Contact:
Kavita Jain, CEO and Founder, Quizmine.Com, Redmond WA, USA;

kjain@quizmine.com, (425) 785-8779

For Immediate Release
Monday, 09/10/2007, Redmond, WA, USA

Quizmine founder to speak at 46^th Annual Northwest Mathematics Conference in Bellevue, WA, USA

Redmond, WA, USA – Quizmine Founder Kavita Jain released the following statement this afternoon after accepting invitation to speak at 2007 NW Math Conference.

I am looking forward to share my experiences in teaching Mathematics via Quizmine.com at 46^th NW Math conference. 

Many of my students ask why should I do better in Math and how is Quizmine.com online experience different? Their parents ask me what led me to transition from being a computer science engineer to becoming an online Math teacher? Can they trust computers to teach Math to their kids?

Enclosed are some of my thoughts.  I have tried to explain how Quizmine.com came into existence and how Quizmine.com online education experience is different:

A cashier at a fast food restaurant (Redmond, WA): During one of my visits to a local fast food chain the bill was $2.26. I gave $5 and machine calculated the change as $2.74. Since I did not want to carry 4 pennies I decided to offer the cashier an extra penny thinking that cashier will now return me $2.75. This transaction totally confused the cashier. The cashier had no idea of what to do with this extra penny or how to calculate the change. I tried explaining but it literally took 2 cashiers and a manager to sort things out.  

An 8th grader in Redmond, WA: An expert at making graphs of equations is expanding x(x+3) to 2x+3.

A 7^th grader in Redmond, WA: I casually asked a 7^th grader in my neighborhood “How many pennies are there in $6.25? After some thinking I got the response 640 pennies. I asked why not 625 since 625 divided by 100 will give me $ 6.25, I got the answer that “Oh, I was rounding off”.

Above incidents helped me to understand one simple thing: I must come up with a better way to listen, learn and respond to Math education needs of our kids.  This is how the idea of Quizmine.com was born. 

I designed Quizmine.com with following key phases and steps in mind:

Phase I: Focus on Math Fundamentals

Step 1: Listen and Evaluate

• Listen to your student's needs

• Take a snap shot of student’s AS IS Math understanding by giving diagnostic tests in Arithmetic, Geometry, Measurement, Algebra, Probability and Statistics.

Step 2: Respond

• Start with ground zero i.e. numbers and ensure that student can do basic arithmetic first.
• Track student progress in Math fundamentals as he delves deeper into specific areas that include Arithmetic, Geometry, Measurement, Algebra, Probability and Statistics

• Focus teaching efforts on student’s pain points and help student to improve.

Step 3: Discuss Student Progress

• Discuss how student is progressing on Math fundamentals by analyzing his online progress report.
  • Each and every response that student has given to a question is recorded in the Quizmine system along with the time that the student has spent on solving it.
• Discuss specific quiz performance and help the student in understanding his common mistakes and weak area.
  • Ensure that student is spending sufficient time reading the question, thinking about answers and choosing the final answer to the best of his ability.

Phase II: Focus on WASL

Step 4: Enable student to succeed in WASL

• Give past questions that appeared in previous year’s WASL and build a confidence in student to succeed in WASL

Overall my goal is to work with WA state Teachers and students to ensure that we can get more than 80% of our kids to succeed in WASL Math.

I am looking forward to share further thoughts at 46th Annual NW Math Conference.

Thank you

Kavita Jain

CEO and Founder, Quizmine.Com

** More information on NW Math conference session **

Taken from http://www.northwestMathconf.org/NWMC2007/index.html

46TH NORTHWEST MATHEMATICS CONFERENCE

The 46th Annual Northwest Mathematics Conference will be held Thursday, October 11th through Saturday, October 13th in Bellevue, Washington, at the Meydenbauer Center, the Hilton Bellevue, and the Bellevue Red Lion Hotel. This conference brings together Mathematics teachers from all levels of primary, secondary, and undergraduate education to learn and share about Mathematics and pedagogy.

** Kavita’s session **