The Map is Not the Territory

Would you like me to come to your area to share the Math in Your Feet and/or Math by Design programs? Are you interested in a professional learning opportunity or a homeschool event? Not sure how to get that to happen? Wonder no more...here are three ideas to make my visit to your locale a reality!


Find a Presenting Organization
Look around your area and see if there are any performing arts venues, children's museums, or math and science museums with education departments that present children's performances and/or teacher workshops throughout the year. This is a particularly good option if you and your friends and colleagues are a mix of school- and home-based educators. Once you've identified a possible venue, let me know and I'll be happy to make contact, unless you'd like to take that step. If that's the case, you can point folks toward malkerosenfeld.com or mathinyourfeet.com to look at videos and other information about the workshops.


Find a School or School District
Do you have district- or school-wide professional development days? Would you value an option for active participation and learning that goes deep into the hows and whys of merging math and movement that also connects to necessary CCSS for Mathematics AND gives you specific experience with a road-tested program (not to mention all the materials you need for classroom implementation)?  Feel free to e-mail the appropriate administrator to suggest Math in Your Feet!  You can point them to mathinyourfeet.com or malkerosenfeld.com to find short videos of my work, publications, and workshop descriptions.



Go Rogue
Email me if you're interested in how to set up an event yourself!  This option would likely include tasks such as securing a space, getting the word out, and insuring a minimum number of participants to share the costs of my fee and travel expenses.  It's also the perfect option for homeschooling networks -- including the possibility of kids & adults learning together!

Logistics: Cost generally include a fee, travel (air or mileage) and lodging, if needed. I'm happy to talk pricing details via phone call or e-mail.

If you are interested in the intersection of arts, math and learning you will want to try and make it to one of the following teacher workshops, for sure.  If my itinerary this spring and summer ends up not including your geographic ___location, then let's do something about that! Feel free to get in touch any time to talk about how to make a Math in Your Feet or Math by Design teacher workshop happen in your area.

Here's what's set so far:

Thursday, April 10, 2014
4:00pm to 7:00pm, Clowes Memorial Hall, Butler University, Indianapolis, IN
Three hours of dig-in, hands-on experience with the the core Math in Your Feet lessons. $30 workshop fee. Participants leave with a comprehensive workshop packet, a link to the classroom materials packet, and new understanding of how you can make math and dance at the same time. More info on the workshop can be found here.

1. What role(s) do manipulatives play in learning mathematics?
2. What role does the body play in learning mathematics?
3. What does it mean to use manipulatives in a meaningful way? and
4. “How can we tell whether we are doing so?”

Don't all these workshops sound fascinating and fun?!  Please come and learn with us, and if you can't, let's find a way for me to come to your area!  You can get in touch via www.malkerosenfeld.com.

Come and dance with me!

I've got a couple Math in Your Feet and Math by Design teacher workshops coming up...

Thursday, April 10, 2014
Clowes Memorial Hall, Butler University, Indianapolis, IN (within driving range from IL, KY, MI and OH!)
Three hours of dig-in, hands-on experience with the the core Math in Your Feet lessons. $30 workshop fee. Participants leave with a comprehensive workshop packet, a link to the classroom materials packet, and new understanding of how you can make math and dance at the same time. More info on the workshop here: http://bit.ly/1ackB7h

June 16-18, 2014
Union College, Barbourville, KY (located in SE Kentucky and within driving range of IN, OH, TN, WV, NC, VA and maybe even GA or SC)
Three days of learning how to integrate math and the arts! Four teaching artists will provide a range of math/art combinations for use in the classroom.  I will be providing a comprehensive program that includes three hours of teacher workshops (as described above) with an additional three hours of work with kids. After your workshop with me, you then get a chance to observe and assist me in the student workshops so you can see how it all plays out with real live kids. Awesome.

There are three separate tracks for primary, intermediate, and middle/high school teachers.  Intermediate teachers will focus primarily on the Math in Your Feet program. Primary teachers will experience the full three-hour Math in Your Feet teacher workshop but observe how I adapt those ideas for younger students; I will also incorporate some Math by Design activities during the student workshop.  Middle and high school teachers will experience and then assist with the Math by Design program.

More info on the Union College summer art/math integration institute will be available in early February.  If you are interested, sign up to receive an e-mail update from me when details become available.

My morning with hundreds of homeschoolers from babies to adults started like this...


...plus a quick powerpoint introduction of how to use these paper strips to make beautiful things. Create your warp with number multiples (3,3,3) or (2, 2, 2) or (5,5) or whatever you want and decide on a color pattern. Create your weave pattern rule (number of overs and unders) and then see how it affects your design when you invert that rule or change the weave color.

Result? You be the judge:


Make a rule. Ask questions about it.


Weave from top down.


Think qualitatively about numbers...


...but think visually as well.


No wrong answers.


Experiment with warp numbers and colors.

 


 Enjoy your results!





A marvelous Monday making math!

This was Day One of hopefully many more in which I get to play and make math with kids while simultaneously fulfilling my parent volunteer hours in my daughter's 3rd/4th grade classroom.

Group #1 | 20 minutes


"So, here's something.  Math isn't just about numbers, it's about finding patterns. If you get one rod of each color I wonder what kinds of patterns you'll find?"

"Well, the underneath one goes biggest to smallest and so I reversed it on the top."


"How many whites make a red?
"Two..."
"So, if white is worth one, how much is green?"
"What do you mean?"
"Well, if red is two whites, and you add another white, how many is that?"
"Oh! Three! Green is three!"


"Well, I started in the middle and built out."
"Diagonal!"

What's awesome is that these designs were made by the kids whose relationships with written numerals are not happy ones and yet, it's not for a lack of ability in noticing patterns or structure.  At the end of this session they all left with smiles on their faces, saying "That was fun!" We will continue with colorful and visual math because it's fun and I am fairly confident that this process, in the end, can be helpful in shoring up that bridge between mathematical meaning and symbols/abstraction.  p.s. This bin of Cuisenaire rods is now on their game shelf for free-time play with the following label:


Group #2 | 20 minutes

Group #2 came in buzzing. Their teacher had given them the two different multiplication charts I had laminated for every student and they couldn't stop talking about the archetype times tables from crebobby.com.  (See my post Marvelously Math-y Mondays for all the details and links).

When they settled down I ran them through a slow game of Speed! which is a super fun game created by Highhill Homeschool. I'll write about it more later but my biggest observation was that just because kids know how to skip count, doesn't necessarily mean they can quickly think "4 more" or "4 less" than any number in that sequence. This game seems to support more flexible thinking about multiples and is now on their free-time activity shelf as well.  As a group they had experience with 2- through 5-speed but I hope they will persevere into the higher numbers. If not, I'll make something happen the next time we meet. Yay for challenges!

Back in the classroom, I guess the enthusiasm for the archetype times tables had become unbearable and their teacher had to hand out the 'make your own' sheets I created.  His biggest goal/hope, I think, was for them to become more familiar with how a grid works in combining/multiplying numbers.


I think this make-your-own thing might have helped a lot in terms of learning to track rows and columns!



Energy and enthusiasm during math time! It makes a heart glad.

The first group (sixth graders) arrived in my classroom after what appeared to be an intense recess. They were, all of them, either drenched in sweat or nursing some kind of injury.

I surveyed the carnage. Turns out half their class was absent this day as well.  I decided that dancing was not in the cards.

"Okay guys," I said, "come sit down near me. Let's talk about our options for today."  I outlined my plan. They had played around with the straws and pipe cleaners last week and loved it.  I had given them a chance to figure out for themselves how the materials worked and they loved the experimentation and play, even going so far as to exclaim "This is better than Xbox!"

Today, I wanted to challenge them.  I showed them a sheet with pretty good but not overly helpful illustrations of the Platonic solids.  I told them they could work individually or in teams - the goal was to see if, as a class, they could make at least one of each solid.  Most chose the octahedron, surprisingly. But by the end of class when the three-person team was finally, after a lot of muddling and helpful argument, finishing up their icosohedron, a bunch of other kids decided they wanted to make one too.

Since class was almost over at that point, it was a race down to the final possible minute.  Because once you make an icosohedron, you also have to spin it!


I love how certain aspects of this solid are made more obvious through...movement!

Later that day the fourth and fifth graders were more up for dancing but they also got a chance to work a second time with the straws and pipe cleaners.  Their particular challenge this time was to build something using an odd number of edges in their starting shape.  This essentially meant three (triangle) and five (pentagon) as the base shapes.  They grumbled. Some made squares anyway.  I reminded them of the challenge.  They grumbled some more but then...