positivity May 2018
Implement ing Cont inuous Improvement
When I first started MathCelebrity.com, it was daunting. I felt like that woman trying to lose weight. Everything lay ahead of me, and there was so much work to be done. So I broke it down. My steps took on a day-by-day approach of continuous improvement. Each day, I would build three new calculators into the website. Over 365 days, that adds up. In a year, I had 1,095 calculators. My site was improving, one day at a time. In the beginning, I worked on MathCelebrity.com whenever I could, which usually ended up being several hours each day. When my wife and daughter went to sleep, I’d hop on the computer. When my English mastiff, Maximus, woke me up at 5 a.m., I’d feed him, then get to work on the site. These days, I don’t spend as much time on it because I’ve built the infrastructure. But the site is still improving each day as each new math problem comes our way. I know 1 percent doesn’t sound like a lot, but after 30 days, it compounds itself. You haven’t just made a 30 percent improvement; you’ve made a 36 percent improvement. It’s the power of one. What if you apply this principle to math studies? Constant improvement could turn a struggling student into a math- proficient student in less than a year. They won’t learn calculus in a day, but if they commit to learning a few new math problems every day, they’ll have grown by leaps and bounds within a year. MathCelebrity.com has the tools to take them there. Read on to find out how.
When Ronald Reagan was running against the incumbent, Jimmy Carter, he swayed the public with one simple question: “Are you better off than you were four years ago?” Folks reflected on the last four years and decided they weren’t satisfied. They wanted better, and Reagan convinced them that he was the person for the job. In Japan, there’s a principle called “kaizen,” which loosely translates to “change for the better” or “continuous improvement.” When applied to your goals, it’s an effective way to make them manageable. Whatever you’re aiming for, don’t approach it all at once. Instead, start by making a 1 percent improvement every day through small steps. In a book I read about kaizen, there’s an example of a woman who struggled with weight loss. She was 150 pounds overweight and unable to get to the gym. Furthermore, her diet just wasn’t yielding the results she hoped for. But then she applied the principle of kaizen, and her life began to change. On the first day, her goal was just to get her gym bag out of the closet. On day two, she placed her socks in the bag. On day three, she put her keys in the bag. On day four she drove to the parking lot of the gym. She continued these steps until the day she went inside the gym. In the third week, she got on the treadmill. When her goal was to lose 150 pounds, it was overwhelming. The amount of work required seemed insurmountable. But when she broke that goal down into small steps — beginning with pulling her gym bag out of the closet — it became focused and achievable.
– Don Sevcik
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Are You Wast ing Water , T ime , and Money?
Dishwashers heat water to around 145 degrees Fahrenheit to ensure your dishes are disinfected. Even if the water from your sink could get that hot, you wouldn’t want to stick your hand in it. Which brings us to the science experiment that is your kitchen sponge. Dr. Philip Tierno, a clinical professor in the microbiology and pathology departments at NYU Langone, determined that your kitchen sponge is the single dirtiest item in your house. Soap and water aren’t enough to sanitize your sponge, which is left damp next to your sink after each use. Have you ever noticed that stagnant sponge smell? That’s bacteria growing. And when you wash your dishes by hand, you rub that bacteria all over your plates and silverware. Yum. If you have just a single plate or cup, you obviously don’t want to run them through the dishwasher alone; that would be incredibly wasteful. But the drawbacks of washing by hand are too great to ignore. The best option is to wait until your dishwasher is full, then start up the washing cycle. All your dishes will be clean and disinfected, and you’ll use less water in the process.
We’ve all walked into our kitchens, looked at the dishes stacked high in the sink, and asked, “Is it better to throw those in the dishwasher or wash them by hand?” The dishwasher would certainly save you some time, but many people believe
that washing dishes by hand uses less water and electricity. In reality, however, washing your dishes by hand is one of the worst things you can do for both the planet and your wallet.
Dishwashers use less water than washing by hand. A study conducted in Europe found that individuals who wash dishes by hand tend to use 27 gallons of water to clean just 12 place settings. Meanwhile, modern dishwashers only use 6 gallons of water, and Energy Star appliances use as little as 4 gallons during their wash cycle. The Environmental Protection Agency determined that using a dishwasher instead of washing by hand can save 5,000 gallons of water and $40 in utility costs a year. It’s not just about water! Unless you have incredibly thick dishwashing gloves, you can’t properly clean your dishes by hand.
There’s a tutor out there that never shuts off, never goes to sleep, and is available to answer math questions year-round. At MathCelebrity.com, our calculators are available whenever you need them to not only solve your math problems, but also to show you the steps to get there. With three membership tiers, you can find the one that’s right for you and your child. Each of our memberships come with unlimited use of calculators, flashcards, and quiz generators without any ads. Our monthly membership comes with online support, so if you have questions the calculator can’t solve, you can reach out and get additional support. Stop the summer slide, and start giving your student the competitive edge they need to excel in school.
Did you catch any of the Winter Olympics this year? Aren’t those athletes amazing? The way they carve through the insane turns, sweep down icy hills, and make jumps seems impossible. You can bet they didn’t just hop on their skis the day before the race to prepare — many of the athletes have practiced and competed their entire lives to make it to the Olympics. The best athletes train year-round. If you want your child to be competitive when they enter the college arena and compete with national and international scholarship applicants, you need to apply the same strategy to their learning. Did you know that students lose about one month of classroom learning during the summer? The National Summer Learning Association (NSLA) says it’s closer to two months for mathematical skills. What’s even scarier is that students who fall behind in the summer are less likely to go on to college. Multiple studies highlight the risk that those 2 1/2 months outside the classroom pose to your student’s academic progress.
What can you do to help your child keep up in math during the summer?
Visit MathCelebrity.com to learn more.
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for parents who understand the value of time and the value of expertise in helping their child complete school work. What You Get With the Homework Mastermind: • Telephone, email, and text-message access to me all day. • A 24-karat gold, laser-etched phone preprogrammed with my private phone number (Mastermind members call it The Bat Phone). Fewer than 20 people in the world have this unlisted number. Any time you have math questions, I’ll be at the other end of the line, ready to answer them. • Lifetime membership to all premium services offered on my website. • A paperback copy of my math book, “One Second Math: Homework Help on Demand,” shipped to your doorstep. As a parent, you get the comfort of knowing an expert is always there. No more cancellations or scheduling conflicts. Simply pick up the 24K gold phone, and ask your question. In this hectic world we live in, time saved equals gold. Why wade through a textbook when you can pick up the golden phone and get what you need?
We’ve all been there: Mark brings home his math homework, plops down on the couch, and after staring at it for a few minutes, declares, “I need help.” The problem? You haven’t done trigonometry in years, and it’s going to take you at least as long to review the book as it will for Mark to complete the lesson. What if, in that instant, you had a way to connect with a math expert who would not only help you get through the lesson without hours of review, but would also make you look like an expert to your child? Enter the 24K Gold Phone This custom-made, laser-etched iPhone will give you 24-hour access to the incredible mind behind MathCelebrity.com. After tutoring math for 20 years, I’ve opened up 10 spots in my Homework Mastermind group, created because parents asked me for additional math support. I’m answering their requests with 24 karats and 24-hour access to endless math knowledge. Do You Qualify? This group is not for everyone. Correction — this group is not for most people. I’m turning away 99 percent of my homework- help requests to run this group. I’m looking for parents who have a child who needs math help all the time. This child is in grade school, junior high, high school, or college. I’m looking
Only 10 spots available! Contact me today at donsevcik@gmail.com to see if you qualify.
bra in puzzles
Gr i lled Ski rt Steak Wi th Asparagus
(Recipe inspired by realsimple.com)
Ingredients • 1 1/2 pounds skirt steak • 2 tablespoons canola oil • 1 pound asparagus • 2 teaspoons crushed red pepper
• Salt and pepper to taste • Grated pecorino Romano cheese
directions 1. Heat grill to high. Season room-temperature steak with salt, pepper, and 1 tablespoon oil. Any oil with a high smoke point, such as canola, will work. 2. Trim bottom inch of asparagus. Season with salt, pepper, and remainder of oil. 3. Cut steak into four portions and grill for 3–5 minutes per side, depending on desired doneness. Skirt steak is thin and will cook quickly. 4. Let steak rest for 10 minutes. While it’s resting, grill asparagus for 6 minutes, turning once. 5. Sprinkle cheese and crushed red pepper on asparagus. Serve alongside steak.
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PRSRT STD US POSTAGE PAID BOISE, ID PERMIT 411
1521 Rohde Avenue Berkeley, IL 60163 USA www.MathCelebrity.com
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Are You Better Off?
Kitchen Cleaning Secrets
Combat the Summer Slide
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Go for the Gold
Grilled Skirt Steak With Asparagus
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3 of the Most Formidable Moms in History
against a white man in American history. Truth went on to become a prominent abolitionist and a speaker for women’s rights, delivering her famous impromptu speech, “Ain’t I a Woman?” in May of 1851. IRENA SENDLER (1910–2008) When the Nazis invaded Warsaw in September of 1939, Irena Sendler, a 29-year-old social worker and mother of two, hatched a scheme to rescue Jewish children from the brutal ghettos. Along with many friends and colleagues, she smuggled out nearly 2,500 Jewish orphans, hiding infants on trams and garbage wagons and guiding kids through a labyrinth of secret passageways beneath the city. EMMELINE PANKHURST (1858–1928) Despite being a wife and the mother of five children — two of whom died tragically young — Emmeline Pankhurst became one of the fiercest advocates for women’s suffrage in the late 19th century. After founding the Women’s Social and Political Union in 1903, she and her cohorts adopted an aggressive strategy to raise awareness for the issue; they began by buttonholing politicians and staging rallies, then progressed to vandalism, window smashing, and arson. She was instrumental in the movement. Pankhurst lived to see women gain the right to vote in 1928.
Moms make the world go round. After running the gauntlet of childbirth, they raise and guide us throughout our lives, shouldering the tremendous burden and responsibility of motherhood. Mothers are in turn formidable, kind, powerful, gentle,
wise, fierce, patient, supportive, empathetic, driven, and full of love. In honor of Mother’s Day, here are three historic moms who never stopped fighting for what they believed in. SOJOURNER TRUTH (1797–1883) Before she escaped from New York slaveholder John Dumont, Sojourner Truth had at least three of her children sold away from her. When Dumont went back on his promise to emancipate Truth and her infant daughter in 1826, she took the girl and fled to an abolitionist Quaker family, but she was forced to leave her other daughter and her 5-year-old son, Peter, behind. Soon after, she learned that Peter had been illegally sold by Dumont to a slaveholder in Alabama, so she went to court and secured his safe return. It was the first successful case brought by a black woman
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