
ALUMNI CHATS: NATALIE BOYLE
Natalie Boyle's journey with MATHCOUNTS came full circle—a former Mathlete from California, she now works for MATHCOUNTS as Manager of Math Content Creation. Natalie attended Westmont College and The Master’s University, where she earned a Master of Education. She has also worked as a high school math teacher and a video creator for IXL Learning. Based in Los Angeles, she spends much of her free time at the beach.
We talked with Natalie about education, how to tackle challenging problems and what makes a good question.

July 2024
You started at MATHCOUNTS this year as our Manager of Math Content Creation. Can you tell us a little bit about what you do?
I’m currently working on the MATHCOUNTS School Handbook, so I get questions from different question writers, make edits and organize the questions and solutions in a way that makes the content accessible to students and teachers preparing for competition. The second half of the year, I’ll be working on putting together competition materials.
I don’t know if everyone realizes that so many of the MATHCOUNTS questions—in our handbooks, in the competitions, in our club materials—are written by volunteer question writers. What is it like working with them?
I got to meet the question writers at our National Competition this last year, and I was blown away by not only their intelligence, but their ability to communicate different concepts and really think through math problems. In my role as a teacher and now in my role here at MATHCOUNTS, I don’t always have a place to be nerdy about math concepts and get super excited about questions. But to be with these people that are so smart and understand math more than I do, it was a great learning experience. I feel like I’m learning so much and expanding my own knowledge, and that’s something I never thought I’d be able to do at this point in my life.
I want to talk about the content you work on. I had a conversation with a friend recently that’s studying math and wanted to take a stab at some of our Problems of the Week. He pointed out that most of the questions are word problems. Why is that?
The first thing that comes to mind is that there’s so many ways to solve a lot of our problems. Even thinking about the National Competition and the Countdown Round, lots of people are confused about how students can solve problems so quickly. But with certain kinds of problems, and especially the word problems, there are different ways and different tricks that students can use to solve them. And making it a word problem really makes them use their problem-solving skills.
I like the idea of being able to solve a math problem in different ways. I think as a student I approached math like there was only one right way to go about it, very black and white, and I struggled. It probably would’ve helped to approach it with a more open mindset.
Even in the handbook, a lot of the solutions include multiple paths to get to the answer. When used in the classroom, it’ll hopefully help students feel open to solving problems in a new way. Sometimes we even get feedback from teachers or students with another way to solve a problem that we didn’t think of.
I think a lot of us tend to think more about what goes into solving a math problem and not so much about what goes into writing one. When you create math problems, what elements are you considering? What makes a good question?
I think a good question has clarity, so you know what’s being asked but still need to sit and think about it. We want to be very specific with the language to make sure we’re guiding the student toward the right process. It’s important to write questions that avoid misinterpretation.
You also worked as a high school math teacher. In your experience teaching, what inspires students to stick with math even when it becomes challenging?
There’s something in education that I learned called the ZPD, or the zone of proximal development. It’s about making sure the student has the skills necessary to solve the problem, so it’s not too easy but not so difficult that they can’t get started. The most important thing is finding out what they know and what they do understand, and making sure they’re not afraid of being wrong.
It has to be difficult to do this for students at varying skill levels, and you’re making content for a lot of students that you’ll never meet.
Well, going back to the handbook, the way we’ve set it up is almost like scaffolding for the students. Earlier sheets in the handbook have easier problems. And then even when you get to later activities, we make sure to include a few problems that any student in a 6-8 grade class can do.
While we’re talking about teaching students to overcome challenging problems, I’m curious about your personal approach. How do you push through challenging problems, in math or otherwise?
In K-12, school always came easy to me, so I didn’t really build that skill until college, though I wish I’d done so earlier. My math classes I took in college were so far beyond what I had done in high school, and I didn't know how to ask for help. I had never asked for help before, so it was very uncomfortable for me. So, I had to learn that I needed to get help from other people, whether that be peers or my teachers.
I think the first step is accepting that you're going to fail sometimes and not be hard on yourself because of it. Have people who can help and support you through those hard problems, whether that be in school or life, and learn to be vulnerable and ask for help. Realize that you're not going to be perfect all the time. If you're trying to be perfect and do it all on your own, you're never going to be able to get as far as you could go by having other people help you.

For both of us, this is our first year working at MATHCOUNTS, so last May was our first time attending the National Competition as staff members. What was it like for you to watch those students compete?
I was very inspired by them because I recognize how much work and dedication it takes to get to where they're at, and I loved the energy that all the different students from the different states brought. The kids just seemed so excited and proud of themselves. Even when they didn't make it to the final round, they were super supportive of each other and just excited for everyone who was there.
I loved it. I thought it was cool to see kids connecting through their love of math and just having fun, because when I was a kid, I didn’t necessarily associate math with fun.
Yeah. I think it's cool for them because this is their space where they can shine and feel like they're seen and part of something. Everyone has different gifts and interests, and this is their thing, and they're around other people where they share that.
As someone who’s worked in math education and curriculum design, what do you think is key to creating content that makes math engaging and fun?
Kind of like we talked about before, making materials accessible to all students, finding balance between materials that’s not too easy or too hard. I think that’s a lot of what brings the fun in. There’s talk in education, too, about gamifying math. And I think in the classroom, it does come down to having a teacher that cares about their students.
What drives your passion for education?
I actually went into college with a computer science engineering major, and then a year in decided to pivot to education with a math minor because I had so many math credits. I just loved working with kids my whole life. I'm the oldest sibling and we always had groups of friends over, and I’d do school in the summertime and have my mom buy workbooks. So, I think I always had that teacher in me, wanting to be in the education world, and I loved teaching high school math. But I was so young when I took algebra and geometry that I got through the classes and I enjoyed them, but I didn't understand why things worked. It was so cool for me when I was teaching, putting together lessons and realizing, oh my goodness, this is why factoring works. It really clicked for me as a teacher. I feel like I got to experience a second learning of those subjects.
Since I started working at MATHCOUNTS, it’s been really fun for me to work through the problems to make sure that they work. When I first started working on the handbook, I'd print out pages and just do math problems for hours. And it was so fun for me to tap into that side of myself that had to think through: “How do I solve this?”
You were a Mathlete in middle school. Do you have any memories from MATHCOUNTS that have stuck with you, and maybe influenced your career in math?
Well, I was thinking about that before this interview and that time in my life, and it's crazy to think about the different ways life just comes together. I did MATHCOUNTS in 7th grade and 8th grade. I was always one of the only girls in the competitions, and I remember not even realizing it at the time, like it didn't matter to me. And I think maybe it’s because the teacher that led our team those two years was also a woman. When I moved back home and started teaching at my high school, she remembered me and we became really good friends. I was her student teacher before I got hired full time. But she still is one of the most impactful people in my life and still a mentor to me. She had such an impact on me during my MATHCOUNTS days, but she's still part of my life and has been throughout all of my career, even to where I am now. I think it's important for Mathletes, especially the girls, to have female role models.
Is there any advice you would give to middle school students, or your middle school self?
I think it all comes back to what we've talked about through this conversation, of having fun with it and not being afraid to ask for help. That’s what I would tell my students: You are so smart and you do know it. It's in your brain somewhere. Just relax and have fun.
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