David has talked about the Hohokom Middle School project and the last session of the Geometry mini-course series. I would like to take a few minutes and tell you about the MAPPS training I did with the teachers that facilitated the Geometry for Parents mini-course.  I did three 6-hour training sessions with the teachers; two in December and one in January. I enjoyed facilitating this group as they were excited and exuberant about learning and teaching the Geometry mini-course to parents.  The information even carried over into their classrooms. They talked about activities we did in the training that they could do in their classes with their students. The teachers had formed a bond to where each of them wanted to be present the evening of the mini-course session.  During each mini-course session there were 2 main facilitators and at least 4 facilitator helpers. During the training we worked through each session and activity in its entirety and in January debriefed about the previous sessions on how is it going and what modifications need to be made for sessions 6-8.   The debriefing time was very valuable in that the teachers were able to express their joys and frustrations. Ah ha’s the teachers experienced while facilitating each mini-course session  were:  parents are still willing to work even though they have reached a frustration level; parents share their ah ha with each other; parents are engrossed and motivated; parents make meaningful connections to their daily life and share with others. Some frustrations that the teachers expressed were: not having parents show up that said they would, parents eat and leave, start time, and too much distance between training and sessions.  Some of the frustrations expressed are out of our control but we can keep working at it. If you have any suggestions I would love to hear from you. I do know that in planning for the next mini-course in the fall and from the teachers input, I would like to have more training sessions, shorter in length, and closer to the time of the delivery of the mini-course sessions with the parents.

Mary

I am not quite sure what all is in Obama’s education stimulus package. Does anyone know whether there are any funds in his package targeted for parent programs?

Mary

Tuesday was the final session of Geometry for Parents at Tucson’s Hohokam Middle School gym.  The evening began with a Mexican buffet followed by recognition of district administrators who were there to help celebrate the occasion: Hohokam’s assistant principal, principals of the four feeder elementary schools, director of Native American Studies, elementary mathematics curriculum specialist, Title I Coordinator, and Title I Mathematics Project Specialist.  (The latter two coordinate the MAPPS project at Hohokam and feeders.)  There were more, but you get the idea.  Lots of support.  Lots of enthusiasm.  They asked me to say a few words.  I said “Math and Parents makes a powerful combo.  Parents, because evidence shows that parental involvement in activities like MAPPS - engagement with classroom content – ranks at the top of factors that correlate with student success.  Math, because it opens doors: it’s the key to success in future careers and the key to access to higher education.”  I ended by telling them I hoped to see them at future MAPPS activities.   

The formalities over, we got down to mathematics: building models of the regular polyhedra.  Several tables of parents were clustered around one end of the gym.  Each of the 40 or so parents got copies of patterns for each regular polyhedron to take home for building models with their kids.  Each table also had sets of Polydron and other commercial plastic manipulatives.  Using these, the parents set about in earnest to make 3-d models of the Platonic solids.  Lots of success.  Lots of showing everybody else the models they made. 

The culminating activity was to build giant polyhedral frameworks out of dowels and connectors.  Parents moved to the other end of the gym where they found piles of dowels (4ft long, 3/8” diameter) and connectors made out of small bolts and pieces of plastic tubing (just the right size for a dowel to fit snugly inside).  Parents arranged themselves in four or five groups and set about making “life-size” regular polyhedral with dowels as edges and connectors as vertices.  I saw one group making a cube – frustrated because it wouldn’t stand up!  They pretty quickly turned to making polyhedra with triangular faces.  Tetrahedra.  Octahedra.  Pretty easy.  Finally, two groups formed, each attempting to make an icosahedron.   One started by replicating, on the floor, a large version of the paper pattern.  The other group just started putting it together – in the air.   Some folk stuck dowels in the plastic tubing and made triangular faces.  Others held the connectors in the air with the dowels stuck in and helped to keep the contraption from falling apart.  A lot of cooperation.  A lot of discussion of what to do next.  A lot of puzzling over why it wasn’t coming together.  Finally, someone looked at a small model and concluded that each connector had to have exactly 5 dowels – and that their “life size” model-in-progress had a couple of connectors with 6.  Some careful removing of the “spurious” dowels.  Some more adjusting.  Then, all of a sudden, there it was!  A complete, person-sized icosahedron!  “We did it!”  High fives all around.  The finished model was person-high, about 5’8” off the ground.  Some folk crawled inside to celebrate and get the feel of being “inside” an icosahedron.   Cool.

The evening ended with prizes and certificates.  Smiling parents walked out with newfound math friends, talking about getting back together for the next MAPPS event.  I can’t wait!

David