#8, Part 1 – Role of Teachers in the Math Academy Classroom

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.

Outline:

00:00 - Introduction

02:56 - What is the teacher’s role alongside Math Academy?

05:37 - Math Academy frees up teachers to do the human parts of teaching

07:03 - Projects are great if students have the prerequisite skills

07:42 - Drills without context are boring

08:43 - 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

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