Testimonials

Raising Expectations

“I feel excited about going back home and taking what I learned and applying it. I have gained a new perspective. Before I had never thought it possible to teach algebra to such young kids, but I am now a believer. I look forward to coming back next summer.”
“I feel that this is an excellent opportunity for children to grow in their understanding of math. I am looking forward to taking what I’ve learned back to my campus and sharing it with both the teachers and students. I have been excitedly sharing my experiences here with other teachers and the curriculum specialist from my campus. This has been GREAT.”
“This program provides strong support and places high expectations for each student in a variety of situations which allows the students to engage in high level thinking and learning activities.”
“They (students) developed problem-solving ability for non-routine problems from new instructional materials that were developed to enhance deeper concept understanding.”
“The kids have amazed me with their insight and open-mindedness to learn new concepts. The connections they made were incredible.”
“Students learned a variety of strategies at a much younger age. I’m anxious to try these lessons on my students. The lessons always involve active learning, so I’m expecting all of my students to achieve integer addition and subtraction, for example, with little difficulty.”
“Math Camp does not limit students by teaching only what is required at their grade level but instead challenges them by exposing them to higher level concepts aimed at raising them to a higher mathematical plateau.”

Using Hands-on Activities

“Higher level math concepts are presented in an active, interesting way which gets the students motivated and excited.”
“When we did a number line activity, the students really connected the number line concepts because they could act it out.”
“After the third day of camp, I was enlightened. I believe that the hands-on, real-life approach has dramatically affected how I (not to mention our students) reason about math. I have gained a lot of the mathematical understanding about basic operations that I lacked prior to the Camp. I sincerely believe that this is a rigorous program with a lot of merits. Learning has been fun, not only for the students, but also for the teachers.”
“Things really got lively when we went outside and walked the number line in chalk on the sidewalk. We were able to act out adding integers by turning in the direction of the sign and moving, which the children loved.”

Using Manipulatives, Models, and Different Learning Styles

“I particularly enjoyed learning about how to use the two-sided chips for adding and subtracting integers. That is something I will definitely pass along to my students.”
I loved using the graphing boards (infamous boards) and the questioning techniques. I plan on using most of the curriculum in my class during the year.”
Teachers made every effort to use activities creatively, allowing the students to work through the processes independently and giving them every opportunity to find math enjoyable and completely painless.”
“I always teach with appropriate manipulatives, but the Math Camp gave me new, different, and innovative techniques and strategies which were user-friendly and easy to adapt and incorporate into my math classroom processes.”

Developing Positive Attitudes

“Talking with the children revealed that they were confident about their performance after these two weeks of lessons and activities.”
“The Camp has been a huge success! The students had fun by being introduced to higher-level math skills, which increased their self-confidence while improving their mastery of essential algebraic concepts. I want to continue teaching at future Math Camps and would highly recommend this program to others.”
One student told me, ‘This is great; I didn’t know that pre-algebra was so fun.’”
Math Camp allows the teachers to grow through discovery as we explored items of interest to our own teaching experiences and ideas about education. This made me investigate ways to make my own teaching more effective.”
Students in my class became more confident, more assertive, more reflective about their own work and more open and willing to discuss problems with each other.”
“The students really enjoyed themselves and began to logically reason the concepts as the math made more sense to them.”
The most rewarding experiences came from the students who walked in with the lowest academic ability accompanied by low self-esteem and became excited about learning. They experienced a sense of pride and became self-motivated.”
I feel confident in teaching the concepts learned here and look forward to student engagement and excitement in future Math Camps and throughout the school year.”
This camp was taught with enthusiasm and positiveness. The energy and excitement transferred to the students as effort and attitude which are the keys to success in learning.”
The best part of the program was how much I learned about the whys involving math. I want to thank you for giving me a better understanding of mathematics, and giving me a renewed excitement about teaching math!”

Acknowledging Cultural Differences

“These children come from diverse population and various levels of academic performance. They were given the tools and experiences that they need to work through math problems logically.”
"This program is a strong advocate for beliefs that ‘all children can learn’ and ‘not all children learn the same.’”
Math Camp consistently adapts instructional and organizational strategies to best address individual learning styles so that all children are afforded an equal opportunity.”
The curriculum is quality mathematics for all, not watered down, designed to meet the needs of ALL students.”
“The ultimate level of equity provides all students with opportunities that prepare them for life-long learning. At this camp, the talent, interest, background, and any physical challenges are not a deterrent for providing what the student needs.”

Building Strong Foundations

“I plan to use this camp experience to help my students build strong math foundations instead of quick-fix strategies.”
Math Camp allows a teacher to develop a math program that builds on what students already know in order to develop their mathematical foundations. Assessments were used to gain information, not to randomly sort children into groups. A great camp!”

Valuing Group Work

“The cooperative learning groups made the kids happier. They learned more and enjoyed the class more. Their math retention really improved.”
When the students worked together in groups, they were excited and anxious to solve math problems.”
Students were allowed to form their own groups of different sizes some of the time, and some of the time the teacher chose the groups. The students all worked together knowing that the next time the group might look the same or completely different.”

General Teacher Comments

“The best part of the program was how much I learned about the ways involving math. I want to thank you for giving me a better understanding of mathematics, and giving me a renewed excitement about teaching math!”
“I feel excited about going back home and taking what I learned and applying it. I have gained a new perspective. Before I had never thought it possible to teach algebra to such young kids, but I am now a believer. I look forward to coming back next summer.”
The hands on experience with the students and material were great. You had an opportunity to see students enjoy the math challenges. Students perform according to what is expected of the especially when they are not under pressure to learn it for a test.”
Our regular school system could learn a lot from this process. I would love to participate in the program again, and it seems like most of the students would also.”