MATH COACH: Tulsa Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Michael Zolkoski teaches students different ways to learn math during his summer Algebra Camp.
For the 14th year Michael Zolkoski is getting ready to run a summer camp.
It will be a bit different from the usual camp.
There will be no softball or volleyball.
There will be no track and field.
Horseshoes will be nowhere to be found.
Forget the old swimming hole.
As a matter of fact, there will be no outdoor activities of any kind.
But there will be lots and lots of: algebra.
Algebra? The bane of many a student’s existence? Kids are going to come to a camp to do algebra?
“We get about 150-200 students who usually range from the sixth to the ninth grade,” Zolkoski says, “although we do go outside those guidelines. Last year I had someone who was about to enter the fifth grade. I also had a grandmother.”
Zolkoski is better known as the superintendent of Tulsa Public Schools. He has been running the camps for more than a decade and finds himself constantly intrigued by his students. He loves to bring problems for them to solve and sometimes finds their answers amazing.
“I gave the students a standard problem,” he says, “in which two trains leave the same station at fixed rates of speed. After such and such a time how far are they apart? I thought it a straightforward question.”
But he was assuming the trains were running in opposite directions. One student interpreted the trains as running in the same direction. Another imagined them running at a 45-degree angle. Under those circumstances different, but very correct, answers could be calculated.
One of the reasons Zolkoski runs the math camp is to test different methods of teaching.
“Most teachers teach straight out of the book and for many students that will suffice. But there are 12 ways to teach subtraction, for example, and if a student cannot understand the concept by following the book he may understand it some other way. The trick is to find what works for him.”
The problem, he says, is that some people emphasize the left side of the brain and some emphasize the right.
“Right brain people are very structured. They are the ones who want dinner at six, two hours of study, two of TV, then off to bed.
“Left brain people may eat at any time or stay up to any time. They are much more free flowing in their approach to a problem.”
How fast is the brain? Dr. Z, as he likes to be called, likes to do an experiment.
“I’ll take two children of the same age. I’ll hand them both 10 numbers and tell the first child to add them up conventionally while the other does it on a calculator. Almost always the first child will win. The brain is faster than the hand.”
The ways children learn has changed over the past few decades, Dr. Z says.
“It used to be that the standard attention span was 22 minutes. Now, between television and video games and computers it is 10 minutes.
“Kids process faster than they once did, but they lack auditory skills. They are visual.
“The computer has to a certain degree replaced the teacher. It’s always there when you want it, it never complains about a wrong answer and, properly programmed, it will help you.”
The method of teaching math, he says, needs to be rethought.
“The USA has the reputation of being a poor teacher of math, but that is not always the case. Through grade school American students do very well when compared with international students in math and science. It is when they reach middle and high school they fall behind.
“It’s important to have multiple strategies for teaching math. We need to be teaching thinking in mathematics, not just memorization. We need to put math in the real world. When a child gets a $10 gift certificate and wants an item that costs $9.95 they think they’ve got it. They never think of the sales tax that will leave them short.”
Zolkoski says his camp goes back to basic concepts. It not only draws students, but teachers anxious to expand on how they can teach math. “We do a lot of conceptual thinking. We will teach three or four ways to get the answer.”
He hopes that in time he can have a math workshop strictly for teachers.
In the meantime he is ready to challenge a bunch of eager students to think outside the box.
An example:
Take three sheets of paper.
On one draw a large six.
On the second a large three.
On the third a large one.
Now arrange them so they make a figure evenly divisible by seven.
(The most ingenious answer was turned in by a student who put the six and three over the one in a fraction. That 63 divided by seven is, of course, 9.)
Try it a bit and think outside the box. Hint: The key word is “arrange.”
Stumped?
See that six? Turn it over.
Now try it.
The algebra camp will be held June 2-13 at Carver Middle School, 624 E. Oklahoma Place in the cafeteria. Classes will be held from 9-11 a.m. Registration is free and further information is available from Maia Weaver at (918) 746-6899
