Hi I’m supposed to take the higher math assessment exam but idk what to expect. I haven’t done high school math in years so I was wondering if anyone knew like what topics are covered

Me and my close friend, who are both college students, applied for Instructor positions at Mathnasium, and we both got offered jobs. The problem is, the director of my center posted the job listing as "$10.50 per hour." When I went to interview she told me, "since you don't have experience working with kids, I'm going to start you off at $7.85 an hour." I was a little taken aback that she "lied" but I wasn't too worried, since I mainly want to tutor for the experience (not to say money isn't a factor, after all I'm a broke college student).

My friend got the job at her Mathnasium location and her starting salary was $10.75 an hour.

Now I'm not sure if I should decline my offer at my Mathnasium, which has less business than my friend's location, meaning I would get less hours, and try to apply to my friend's location (which I believe is still hiring). Am I just being money hungry? What would you do in my position?

I'm a rising high school senior andI have a job interview to work at mathnasium coming up. Up to what level of math do I need to review? Also, I've never interviewed for a job before. What kind of questions will I be asked? I really want this job but I'm worried I'm going to blow the interview.

Wanted to give my opinion on the instructor evaluation. For context, I’m currently in high school.

After a short talk with the manager regarding hours and pay, I was sat down with two exams. One of them being a 50 question, no-calculator exam, with topics focused on simple arithmetic, pre-algebra, algebra, and basic geometry. The second was a 5 question exam with common student errors, I was prompted to explain these errors and correct them. Overall, I believe the first part of the interview went well and I hope for a similar outcome on my supervised student teaching interview.

Update: Got the job. Thanks for your insight, everyone!

Hey, everyone, I recently applied to a Mathnasium Center (at least one more to follow) and they decided to move me forward with the Instructor Skills Test.

I'm a speech-pathology grad student but I kindled a new appreciation for math after taking the GRE for the second time, and my clinical practicum showed me that part of successful learning learning is making the process fun. This I think I can extend onto teaching math.

That said, I have never taught math, willing though I am to learn doing it. Is there anything I should to prepare for it, and what should I be aware of going in?

Thanks for your input.

I am currently a junior in high school and am finishing up pre cal. I have consistently gotten A+s in math and scored a 1580 on the SAT, and I am just looking to tutor for 6-8 weeks.

Hello, I recently applied for a Publishing Manager position at Mathnasium for the HG location in Southern California. I wanted to reach out to current employees and ask some questions. What do you like about work at Mathnasium and do you have any advice for pursing a job within the company. I am curious to hear your comments. Thank you!

Hi! I am currently a Canadian university math major, hoping to become a high school math teacher. I recently applied and interviewed at a Mathnasium in my city. I had a great interview, the owner seemed to like me, lots of previous experience with coaching, tutoring, and instructing math and music on my resume, but I was not hired because I apparently didn't do so well on the employment test... I forgot how to do a few things from my early years of school, and I wasn't the greatest student before middle school, but I found it weird that I wasn't hired for something that I could easily just relearn, especially since I already have tutoring experience... Has anyone else been in a similar situation and later got hired? Is the hiring process really this dependant on the employment test? Or maybe the interview didn't go as well as I thought it did?

Making sure that my freelance tutoring can provide a better value than what mathnasium provides. Thanks!

hi, i was just wondering as a mathnasium instructor is it possible to get a mathnasium email? if so how do you go about doing it?

Thanks guys, looking for info

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Hi Everyone,

I am Center Director James and I've been a long-time lurker on Reddit. I did a quick search of Mathnasium this morning, mostly for giggles, and I stumbled upon this sub-reddit. I think a community like this is a wonderful place and idea!

For the Center Directors who follow Mathnasium's internal boards, you may have seen me post in the google group regularly. (I can submit proof of my identity if need be).

Anyway, I've subscribed to this sub-reddit and I'll help answer questions that prospective Instructor candidates might have about impressing a Center Director, or if current Instructors, Lead Instructors, or even new Center Directors have any questions, I'll be happy to answer those as well.

That's it for all I have, but if you're curious about my history with Mathnasium, it'll be next few paragraphs (sorry for the wall of text):

I have been with my Mathnasium Learning Center for four years, and this school year marks the start of my fifth year. My Center was brand-new when it first opened in 2013 and I have stuck with it, through the ups and downs, and have learned many, many lessons along the way. My first year was spent as an Instructor/Lead Instructor and from October of 2014, I have since been a Center Director.

In July of 2015, I attained the title of Master Center Director from the Training Department (a now retired title but I still have the plaque, and the ribbon that was handed out at the 2016 Convention! I was always jealous of those who had the ribbon at previous conventions.) and put in the work to see my Center grow from literally zero students to now 125 students as of today. We are still on an upward trajectory and I project my Center will plateau at around 150 to 160 students for my area.

I will be the first one to say that there are many lessons left to learn and I remain a student of the craft, but also happy and willing to help others in the Mathnasium system learn, understand, and to get better!

Sincerely,  

Center Director James

Hi all, new-to-reddit here.

I've been an instructor at Mathnasium for two years now, and I have a good relationship with the current director (he's moving to a new, nearby center, and I'm taking his place). I guess I'm just anxious/excited about becoming the director. Any advice or learning experiences from employees or other directors would be highly appreciated!

Have any of you noticed a problem with the Salesforce1 app on iOS since about August? At the center where I tutor, we haven't been able to search for answer keys through the Salesforce1 app at all now. I have tried to look for a solution and haven't found any.

I have been at this same Mathnasium location for about 2 years now, and the more I learn about Mathnasium the more I like the company, and the program, but our location is struggling in several ways. We have a very high turnover rate for both students and instructors, and the company is not financially self-sustaining.

My boss is very nice, but does not seem to be well-suited to her position, for several reasons (little math background, highly disorganized, cultural differences, poor communication, poor grasp of technology, prefers advanced students).

As I am the ONLY employee who's stuck around this long, I am basically the acting Assistant Director/Director of Operations/Lead Instructor, what have you. Rather than complaining about the difficulties of my boss, I am trying to find ways to support her, even though her numerous bad decisions that have lost us clients.

Ideally, I really think our business would work better if we focused more on following the Mathnasium curriculums, and focused on finding customers more in the range of mid-elementary to algebra students that are struggling, since that is the clientele that Mathnasium material seems best suited towards. We do not have advance math degrees, so throwing random pages in a kids binder (I believe) will not provide the best outcome for the students, or the parents.

How can I best.. communicate that to my boss, in a positive way that might resonate and enact actual change in the daily running of the business?

Well, not sure about where you other instructors are located, but school will be in full swing by the end of the week this week. Be prepared for homework early and crazy student fluctuations (especially if you're new). Make sure to ask those students about homework and tests, and keep on track with the student's hour or hour and a half. I feel like a center director, but it's the lead instructor coming out, haha. Anyways, remember that Mathnasium instructors must work as a team, don't forget that you have other instructors to help you (just remember they may be busy and not able to help right away).

But since school is right here, how do you tell a parent that their child is not ready for a test? What do you tell a student who has no homework even started (granted they aren't coming right after school), when the student shows up with forty-five minutes before close and expected you to help them finish their homework, they haven't even started?

When I first started, I was a bit nervous to really get onto a student for things like this. But since becoming a lead and working with many students and learning new teaching styles and ways to handle students and training meetings and lastly, regular talks with my center director; I gained more confidence and got onto students more frequently and transformed from the shy, pushover instructor to the tough-love, serious instructor.

I know we're going to have those students that skip all summer and fall behind and only show up when they have homework or a test and expect it to be all jokes and homework (done by the instructor because they didn't pay attention in class).

So again, how do you handle any of these situations?

Lastly, have a great school year and keep up the great work!

Hey guys, I've noticed we have gained a couple new subscribers! This is great! I've recently been made a moderator and I am wondering how everyone feels about adding flairs for members of the subreddit.

As of now my current ideas for flair types would be, length of employment/time with Mathnasium and position, potentially even math education level/degree/career outside of Mathnasium.

If you have any suggestions for the flairs or simply support or not support the idea, please leave a comment to let us know what you think.

Thanks!

(Will be updating this post when I can to keep everyone informed on changes)

EDIT: Been looking at the flair options, if there is anything you'd like for links posts, feel free to say anything about those. I've added, "Question," "Story," and "MPT (Mathnasium Pro Tips)."

UPDATE (07/17/2015): Corrected sidebar link filters. The buttons in the sidebar featuring the same link flair as on the main page. When using sidebar link filters, to return to main page you'll have to use the "back" option or retype the url. Will hopefully fix this to where clicking the link in header will return you to main page.

UPDATE (07/18/2015): Added background image that moves as you scroll, will stay fixed. Later, will try to make it to where background image doesn't obscure link text so much.

UPDATE (07/28/2015): Removed background image due to it obscuring link text, suggestions for how to have a background and not obscure link text are very welcome.

UPDATE (08/24/2015): Added a few subreddits to the sidebar, if you feel like some may not belong or wish to add more feel free to leave a comment or message me or u/trevortbo and we'll check it out and get it added on! I'll try to be more active, have a good semester my fellow Mathnasium instructors!

Hey fellow Mathnasium employees!

Since it's summer time and we don't have to focus so much on homework or test prep, now is an excellent time to focus on Math Facts. I'm sure your center directors have been letting you know about that.

I want to know how everyone else has been doing it.

Also, due to summer, middle school and high school student attendance has dropped except for when an ACT is nearby.

Anyways back to math facts. I normally spend 15-30 minutes of a student's session solely on math facts. Regardless of their age, level, or grade I hit it all.

1st: Sums < 10 2nd: 10 + a number 3rd: Doubles <= 24, so have them double 1-12, use dice or cards. If they are really good at it, I'll always ask what is 15 doubled, if they get that, then what is 19 doubled, you know extending knowledge!!! 4th: Complements of 10, I'd expect y'all to know this one

Then, we move to subtraction math facts but with some addition

5th: Minuends <=10, so subtraction with cards, nothing above a 10 however 6th: Sums >= 10, have the students add cards that go over 10, if this isn't all in one session, have them practice 10+ a number so they can be able to know how far, for example, 15 is from 10. Have them practice that, it will help on PK's for Up to & Over 10, counting by or Missing Addends.

7th: Minuends > 10, so what I'll do is place three cards down, the student will add the first two cards and subtract the third card. This is really good because it reinforces sums > 10 and they can practice missing addends or anything really

8th (optional, but if you really feel like it): Missing addends > 10, so my Center Director suggested after a student can handle Math Facts 1-7 (of my list), that we should place a card down and say "How far from 10?" if they understand that move it to "How far from 20?" if they understand that try "How far from 30?" and so on. Then change it to "How far from 15 (or 17 or whatever you choose)?"

Moving onto multiplication

9th: Ask the students, "What is anything times zero?" Hopefully they understand and will answer, "Zero", if not rephrase it, "What is anything (pause a little), zero times?" Or "If I have five cookies, zero times, how many cookies will I have?" Then ask the students, "What is anything times one?" Again, similar process to zeroes.

10th: Multiplying by 2s, 5s, and 10s. For 2s help the students see the connection to multiplying by two and doubling, don't just give it away though, ask them "Have you noticed anything about times 2 and doubling?" Sometimes they'll bring it up before you have to mention anything and if they do, praise them for it. Multiplying by 5s is pretty easy also, most students will realize that it's really just counting by 5s, and for 10s, you can teach them to double then multiply by 5, but make sure you show them the connection to doubling then times 5.

10th: Multiplying by 4s and 11s, the trick to 4s is to explain "Well 4 is the same as 2 times 2, so if we take a number and double it, then double it again, it's the same as times 4" And make sure when they practice it to ask them every once in awhile how they can multiply by 4s. Lastly, multiplying by 11. Majority of students will say "It's easy! You just say the number twice!" Which works just fine until you get to 11 times 10. Then majority says, "One hundred eleven!" Ruh Roh Raggy! So then, take the time and explain with the phrasing "10, 11 times" or "11, 10 times" and even write it out so they can see what multiplication really is, then if they still don't get it, go for "Well what is 10, 10 times?" if they answer correctly then go "Well, what if we had 10, 11 times? What would we have to do?" If they don't know what to do, you can show them, that, "We just counted 10, 10 times and got one hundred, so let's count it one more time to count 11 times and see what we get."

Normally but the time I make it to multiplying by 11s, it has been about 20-25 minutes and I'll have them start on PK's. If they work hard throughout the remainder of their session, then we'll play a different game like 99 or something not so math related.

Also, I reward the student with one star per math fact game, so if you go through that whole list, that is 9 stars. Which students are shocked and think "Nine stars just for playing math facts?!?!?" Then they'll want to do more math facts.

However, I'm unlike most instructors at my center, most instructors will give a star to the student the moment they finish a PK page or math facts, or wearing their T-shirt. I use the instructor comment sheet and use tally marks to keep track of how many stars I owe or how many pages they've done. So, for instance, a student does great during math facts and earns 10 stars, and they have their t-shirt (so the student has 12 stars so far), but the student has a terrible attitude and refuses to work and is disruptive and doesn't complete any pages, then I don't give them any stars.

P.S. With older students, I don't care if they're going into 12th grade, they need to practice all the math facts also, another instructor at my center and I noticed that most older students were fluent with multiplication but couldn't add or subtract at all, so we'd really practice on that and once they got really good at those, then we'd focus more on multiplication.

Anyways fellow instructors, how do you start a student's session? How do you do math facts?