20th Quick Step: Recovering from an extended school break (9-17 days of no math)

Feb/Mar/Apr (aka Spring/Winter/Fall breaks - Fall is Australia)

Before I get to the 20th Quick Step: News on MailBag: Fri March 8, I sent a second email to a different journalist on their use of gibberish math pictures in articles. Check it out as I also ask you to send me gibberish pics that you see, and how you can get involved.

How to recover from an extended school break of 9 to 17-days?

Answer? Do Recover work before school restarts to get into math mode. And guess what? Your Summary Sheets will be the star, yet again!

Has anyone ever told you what to do or how to prepare for math when you’ve been off for an extended time?

Parent, Teacher, Ministry of Education, State/province? No, then I’m here to help. Though do this research - ask a parent or any adult, 1) What do you do to recover from your extended break? or 2) How do you feel leading up to the break ending?*

The Recover Work I’ll recommend mirrors everything I write about on Math by Edison - it’s just another piece in the jig-saw puzzle called, learning math. Here goes, and its simple quick steps for you to do, if you’ve been doing your Sheets for each math class.

The Objective/goal with this Recover work?

For you to restart the first school day after the extended break at the same level you stopped on the last day before the break. You’re just aiming to get back to where you were before.

Need more motivation?

2.  Your teacher’s expectations are that you WILL remember and able to INSTANTLY recall all the math done prior to the break.

3. If you have a final exam, this is getting ready for that. Your future you will thank, hug and be grateful to the present you for doing this.

4. Master this Recover Work now and it becomes a transferable skill later: *How were the research answers you got from a parent or adult? Edison here: Based on what I know about patterns I can predict much of what they told you was familiar to you and yet also surprisingly similar to what you experience. In other words, not what you’d expect from an adult ... but hey, they’re human too … right?

5. You’re planning for what’s coming up in the last few months of your course - and planning solves problems in advance and that’s a really good thing to do (Month 2 of 12 of my year-long Resolution was focused on solving problems in advance).

6. It’s the beginning of a positive habit. And habits are good, right?!

Do you feel like doing it?

No? Most humans aren’t ready to get back to work after a long holiday break - it’s human nature. Kinda like a bear coming out of hibernation - sluggish, not ready for this but …. Will you do your Recover work? Well, I’d say that depends on your Objective, your motivation and the positive habits you have! I didn’t feel like writing this article … but I did. Why do you think?

Here’s a thought-provoking question for you - why do almost, no math teachers give a test the first day after an extended break?

Need more motivation?

6. How have you felt the night before you’re back at school, usually a Sunday night, after an extended break? Think back to your patterns, and I wrote about patterns, with the 1-2-3 Pattern Principle. Words that come to mind:

Lethargic, dread, not looking forward to, anything but school.
Low energy, low motivation, low desire.
High anxiety, high stress, high worry.

It’s a pattern formula:

• » Do nothing and the night before school restarts EQUALS feel crappy guaranteed!

• » Do something and the night before EQUALS feel much less crappy - perhaps dare I say, feel invigorated.

You’re rested, yet you’re not re-energized (R and not R) … hmm. And that’s what you’re aiming to avoid. But don’t worry, those are the feelings this Recover Work will squish 😊!

This 9-17 day break is very much similar to the break you choose when taking a short break from studying to reenergize. In both cases intent is down time to come back stronger, but an extended break does not have you come back stronger ☹. In fact, if you do nothing you come back weaker ☹.

Okay, now that I’ve sapped the joy out of your break ...

Here's the plan

Before your break begins split it into two parts:
1) Down time (holiday) and
2) Up time (Recover Work to get back into math mode)

1^st part: Down time is when you enjoy your extended break wherever it is. Like any break it’s meant to give you rest and relaxation (R and R) leading to reenergize and reinvigorate (R and R) for what lies ahead after the break.

2^nd part: Two days before the break ends, so on the Saturday, that’s when you’ll begin to get back into math mode.

Where are you? How long is your break?

• Ontario, Canada? Public schools began a 9-day break (Sat March 9 to Sun. Mar 17), called the March Break. Most private schools get a 16-day break (Sat March 9 to Sun. Mar 24).

• New York state, USA? 9-day break (spring recess Apr 22-30), but they also got a 7-day break (mid-winter, Feb 19-23).

• Queensland, Australia? 17-day fall break (Fri March 29 to Sun Apr 14). Australia is different as their school year is not split into the popular two terms, but instead split into four terms (each term last for 10 weeks) and about a 17-day break in between terms. G’day to down under readers!

• England? 15-day break (March 29 to Apr 12), but they also got a 9-day February break (12 to 16).

• Morocco? Romania? Germany? California? Arizona? Michigan? Maryland? British Columbia? Quebec?

I’ll focus on these 9-21 day breaks, as they wreak more havoc than a short long weekend break. But pale in comparison to the 75 days off Canadian students get in the summer (June 20 - Sept 3), or the 39 days Aussie students get off for their summer (Dec. 14 - Jan 21).

So, the question is this, how will you recover from such a long break of not doing math? Do you choose a do-nothing and a non-active approach and show up on the first Monday and see how things unfold, hope for the best, fingers crossed …?

Or do you take responsibility and control of your learning, so as to not miss a beat!

When to start?

Two days before school re-starts, which is a Saturday as most schools re-open on a Monday.
Day 1, Saturday, is to wake up the math muscles and get memories flowing again, with the goal to recover from your 9-15 day math siesta.
Day 2, Sunday, is to make the muscles stronger!

Here’s what you’ll do. Here’s the plan to recover:

Day 1, Saturday (two days before school re-starts)

1.      Grab your binder and gather up your last 20 to 30 Summary sheets, so enough to cover the last two units**,

2.      Go to the first sheet, which will be the summary of the first lesson taught by your teacher

3.      Read the question only (don’t look at Meanings off Words or Symbols or Pictures)

4.      Do the question mentally w/o looking at solution – or at least think about the steps you’d follow.

5.      Either you’ll know how to do the question, or you won’t know

6.      Next, look at the solution to the question

7.      a) If you got it (step 4.) then reading the solution will reinforce and strengthen what you know, and that’s two reps on doing it correctly. Yay!
b) To get even stronger read meaning of Words and Symbols and look at Picture.

8.      a) If you did not know how to do the question (step 4.), then read the first line of the solution for a clue and see if that triggers a reminder on how to do the rest on your own. If didn’t help, then read second line for a second clue and see if that triggers a reminder ~ ... and keep going until you know how to do the question (rep one).
b) Then read meaning of Words and Symbols and look at Picture, to deepen your understanding.
c) Finally look at question again, and mentally redo the question in your mind (that’s your rep two).
~ this is a better strategy than reading the solutions. This way you’re trying to see how much you can recall on your own (100% of it, 80% of it, 50% of it, none of it). That’s useful feedback to you.

9.      Next? Go to the second Summary Sheet, do the question on there, and repeat steps 3 to 8.

When you get to this second Sheet/question, the probability will be higher that you’ll remember more of this second question. Why? Because you would have used the knowledge you gained from doing the first question 😊. It’s building blocks!

10.  Do this for all of 20 to 30 Summary Sheets**.

11.  Once completed you will have done all questions correctly twice (two reps) and will be close to getting back to where you were the day before your extended break started.

**Yes, you can do more than 20 to 30 Summary Sheets - depends on you, your teacher and course expectations. I’ve had students do Recover Work for all Summary sheets in their full course, though that of course, requires a higher level of motivation.

Backstory on what I’m getting you to do

1) By reading your question from your summary sheet, with your handwriting, the odds are higher it will trigger a memory on how to do it. Why? You wrote it!

2) Doing it mentally is a quicker way to do the question and begin process to get back into math mode.

3) That question on each Summary Sheet is the easiest question taught by your teacher in that class, so probability will be higher you’ll recall it.

4) Think of all of this as quizzing yourself on your recall, to see how much you remember w/o help and with help (100% of it, 80% of it, 50% of it, none of it).

5) Number of reps is a numerical way at measuring how well you’re getting back into math mode - aiming for 3 correct reps.

You’ve done the 20-30 math Sheet questions correct, twice (2 reps). Sunday is all about getting to a third rep!

Day 2, Sunday

1.      Grab some blank paper or using the blank back of your Summary Sheet works better.

2.      Repeat a similar process to Day 1, EXCEPT now you’ll DO the question, you’ll WRITE the solution!

3.      Look at question on Sheet 1, DO the question

4.      a) Check your work with the solution to make sure all is good.
b) If you got it right, then that’s your 3rd rep :).
c) If you didn’t then re-read the solution,
d) Then redo the question w/o looking at the solution - keep doing until you get that 3rd correct rep on your own.

5.      Read meaning of Words and Symbols and look at Picture, to understand better

6.      Then go to Second Summary Sheet and repeat Steps 2. to 4..

7.      Do this for all of the 20 to 30 Summary Sheets

Where do students do their Recover Work?

Some of my students have done their Recover Work when away from Ottawa for their break – e.g. beaches in the Caribbean, Mexico, Florida. Some have done it on planes flying back from Europe or Africa or USA or Latin/South America (though I’ve always wondered what happened to the Recover Work that my grade 11 student said they left on the plane from Paris to Montreal. Ha! And of course many do it in their homes.

Your Recover Work is an investment in you that makes your first Monday back, better, and solves future problems now. And I’d say puts you a step ahead of some of classmates.

Final recovery

The big negative with an extended break is that you’re in the middle of your math course and then WHAM! Extended break pupils!! It brings your momentum and you being in a math groove to a halt. You get out of the rhythm of doing math, and it’s why the Sunday evening before school restarts is the part of a break almost all students (and adults) dread.

Your Recover Work solves that problem!

EH

What’s EH? My initials for Edison Hopkinson, eh!
What’s ‘eh’? ‘eh’ is a part of Canadian culture - it’s how many of our retired snow-birds finish their sentences. Snow-birds fly south to Florida for their 6-month break (less a day).
It’s a cold negative 15 degrees Celsius in Ottawa today and that’s w/o the windchill, eh?
Yes son, but it’s a balmy 80 degrees Fahrenheit here in Miami, Florida, eh!