Mathnasium - September 2021

Mathnasium - September 2021

SEPTEMBER 2021

Mathnasium of Cherry Creek [email protected] mathnasium.com/cherrycreek

Mathnasium of Cherry Hills [email protected] mathnasium.com/cherryhills

Mathnasium of Littleton [email protected] mathnasium.com/littleton

Mathnasium of Parker [email protected] mathnasium.com/parker

They’re Eager to Take Part in Our Mission WHY I HAVE THE BEST TEAM OF TUTORS EVER

Mathnasium at Littleton and our sister centers in Parker, Cherry Hills, and Cherry Creek pride ourselves on being the top-rated Mathnasium centers in our region, which includes 75 different centers. That’s no small feat, and we attribute our accomplishment in large part to our incredible teams. Sept. 6 is Labor Day — a day to celebrate the contributions workers bring to workplaces and society as a whole, and the teams we have at Mathnasium deserve to be celebrated! The instructor position at Mathnasium is unique in that everyone works on a part-time basis, but the role requires a decent degree of skill and knowledge. We hire a lot of high school and college students because their math skills are fresh and what our students are experiencing, and many times, being a tutor at Mathnasium is their first job. In order to be successful as a tutor at our centers, applicants must have excellent mathematical abilities, a talent for working with kids, and an enjoyment of both of those things. Our onboarding process ensures everyone we hire fulfills each of those traits. Potential hires take three different math tests that gauge their skills in pre-algebra and up through high school math to pre-calculus as well as how they grade and think about actual students’ work. They must score at least 85% on the first two tests to get hired.

After that, potential tutors must work with kids under our observation to gauge their abilities to teach what they know. If they get hired, they also have to learn the Mathnasium Method, which takes about 12–16 hours to complete. All in all, the onboarding process takes around 6–8 weeks. Whoever checks all the boxes at the end of that period will become the next tutor at our center. We’re fortunate to have incredibly skilled teams working at our centers. The work we do is not easy, and not everyone has the combination of talents in math and love of teaching children. Nevertheless, our teams put in the work to ensure every student feels supported and valued. Many of the students who come to Mathnasium don’t like math (it’s hard to believe – I know!). In fact, many of them would rather do anything else in the world. So, in order for them to succeed, they need to feel cared for and respected as they learn. The best math tutors take students who are feeling frustration and anger toward math and help them develop skills and feel confident in their mathematical abilities. At the end of the day, our tutors have a passion for what they’re doing. I’m sure there are plenty of jobs flipping burgers that pay just as much as we pay our tutors, but instead of serving fast food, we get to change students’ lives for the better. Some of our instructors even decide they want to pursue a career in teaching after they work for us as tutors. I’m so happy to have a team who understands and joyfully takes part in our mission to change students’ lives through math. “I’m so happy to have a team who understands and joyfully takes part in our mission to change students’ lives through math.”

–Suzie Shride

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Cherry Creek 303-333-MATH (6284) • Cherry Hills 720-474-1878 • Littleton 303-979-9077 • Parker 303-840-1184

FROM A SCATTERBRAINED SUMMER TO AN ORDERLY SCHOOL YEAR Hacks to Get Your Kids Organized Summer break (especially for young kiddos) is a lawless time that’s punctuated by a vacation or trips to the park and pool. Transitioning children back to the orderly world of the school year can be challenging for both teachers and parents. How can you make sure your kids trade in their summer hats for their school brains? Well, luckily, you can use a few hacks to make that transition brighter, seamless, and even fun. Create a fun checklist for school to-do’s. Spelling out all the tasks your kids have to do before and after school will help them ease back into the routines of going to bed each night and getting up early for school. Plus, it will introduce them to the satisfaction of checking items off a list after completing them. When your kids know what to do and when to do it, it makes your day a little easier!

different hooks in your mudroom or hallway if that’s all you have to work with. Whatever the case, when your kids have an established place to put their school stuff, it’s that much easier for them to find as they head out the door in the morning.

Organize your school lunch supplies.

Making your kids’ lunches each morning can be exhausting, but if you put different lunch items (e.g., bags of chips, apples, juice pouches, etc.) in different, easy-to-reach containers, making school lunches can be an assembly-line process where your kids do most of the work themselves, teaching them responsibility and taking a load off of your shoulders every school morning. You can even consider making the lunches the night before to lighten up the morning routine!

Plan your kids’ outfits for the next day … or the next week.

Make a color-coded clock.

If they had their way, you know your kiddos would wear the same Spider Man or Elsa T-shirt every day of the week. So, if you want to make sure they look respectable and

Lots of kids are visual learners, which means an analog clock will be their best friend when it comes to keeping track of time. Color-code different sections of the clock for different parts of the day to help them remember what

ready to learn every day, plan out their outfits for the entire school week. This is especially easy if they have a set of hanging cubbies in their closets. Allow them to help choose outfits

they’re supposed to be doing, whether it’s blue for breakfast time, orange for homework hour, or purple for their bedtime routine.

on a Saturday or Sunday before the new week; it will also help them learn how to dress themselves later in life.

Make school-supply cubbies.

If your child tends to throw their backpack and jackets all over the house, then school-supply cubbies could be a game-changer. You could even just label

Back-to-school season doesn’t have to be hectic — and with a few of these hacks in mind, it won’t be!

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Cherry Creek 303-333-MATH (6284) • Cherry Hills 720-47

STRANGE BEAUTY TRENDS Throughout World History

women went so far as to darken their eyebrows with black powder or close the gap with animal hair.

Skull Shaping in Ancient Mesoamerica Popularized among the Mayans beginning around 1,000 B.C., parents of newborn children would bind their heads in order to make them grow into an unnaturally elongated shape, possibly to mimic their depiction of one of their gods. Other tribes around the world actually had similar beauty practices, including the Incas, Hawaiians, and even Germanic Hun tribes. Ta moko Tattoos Among the Maoris in New Zealand Even today, beauty standards remain disparate. For over 1,000 years, members of the indigenous Maori tribe of New Zealand have decorated their faces with intricate tattoos called ta moko. Far from what a face tattoo represents in the United States, these tattoos represent strength and beauty in women and a readiness for adult responsibilities in men. Cosmetic Surgery as a Status Symbol in South Korea South Koreans prize porcelain white skin, pointed noses, small faces, and large eyes — to the point where 1 in every 5 people undergo plastic surgery, mostly to alter the shape of their eyes and noses. These surgeries are expensive, which goes to show that even today, people will go to extreme lengths to conform to their society’s definition of beauty.

The phrase “beauty standards” could easily be considered an oxymoron because beauty is rarely standard. Throughout history, what people in one society or time period found beautiful would often be found ugly, strange, or downright reprehensible in another. To illustrate that point, here are a few examples of the strangest beauty trends throughout world history — by our society’s own subjective standards, of course! Unibrows in Ancient Greece Rather than the intensely plucked and manicured eyebrows that are in style for women today, ancient Greek women were encouraged to let them grow into one. Unibrows were seen as a sign of purity, and some

But if beauty is so plainly subjective, how far should people be willing to go to appear “beautiful”?

PB&J ON A STICK

TAKE A BREAK

Ingredients

• 2 bananas, peeled and cut into rounds • Kebab skewers, one per sandwich

• Peanut butter of choice • Jelly of choice • Sliced bread • 1 cup of grapes, red or green

Directions

1. Spread peanut butter and jelly onto two pieces of sliced bread and create a sandwich. Make as many sandwiches as you have kebab skewers. 2. Slice the sandwich or sandwiches into four pieces.

3. Slide one piece of sandwich onto a skewer. Follow that piece with one grape, then one banana round. Repeat until the skewer is full or the skewer has four sandwich pieces.

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74-1878 • Littleton 303-979-9077 • Parker 303-840-1184

PRST STD US POSTAGE PAID BOISE, ID PERMIT 411

11211 Dransfeldt Rd. #149 | Parker, CO 80134

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Why We Have the Best Teams of Tutors

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Hacks to Get Your Kids Organized for the School Year

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Crazy Historical Beauty Trends

Lunchtime Idea: PB&J on a Stick

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Remembering the Heroes of 9/11

As we approach its 20th anniversary, Sept. 11, 2001, remains one of the darkest days in American history. Almost 3,000 people lost their lives when terrorists flew passenger airplanes into the Twin Towers and the Pentagon. The infrastructural damage was severe, but the damage done to thousands of families across the country was even worse. While 9/11 remains a day of remembrance of these tragic events, it should also be a day to remember the brave men and women who sacrificed their lives to save others. These are just a few of their stories. Betty Ong and Amy Sweeney After five al-Qaida terrorists hijacked American Airlines Flight 11, Ong and Sweeney, two flight attendants, used the crew phone to call their colleagues and give them information about their attackers, including what they looked like and what seats they had been sitting in. Both attendants perished, but the information they shared helped the FBI jump-start their investigation. Rick Rescorla A Vietnam veteran who had earned a silver star for his service, Rescorla was no stranger to stressful life-and-death situations. As the head of corporate security for Morgan Stanley in the South Tower, he defied orders from Port Authority to stay put and instead escorted 2,700 people out of the building REMEMBERING THE HEROES AMID THE TRAGEDY The Everyday People Who Saved Countless Lives on 9/11

before it collapsed. After that, he headed back in to look for stragglers. That was the last time anyone saw him.

Passengers of Flight 93 While two planes hit the World Trade Center towers and one plane hit the Pentagon, another plane that was headed for the White House never reached its destination. That’s because passengers aboard this flight, upon learning their plane had been hijacked, decided to rush the cockpit and overtake the terrorists. They caused the plane to crash in an empty field in Pennsylvania, saving the White House but killing everyone on board. Sad though their deaths may be, these heroic men and women continue to inspire people even 20 years later. We should never forget the tragedy of 9/11, but we should also remember these regular people who decided to take extraordinary lengths to save others.

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