Math Academy
Developmentally-appropriate online math program
The Jamie York Academy supports homeschool families and schools to deliver the Making Math Meaningful™ curriculum.
We blend live teaching with recorded lectures and collaborative student problem-solving groups in a discovery-based, creative, content-rich, rigorous program.
When can we join a class?
Your child can join a class at any point in the year. We will assist them to make sure there is a smooth transition.
Jamie York Math Academy (JYMA) in a Nutshell
- Our Math Academy is a daily, 32-week-long math course for students in grades 5-12.
- At the center of the Math Academy experience is human connection – small group meetings to work on real math together, and weekly live tutorials led by one of our professional instructors.
- Our Waldorf-oriented math curriculum is an alternative to Common-Core-based, standardized-test-focused, and textbook-reliant learning.
- Yes, we believe that math skills are important and our students develop strong math skills, but we offer much more than just math skills.
- Our students experience the wonders of math through math puzzles, games, problem solving, and discovery. This approach fosters mathematical thinking, develops solid math skills, and enlivens an enthusiasm for learning.
- The curriculum content is shaped by Jamie York’s recorded lectures, as well as weekly individual work and group assignments.
- Although our Math Academy program is primarily designed for homeschool students, who need all we have to offer, those who cannot commit to all of this, may instead wish to enroll in our once-per-week, afterschool Math Club.
Jamie says this is the best teaching he’s ever done
Teaching in this way has forced me to be more organized with my teaching. With only two lectures per week, I need to teach efficiently. But most of all, the Math Academy structure has required me to carefully design group assignments whereby the students are truly problem-solving and discovering new mathematics together with their peers.
I have never before seen my students so excited about math nor witnessed such huge advances in their mathematical thinking capacities!
-Jamie York
The Three Pillars of JYMA: Parent, Tutor, and Jamie
In short, the parent, tutor, and Jamie are all collaborating to provide the best math experience for the student
Parent
The parent has an important role in monitoring the student’s work at home, judging how much work is optimal for the student, motivating and encouraging the student, and communicating with the tutor.
Tutor
The tutor has general oversight of the progress of the students in the tutorial sessions. The tutor is an adult mentor who is helping to guide the student’s studies. This is helpful for all students of all ability levels.
Jamie
As the architect of the Math Academy, Jamie has oversight of the curriculum, delivers the lectures, and creates all the assignments.
Weekly Routine
Mostly, students watch the lectures on Monday and Wednesday – however they are recorded, so they can be watched at any time. The lectures are “active”, meaning that the students are frequently asked to do problems, or think about something. Because the lectures are recorded, it allows students to pause the video and take exactly how much time they need. The recordings are mostly around 35 or 45 minutes long.
Student work group meetings are usually Tuesday and Thursday. Group work is the heart and soul of the Math Academy. Why? Because this is where students engage in problem-solving, work together on puzzles, and discover the laws of mathematics. That’s real math! It’s much more than just blindly following the instructions from the teacher. Group work is where the students really develop mathematical thinking capacities.
The group meetings are coordinated and supervised by the parents or the class teacher (in the case of a school). You can find out more details about group work in the JYMA – Parent Handbook.
The weekly tutorial session is either on Friday, or on the following Monday. This live class takes place via Zoom and is an opportunity for your child to be taught by a professional JYMA tutor, to reflect upon the past week, and to get some questions answered.
Curriculum
Each class will follow Jamie York’s Waldorf math curriculum and (except for 5th grade) will use the Making Math Meaningful™ workbooks. See our weekly curricula for each grade.
How JYMA Turns Math on its Head!
In a world that often views education as a competition, it stands to reason that learning skills would dominate our math classrooms. The goal seems to be learning material as quickly as possible, usually without regard to deep understanding and creative thinking. Therefore, it’s not surprising that math class is normally all about doing homework and taking tests, with little creative work or individual or group discovery opportunities.
To some degree, our Math Academy turns this on its head. We believe that engendering enthusiasm for learning and developing thinking (independent and creative thinking) are our most important goals. Our students also spend a good amount of time strengthening their math skills, but we set it in a context of discovery and creative thinking.
Quick LInks
Developmentally- Appropriate learning
Meeting the Needs of your Child
Waldorf education is developmentally based. In part, this means that, regardless of intelligence or ability, topics are chosen primarily based upon the age of the students. If a child is behind grade level and has weak skills (and honestly, most children have some holes in their math skills base), then that child will still experience the proper grade-level topics. Also, we don’t feel it is desirable for a gifted student to be doing math that is meant be for older students; we don’t engage in the “race to get ahead”. However, it is absolutely our intention to make sure that all students are met; we will do our best to offer challenging material for the more advanced students, and somehow, at the same time, make sure that nobody is feeling overwhelmed and anxious. This is challenging for us teachers! Hopefully, we will all get to the end of the year with all of our students feeling successful, appropriately challenged, and excited about learning math.
In some rare cases, an advanced math student may choose to join the Math Academy three weeks after the start of the year, which is a time that many grades (specifically, grades 5, 6, 7, and 9) focus on reviewing previous material.
My Child is “Behind” – What should I do?
Today’s parents seem to worry about their child being “behind”. Most students have some holes or weaknesses with their math skills. But don’t worry, I start with the assumption that all students have either not been introduced to certain topics, or have forgotten. My job is to introduce new material in an engaging way that works for children of all ability levels, and to find ways to review and strengthen skills that were introduced (or not) in previous years.
However, if your child is truly too far behind grade level or his/her learning challenges are too great, then you may choose to have your child just work individually with one of our tutors instead of being enrolled in a class with other students.
Tuition
Math Academy Notes
Open House and Orientation Meetings
Are you thinking about enrolling, but still have questions (even after looking through this website)? Find out more about our Open House and our Parent Orientation by clicking here.
Weekly Tutorial Sessions
See the options for the weekly tutorial sessions.
Parent Meetings with Jamie
After the school year gets started, Jamie will hold parent meetings twice per quarter (about once per month) in order to elaborate on his intentions for the class and to answer parents’ questions. While it is best to attend these meetings live, they will be recorded so you can watch them at a later time.
Jamie York Math Academy School Year
The Math Academy school year is 32-weeks long, divided into four quarters of 8-weeks each (as shown in the above calendar). To offer flexibility to families, payment (and enrollment) is made on a quarterly basis.
The first day of the Math Academy is Monday, September 5.
The last day is Friday, May 26 – or May 29 for those who have tutorials on a Monday.
Please note that because the lectures are recorded, the calendar dates are very flexible. For example, any school can simply make its own calendar for the 32-week Math Academy program. Students in the Southern Hemisphere can start their Math Academy school year in January, as long as the other students in the work group use the same school calendar.
Times for the Student Work Groups
There are many student work groups for each grade, and they meet at a variety of times. We try our best to put students in a work group that matches their ability level and works for the family’s schedule.
How JYMA can help Schools
By having an entire class join JYMA, Jamie is providing the program, lectures, and assignments, but the class teacher (as the “tutor”) still remains connected to the students’ learning. The class of students is then experiencing the “flipped classroom”, where the students’ homework is to watch the two weekly lectures, and classroom time is then dedicated to working on skills and doing group work – all under the guidance of the teacher.
Another option is for only the teacher to enroll in JYMA, and then Jamie’s lectures and assignments can help to inspire the teacher’s lessons for the upcoming week.
Appropriate Use of Technology
Our students will need to watch Jamie’s recorded lectures and participate in live video conferencing (with their parents at their side for grades 5 and 6). Our program does not involve any other use of computers, such as Internet research, watching YouTube videos, etc.
Class Size
The whole class (grade level) could be any size (we have students in the Math Academy from around the world). The tutorial sessions usually consist of around ten students. Student work groups are between two and five students.
Credits
The Math Academy classes meet for a total of about 280 minutes per week (the total time between lectures, workgroup time, and tutorial meetings, but not including individual time spent on homework). This amounts to about 150 hours per year, which exceeds the standard 120 hours needed for 1.0 Carnegie units.
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