MathAmigos – Programs for Teachers and Students
MathAmigos is a collaborative working group which focuses on training teachers from five local public elementary schools to “inspire kids to love math” using innovative strategies and techniques.
MathAmigos Teacher Workshops
Since 2017, MathAmigos has provided workshops for K – 8 public school teachers in Santa Fe and now Northern New Mexico “to help teachers inspire kids to love math.” Our workshops give teachers best-practice strategies that deepen students’ mathematical thinking and engage them in the adventures of problem-solving. Session topics are based directly on teacher requests, and include math and literacy, place value, number sense and the fundamentals, exploding dots, project-based learning, problem-solving, and math circles, competitions, and wrangles. We believe all children can learn to do math, a critical 21st skill for college and the workplace!
Our workshops begin at 8:50 on Saturdays with a short introduction and a light breakfast. We offer all new sessions in each workshop, with three choices during each of three time bands between 8:50 am and 2 pm. Teachers choose the session most useful for meeting their challenges in the classroom. At 2pm teachers fill out an anonymous workshop evaluation form where they rate each session offered, provide information about support for teaching math in their classrooms, and suggest topics for future workshops. Teachers who attend through 2pm and complete the evaluation receive stipends of $150. As of January 2024, we have given 25 teacher workshops since 2017 – workshop evaluation reports are available for each workshop.
Feedback from teachers has been highly positive and enthusiastic. They have highlighted the wide range of student math proficiencies in their classrooms, the challenges of creating lesson plans for implementing standards for learning, and the importance of common and individual planning time. Teachers can sign up with our experienced instructors for in-class coaching, experiences they have reported as very beneficial. Some of the materials used at the workshops is available here.
MathAmigos has been a long-time partner of the Curriculum and Instruction Office of Santa Fe Public Schools, and has links to national mathematical and math circles organizations. We are an all-volunteer team and value generous grant support for teacher stipends from Santa Fe Public Schools, the Santa Fe Community Foundation, the LANL Foundation, the McCune Foundation, and the Encantado Foundation.
Please submit our contact form if you have any questions. Explore the following links to the schedules and agendas of our informal and interactive workshop sessions so you can see how we are meeting teachers’ needs for engaging students in the excitement of learning math.
The following link to past workshop formats so you can see how they are organized and what sorts of materials are presented.
MathAmigos STEM + Workshops: STEM+ Initiative – December 2022 (PDF)
MathAmigos Provides E-Coaching to Teachers; Delivers “Grab and Go” Math Kits to Kids
Since September Judy Reinhartz, PhD, has been e-coaching 3rd and 4th grade teachers at Sweeney Elementary to integrate math-themed children’s books and hands-on materials into online instruction. Her Embedding Literacy in Math program uses children’s books to spark students’ interest, expand their math vocabulary, engage in meaningful math conversations, and make sense of the world of numbers in their daily lives. Dr. Reinhartz has distributed 150 “grab and go” math bags to children in this program. Teachers report that students embrace these books with great enthusiasm in part because they show how math fits into everyday life.
“Homework Help U Hotline”: Helping Students Make the Grade
Online learning creates all sorts of barriers to learning. As a result, many students are falling behind or even failing in math. To bridge this ever-increasing gap, Santa Fe Public Schools has created a Homework Help U Hotline for students and their parents. And MathAmigos partners have volunteered their time to respond when students or parents call for help with homework.
MathAmigos Donates Math Resource Libraries to Targeted Elementary Schools
In response to an increasing need for books and supplies at local public schools, MathAmigos has assembled and donated boxes of math-related resources to five public elementary schools in Santa Fe’s Airport Corridor – Cesar Chavez, El Camino Real, Nina Otero, Ramirez Thomas, and Sweeney. Each school received more than 200 items: math-themed children’s books, booklets containing fun math activities and story problems, innovative Mindset Mathematics handbooks for teachers, and kid-friendly math supplies (like Geoboards, Spinners, Dominos, playing cards, and dice) to keep students engaged during online classes.
Teachers from these five schools are encouraged to borrow the math supplies they need for their online classes, then return them for others to check out. When schools reopen, the MathAmigos Teachers’ Resource Libraries will make it even easier for teachers to expand their options as they inspire kids to love math.
MathAmigos Partners with Santa Fe Public Library to Create “Mathemagical Times”
Over the summer Santa Fe Public Library and MathAmigos offered a unique interactive math and literacy program for 80 children ages 4 through 14. Mathemagical Times utilized an online format where MathAmigos and Library staff hosted twice-weekly sessions for four different age groups – reading math-themed children’s books aloud and leading activities related to those books that brought math to life in unexpected ways.
Based on the success of the summer program, the Library and MathAmigos teamed up again this fall to offer a similar online program — Mathemagical Times X 2 — for middle school youth grades 5-9. They utilized literature, art, writing, puzzles, games, and manipulatives such as dominos and Geoboards, to develop the knowledge and skills students need to learn 5th to 8th grade math. They also introduced 8th and 9th grade students to new symbols and abstractions to help students grasp pre-algebra, algebra, and geometry. The program was designed to show middle school kids what is “under the hood” and fun about math – leading to greater resilience in meeting increasingly difficult mathematical challenges.
Both the summer and fall Mathemagical Times programs relied on books provided by the Library and activity kits provided by MathAmigos, all of which were distributed to participating kids through the Library.
Math Family Nights
MathAmigos works with principals and teachers to hold Math Family Nights at schools. We have about 25 games and activities involving math and teachers will work with kids and parents at each table. In the past, about 250 people attended our Math Family Night, spent a few hours with us, played math games/activities, and enjoyed the food and beverages provided.
The night was about parents and kids having fun while doing something with math. There were puzzles, things kids could put their hands on, wonderful discussions, thoughtful faces, and big smiles throughout the evening. Some were shy at first, but there was no pressure and kids and parents quickly joined in the activities. Here are some of the activities used in Family Nights.
