| 1 |
Practice for at least one hour a week. It takes time and exposure to become comfortable with any skill |
| 2 |
Make sure each new team member attends at least four practices before attending a contest. This reduces uncertainty and helps students know what to expect. |
| 3 |
Break your team up into small cooperative groups. This can maximize each child's participation. The more each child speaks, the more each child's thinking is clarified and the more the speaker remembers. |
| 4 |
Choose problems that allow for many different solutions. This reviews many concepts and skills while encouraging student creativity and flexibility. |
| 5 |
Let the students present all solutions, with you offering methods or observations only if no student does. This gives your mathletes a sense of ownership. |
| 6 |
After each solution, ask if anyone has another method. |
| 7 |
Encourage each mathlete to use the chalkboard, whiteboard, or overhead projector to make the presentation visual. |
| 8 |
Where possible, use graphic methods to illustrate a solution to a non-geometric problem. Many students respond better to a visual approach than a verbal one. |
| 9 |
Assign problems for homework after each session. Experience is still the best teacher. |
| 10 |
Remind students that contests are challenging and that no one expects them to get every answer correct. After all, "Rome wasn't built in a day." |
