equations courses are often a hodgepodge of disjointed techniques
43:20 - Math Academy university courses are a superset of elite university content
45:18 - Differential equations is a highly branching subject
49:21 - The breadth of Differential Equations makes it often poorly taught
Best, |
Justin Skycak
Chief Quant, Director of Analytics at Math Academy. Posts about learning, upskilling, math education, Math Academy, and more generally, stages 2-3 of Bloom's talent development process in hierarchical skill domains.
Hey! You're receiving this email because you requested to be notified about new posts at JustinMath.com.(If you've changed your mind, click here to unsubscribe, please avoid marking spam.) Here are 3 new posts: Educational Acceleration Helps You Win The Race Against Time~200 words How to Go From 0 to 100 mph~150 words The Most Costly Part of Failure~150 words And a new podcast: Failure Modes in Teaching - Math Academy Podcast #8, Part 2 Watch on YouTube or Listen on Spotify What we covered: –...
Hey! You're receiving this email because you requested to be notified about new posts at JustinMath.com.(If you've changed your mind, click here to unsubscribe, please avoid marking spam.) Here are 3 new posts: The #1 Killer of Creativity (and the #1 Unlock)~350 words Founder Involvement Is What Keeps Everything On The Rails~300 words How Learning Debt Starts~100 words Best,Justin
Hey! You're receiving this email because you requested to be notified about new posts at JustinMath.com.(If you've changed your mind, click here to unsubscribe, please avoid marking spam.) Here are 3 new posts: Put Your Environment on Easy Mode~250 words The Best Teachers are Supportive Hard-Asses~250 words Vastly Underrated Predictor of Success~200 words And a new podcast: Earning the Right to Scale - Math Academy Podcast #7, Part 2 Watch on YouTube or Listen on Spotify What we covered: – As...