The Mathletes competed in their final meet of the season on March 7th. The final meet was the All Star meet where they worked together for 3 hours on three different rounds of math problems. Overall, our Gananda Math League team came in 3rd place this year in our division. A total of 822 students participated in Math League in our region in all divisions. Lillian Freeman and Logan Potter made the overall top 200 list of all grades in all divisions. Lillian Freeman came in 42nd place among all seniors, Emily Hathaway came in 38th place, and Joseph Acroaci came in 43rd place among all juniors, Andrew Pitolaj came in 18th place among all sophomores, and Logan Potter came in 6th place and Kat Bettinger came in 12th place among all freshman in our region in all divisions. Congratulations on a great season!

The answer to the February Newsletter question is 78.

5 Essential Soft Skills for the Workplace

The personal qualities needed by a team member are called “soft” skills. The “hard” skills refer to how much an individual knows and can do. While hard skills can be shown on the job, measuring soft skills is difficult. Both soft and hard skills will go into helping you become successful at work. One, without the other, is not enough.

Employers seek workers with strong soft skills. Five of these skills are listed below.

1. Communication
   This soft skill refers to how a person listens, writes, speaks and demonstrates non-verbal behavior. Known as “body language”, non-verbal behavior expresses your attitude and emotions, often more clearly than your spoken words.

2. Teamwork
   Teamwork refers to how well you get along with coworkers. In a teamwork environment, employees are split into small groups, or teams, that work together to achieve shared goals. A strong team member knows how to cooperate, resolve conflict, and share ideas.

3. Critical Thinking
   If you make smart choices, you think critically and carefully before reaching decisions. This means you examine the bigger picture and its smaller parts. You need critical thinking to solve problems and meet goals.

4. Work Ethic
   Reliable employees with a good work ethic arrive to work on time every day and they finish all their tasks. They are honest and loyal and work diligently regardless of the circumstances.

5. Time Management
   The process of planning how to divide your time between different work activities is called time management. To be good at this skill, you must be able to arrange daily and long-term tasks in priority order.

Action: Review the five soft skills listed above. For each, describe a situation in which you applied the skill, such as during a group project, when participating in a sporting event, or when interacting with a family member.