Math Mentor Squad

Ozark Middle School sixth grader Sammie Kinser likes to watch YouTube videos, which is probably no surprise. However, what may surprise you is the channel she’s watching on YouTube: Math Mentor Squad.

“I watch them at home before the tests because they are very helpful and fun at the same time,” she said. 

The Math Mentor Squad is comprised of OMS sixth grade math teachers Emily Burns and Josiah Johnson who make fun, engaging math videos for students. Burns came up with the idea after an assessment training in May 2023. 

“She came to me and said, instead of us just talking to students all the time, what if we showed them in a video,” Johnson said. “And I said, what if we made it more like Bill Nye the Science Guy meets whatever math chaos is, and go crazy with it.”

So they started making videos using examples students could relate to, such as shopping in the grocery store to find the unit rate, or trying to figure out how many miles Santa’s sleigh would have to fly per hour to deliver all the gifts on Christmas Eve.

“We saw the response that students had, how they engaged with the material, and how it made tests a little more digestible,” Johnson said. 

Since debuting the videos in the 2023-24 school year, Burns said she has not only seen more students engaged in class, but she’s noticed students having more confidence. 

“The videos show them how they can take this math and apply it to real life,” Burns said. “The kids typically love when they hear it’s a Math Mentor Squad video day. They are constantly asking when the next video is coming out or when they get to watch another video.”

And while Johnson said his students often call the videos “cringe,” he said it’s worth it.

“They remember a lot of those mathematical principles that we throw in there, so it’s worth the cringe,” he said.

The videos are uploaded to the Math Mentor Squad YouTube channel so students — and parents — can watch the videos at home. To date, there are nearly 900 subscribers and 60 videos. Some of the videos also have a worksheet linked in the description so students can practice on their own. 

Burns and Johnson said having seen the positive impact the videos are making on students, they plan to continue acting silly and illustrating math concepts through videos. 

“You get a chance to build their confidence, breathe life into them, show them math in new, interesting and fun ways, and just get them engaged in class,” Johnson said. 

Find the Math Mentor Squad — “your go-to destination for dynamic and engaging math resources tailored specifically for sixth-grade math” — on YouTube by searching for @middlemathmentors.