MATHCOUNTS, October 6th with The Spurs

It is that time off year again.  We are in the planning/organizing stages of our 9th Annual MATHCOUNTS/ SPURS Mathletes in Action competition on October 6th at the AT&T center.  I'm a little stressed because my task list for this is long.  Each task is not entirely difficult, but some of it should be timed well, some of it involves decision making, some of it cost money and I have to be careful with the MATHCOUNTS finances to be sure we can still host our official competition on February 9th.  And then there is the matter of writing the tests for the competition.    Many of these task take little time but the test writing is definitely a time commitment. 

 
You probably have heard me mention MATHCOUNTS before.  I bet you could draw the conclusion that it is something that somehow relates to MATH.  And furthermore you might have an idea that there is an engineering link since I was in Engineering.  I am currently one of only a few Domestic Engineers with a Professional Engineering license.

MATHCOUNTS is not new. I participated in 1989 under my MATHCOUNTS coach at Galvez Elementary, Rhonda Harvey.  Gary Agena and Brandon Beck were on my team and if you know Todd Pevey, Eric Johnson and Eric Robinson, they were all on the team for Prairieville in the same year.  I was surprised when I recently started volunteering with MATHCOUNTS that when I competed, it was still relatively new. Our team won fourth place that year.  the trophies haven't changed. 

MATHCOUNTS is a national enrichment, club and competition program that promotes middle school mathematics achievement through grassroots involvement.  MATHCOUNTS was founded in 1983 by the National Society of Professional Engineers, National Council of Teachers of Mathematics and CNA Foundation. Each year, more than 250,000 students are exposed to MATHCOUNTS materials and activities in their schools. Approximately 40,000 students from  more than 6,000 schools in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, U.S. territories and State Department and Department of Defense schools worldwide. Since MATHCOUNTS began in 1983, over 6 million students have participated.

MATHCOUNTS is one of the country's largest and most successful education partnerships involving volunteers, educators, industry sponsors and students. President Barack Obama and former Presidents George W. Bush, William J. Clinton, George H.W. Bush and Ronald W. Reagan have all recognized MATHCOUNTS in White House ceremonies. The MATHCOUNTS program has also received two White House citations as an outstanding private sector initiative. Particularly exciting for our Mathletes® were the hour-long ESPN programs on each of the National Competitions from 2003-2005. In 2011 the National Competition returned to ESPN with a live broadcast on ESPN3.

MATHCOUNTS competitions are designed to be completed in approximately three hours. Each competition consists of four parts: the Sprint, Target, Team and Countdown Rounds. The Sprint Round has 30 questions, and students have 40 minutes to complete them. The Target Round consists of 8 questions, which are distributed to the students two at a time. Students have 6 minutes to complete each pair of problems. The Team Round has 10 problems for the team to work together within the 20 minute time limit. The top 25% of individuals, up to a maximum of 10, proceed to the Countdown Round, an oral round in which students compete head-to-head.


 The countdown round is always one of the most fun parts of the competition.  The intensity as the two mathletes face off head-to-head to race to place is great and the intelligence of these competitors is astounding.  When we do this at the AT&T center the competition takes place on the court.  100 6-foot tables and 400 chairs where Tim Duncan works all for these mathletes.  We use the game clock for time keeping and when time is up you better cover your ears!!! It goes from pretty much complete silence to a deafening blow of the horn.  No doubt! TIME IS UP!!!!

The SPURS Coyote makes a guest appearance to help us hand out awards and every mathlete and their coach gets a ticket to the game that evening. 


I am excited, just also a little overwhelmed.  We have a good homeschool day here, but at the end of the day I still have so much to do.  It will all be fine.  I have such an awesome team. And thankfully one of our previous leaders is back from service in the Peace Corps so this year will be the best ever for the Bexar Chapter. I am so thankful that the committee that  puts this competition on together is so awesome, loyal and trustworthy that I don't have to worry about their tasks.  The committee is comprised of primarily engineers who have a heart for service and for cultivating an interest in mathematics and engineering in the minds of the talented middle schoolers that we host this for. 

A few years ago we brilliantly added Mary. 
 Mary is not and engineer.  She is super woman.  Her role in her full time job is administrative but her ability has so much depth that she can do the administrative work of 9 in a jiffy.  Jiffy meaning fast but she is also efficient and diligent.  And when I call her to add something to her list she only ever says one of two things, "Yes" or "I already did".  It is nice to not have to worry if our scoring software is up to date, if the  coaches have been up to date, if the volunteer list is being compiled, if we have a place to meet with our committee, and the biggest one Mary rules is if the test will be graded and scores ranked so we can hand out awards and get outta there before the Basket Ball team needs their court back.

Catching Up Blogging

Well I have sort of slipped out of my good habit of keeping the blog up to date. It was by accident, but certainly Ms. Emaleigh has had her hand in it as well. I can’t complain too much. I don’t mind spending most of my free time answering to her every need. But that doesn’t leave too much time for updating my blog or even my facebook status for that matter. I believe my facebook status right now says “I hate running…” I wrote that three weeks ago, or was it four, when my training for the San Antonio Rock and Roll Half Marathon began. Half Marathon, that’s 13.1 miles, not 6 as my friend thought last year when he signed up for it. The last thing I really blogged about was my trip to Florida to see precious Zoe. Well what you might not know is that since then I:

*went to Colorado to spend an extended weekend with my girlfriends Trish and Abby. The three of us, and Emaleigh (see above), flew into Denver and after a great dinner at The Black Pearl, we headed south and west to Del Norte, Colorado where my folks have a retirement log house. Del Norte was perfect for a getaway. With a population of 1,674 down-home folks according to the Chamber of Commerce, Del Norte was exactly what we needed to slow down and spend time with each other rather than running around each other without getting the opportunity to visit. We had some ideas about adventures we might take while we were there, but ultimately, slowing down and relaxing at home seemed to fit the bill. We did spend a day in the shops on Grande searching for deals and we also had lunch twice at The Organic Peddler / Peace of Art Café. Infact, if you are ever in the area it is a really sweet place to stop in. The building is really unique corkwood construction. My mom kept saying that and I was thinking, OK, OK…but it was worth talking about as much. Oh yeah. I forgot to mention something. Ivy was present as well. She so generously raced from spending time with me in Florida to get to Del Norte in time to de- winterize (i.e. kill flies, dust, move or hide mouse traps and turn on water and electricity) the house so it would be ready for us. I am certainly thankful for that as I know the last thing we wanted to do upon arrival at 1 a.m. was deal with those sorts of pests. Mom likes to take care of me still. I am pretty lucky for it. It’s very nice to have friends like these. I hope we get to do this kind of visit many more times.

*started training for the half marathon. I DO NOT hate running anymore. Now I hate being injured from running and wish my knee would hurry up and get better so I could get back out there and run some more. I have turned a new leaf as far as running is concerned. But I think I will always need the support of a running group or at least for a while. I want to find softer ground to run on, like marshmallows. I have really enjoyed tracking my workouts on http://www.mapmyrun.com/. That also has been an encouragement for me. I love to go out for a run/walk and come home and map my route. Generally I have been running in the neighborhood, but on Saturdays I run with my running group. We start near the Pearl Brewery from the running store, Run Wild Sports. I started, without realizing it, with a defeatist mentality. I would start each run, first it was 1 mile then 2 and so on…thinking, “I am not a runner, I’m going to run a little bit but I am not a runner so before this is over I am going to stop and walk”. I continued like this thru the first two weeks. On the third Saturday, I ran with Catherine, the very young owner of the running store. She gently encouraged me along to rum the whole way, 3 miles, and I did it. And I think now that I may be a runner. My breathing has been fine, me knees not so much, but I have overcome my mind and I am moving on, I will run 13.1 miles come November 15.

*Found out that the Mathletes in Action event that I am on the committee for is on November 14^th. Oh No!!!! This event is awesome, it is held on the court at the AT&T Center where the Spurs play. We use the game clock and buzzer for our timed events. Wait until you hear the game buzzer at the end of complete focused silence. I wouldn’t be surprised to find several #2 pencils at the top of the AT&T Center. The Spurs Coyote always makes an appearance and entertains while we are feverishly grading tests to rank competitors and get ready for awards. The schedule of the day is identical to the official MathCounts competition. It serves as a practice test for all of the kids, grades 5-7, who will be competing in the official competition held in February. Exceptions are, we can’t begin until the visiting NBA team’s morning practice is over, and we have to be off of the floor ASAP, I mean now, not another minute by 2 p.m. It is always stressful and I am always completely drained and sore at the end of this day. It will be interesting to see how well I do on my aforementioned run the day following!!! This event has always been in October during pre-season. All mathletes and volunteers get a ticket to the game at night. This year there were no pre-season home games on a Saturday and so we are having it in regular season. Word on the street is that the NBA does not like this. Go Math!!!

*and registered Addie Belle for school, Kindergarten. Can you believe it? Addie, my big girl is starting school. She’s very excited. She already got to meet her principal at registration and on Friday August 21 we will meet her teacher. The Judson Independent School District has a very strict dress code. I have been spending some time this week buying clothes on eBay that fit the description. NOTHING that she already owns does fit into the guidelines. It is rather boring.

I have sort of been waiting to blog about anything because I wanted to accompany with photos. I think I will upload a photo only blog later.