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I am currently on day 2 of my 3 day weekend. Yay! Even though I love my school, I do enjoy days off. During my time off, I have the opportunity to work on my personal projects. In my busy world of school, homework, after school activities, and music, my time often runs short. I am grateful for the chance to work on what I want to work on, instead of what I have to work on.

I was thinking about Martin Luther King Jr. while I was organizing my time for this 3 day weekend. You know what always comes to mind when I think about him? 4 words. Can you guess what they are? “I have a dream”. In my mind “I have a dream” defines Martin Luther King Jr. Thinking about that very important sentence made me question, what is the difference between dreams and goals? Could Martin Luther King Jr have said “ I have a goal”, and it have made the same impact?

We just celebrated the New Year, and some of us made resolutions for this year. Personally, I jotted down a list of goals that I wanted to accomplish this year. 4-5 items are on that list. Was anything on that list a dream of mine? Maybe 1 item. The rest were just goals. I looked at my list and it helped me define the difference between dreams and goals. I came up with three thoughts. 1. A dream is much bigger than a goal. Dreams are your overall big picture, goals are the actions you take to accomplish it. A football team can have a goal to win the game they are playing, and a dream to make it to the state playoffs. Goals are the steps on the way to the dream. 2. Both dreams and goals are very similar in that they both require action. Both! It is simply not enough to say you have a dream and then go about your day, never working on it. My 5th grade teacher used to say that anything worth having was worth working for. This train of thought led me back to Martin Luther King Jr. What he was working for, was so much bigger than a goal. It was a dream! He worked tirelessly on promoting equality, despite the odds against him. This brings me to my 3rd thought, 3. Dreams have a way of pulling you through failures, if you let them. Dreams become a passion that is a part of us. When a door closes on a dream, we are crushed. However, if you stick with your dream, your brain will find another way (I have experience with this, ask me sometime why Microsoft doesn’t host acalympics.com). In comparison goals, can be easy to give up in because sometimes we aren’t really that attached them in the 1st place.

What are your dreams for this year? What goals will get you there? Zig Zigler said “You are born to win. However, you must plan to win, prepare to win and expect to win.” While your dreams may seem a million miles away, if you start now, by the end of this month you will make so much progress and be that much closer than you are now.  Don’t be afraid to dream big. I read a little sentence that said “if your dreams don’t scare you, they aren’t big enough”. I would bet that there were times Martin Luther King Jr. was scared. However, he didn’t give up and our world today is a much better place because of him. Tomorrow, remember him, come up with a dream to make the world a better place, and Dare To Dream Big!

I recently found a good article on Twitter that I would like to share with you. (https://journal.thriveglobal.com/how-to-rewire-your-brain-for-massive-success-according-to-neuroscience-f051a30395d1) The author post steps on how to rewire your brain for success. Guess what the 1st step is? To engage in “brain aerobics” every day. You can do this by solving crossword puzzles, playing chess, or reviewing your math facts! Not only is acalympics.com a fun way to advance a team, but it is good for you!

Academics Olympic Style
When I was in 6th grade, my school district hosted a district wide competition open to all students. The challenge was to create a product to meet an under met or unmet need in education. I thought it sounded like fun, and signed up for the competition. I immediately started researching how the USA performed in mathematics. The results I found horrified me! In 2015 only 33% of 4th graders were considered proficient in mathematics, and a mere 25% of 8th graders were proficient according to Pew Research Center. I began doing more research and learned two very important concepts:

Algebra is called the gatekeeper subject. Algebra alone serves as a measure of predictability for success in higher level mathematic course
Algebra is the most failed course in high schools and colleges
At this point in my school career, I had not taken Algebra yet, but I was becoming more and more aware of how important it was. While researching how I could help underperforming students in math, I noticed a trend. The common theme was strong math fluency helps build strong mathematic learners. I realized this was an area I could address. Learning math facts, known as math fluency, is really beneficial for you. I reasoned if your brain was not bogged down trying to figure out the answer to an addition, multiplication, division, or subtraction problem it was free to engage in higher level thinking. I knew I could address this area, because let’s face it: fact worksheets, while beneficial are boring. I decided to create a product where answering math questions correctly, not necessarily quickly, would earn you points. Then I could create a running total of those points for display.
I used the Olympics as my inspiration, and made teams. In the Olympics, you have several different athletes with different strengths all working towards a common goal, earning the gold for their country. In Acalympics, I wanted to do the same thing. The students would all be placed on a team, and could login to earn points, by answering fluency questions correctly, for their team. My idea was once a month, quarter, semester, whatever the teams would be awarded the Gold, Silver and Bronze. I wanted to make the teams flexible, so if one grade is constantly outperforming another, you could rearrange the teams for a closer competition. My ultimate goal is not only for the school to compete with themselves, but to host this competition, so schools can compete against other schools, and districts against districts (I am still working on that). My reason for this is, at the end of the day, there is a whole lot of math fact review going on.

A little bit about me, I am currently a 7th grade student that wanted to help people, and had an idea. The superintendent asked me how to get my idea into his classrooms, so I started trying to learn how to make a website. It has been a whole lot of work (and a big “thank you” goes to my dad), but I have learned a whole lot too. When I am not working on this website, I can be found spending time with my other passion, music. I play the alto saxophone and the piano and love every minute of it. Or you just might find me petting my dog. To close this About Tab, I want to leave you with a thought that inspires me. Simon Sinek said (and I am paraphrasing it) “What good is an idea, if it remains an idea? Make a plan, change the world.”

Thanks for checking out my website, blog, Facebook and Twitter!
Karstan