So ... what in the world is a math paraclete?

     The word paraclete comes from the Greek word parákletos, which is built from para (meaning alongside) and kaleo (meaning to call or summon). A paraclete, then, is someone who is called to be alongside. In modern-day usage, a paraclete is a helper, an assistant, or an advocate.

     As a math paraclete, I am looking to serve teachers or schools when they think calling me alongside on a project would be helpful. As such, it wouldn't be part of my goals to convince people to do projects in which they have no interest; instead, I am simply waiting to be called according to needs identified by you.

     And although it would seem that most of this work would be done with math teachers, that may not completely be the case. Any good math teacher will tell you that math is an important part of any project; math classes don't own the exclusive rights to spreadsheets or data analysis or spatial recognition or strategy or number sense. After all, if math skills were only useful for math class, why would we waste time making kids master them?

     So, according to your project, I might serve by showing you something you've not seen before ... but I also might serve by helping with a project you know full well how to do, but just don't have the time to get done. Wherever you'd need me to fit in the continuum of 'experienced mentor' to 'grunt work assistant', I'm happy to be called alongside.