Julia Rowny named MATHCOUNTS Coach of the Week

Hopkins Math Teacher and Junior School Advisor, Julia Rowny, has been named Coach of the Week by MATHCOUNTS. Ms. Rowny started at Hopkins last year for the 2008-2009 academic year, and is being recognized for her first term coaching the Hopkins MATHCOUNTS team. The team went on to compete in the National Competition last year. Congratulations to Ms. Rowney for her work with MATHCOUNTS and being recognized after only one year of teaching! To find out more about MATHCOUNTS, visit their website.

The following is Ms. Rowny's interview on the MATHCOUNTS website:

How long have you been a MATHCOUNTS coach?
This fall marks the start of my second year as a MATHCOUNTS coach (and as a math teacher)!  

What is your favorite part about being a MATHCOUNTS National Competition coach?
The sheer amount of talent at the competition is amazing.  For example, most coaches will admit that, when they’re watching the Countdown Round, the best students can answer the questions before we can even read them!  Working with students at this level can be very challenging, but my favorite part about coaching a State team is the fact that the caliber of the student spurs me on to be a better teacher.  Being with a group of kids this fantastic at math inspires me to go the extra mile to search for resources and to explain them more fully.  The biggest thrill, though, happens at the competition, where you realize that you’re in a group of people who really love math and what it has to offer.

How many years have you been to the National Competition?
Last year was my first year at the National Competition.

How do you prepare your students for the National Competition?
Between our weekly meetings, I assigned old National level tests as homework and encouraged my students to contact me about any problems on which they were struggling.  At many of our meetings, the students took a full-length National test in order to simulate the amount of time they would have at the real competition, and I provided detailed solutions to any problem that was tripping them up.  I also encouraged my students to work through old AMC 10 tests to help them broaden the base of topics they were used to seeing.  

What interesting techniques have you used in the classroom or after school with your students to get them excited about math?
In general, my students love to compete against one another.  Whether or not there’s a prize to be won, the thrill of competition inspires my students to problem solve more accurately and more efficiently.  This competitive spirit inspires me to make exercises or MATHCOUNTS practice tests into games where teams and individuals vie for top honors.  

Why do you think math is so important for middle school students?
Math is important to everyone, everywhere!  It’s especially important for middle school students, however, because early algebra and geometry—the most common middle school math topics—are the building blocks for a future in math.  These courses teach crucial habits of mind, such as good problem solving techniques and mathematical literacy.  These habits will appear again and again in students’ lives even when the situations seem to have nothing to do with math class.  Most careers and occupations involve math and quantitative analysis of some kind, and middle school is where we lay the foundation for those future skills.    

Do you have any advice for Mathletes® hoping to make it to the National Competition?
Practice, practice, practice!  Working through old MATHCOUNTS problems is a great way to hone your skills.  Try problems that are challenging for you and learn the tricks of how to answer them more quickly.  After you have seen a large number of problems, you’ll start to see themes—topics that come up again and again and different ways the problem writers will try to trick you.  There are also a lot of small facts you can memorize (divisibility rules, different exponents of small numbers, etc.) that will help you solve problems quickly and easily.

What advice would you give to new coaches just starting a MATHCOUNTS program?
Definitely log onto MATHCOUNTS.org; there are amazing resources for both coaches and students there.  Take a practice set of MATHCOUNTS tests to understand what types of topics your students will encounter and how to best handle them.  The most important piece of advice I could give, though, is to find as many practice problems as you can get your hands on!  Keep discussing challenging problems with your students; they’re hungry for math!