People frequently ask me for recommendations on developing their own pedagogical skills and their children’s/students’ mathematical thinking skills.  There are a number of exciting opportunities coming up in the next few days, the next week, and next month:

FUN MATH FESTIVAL 2/14

Yulia Shpilman would like to invite you to the Fun Math Festival for children ages 4-10 that she is organizing – “first of its kind in the Philadelphia area (to my knowledge :).  The vision for it is as follows – there will be multiple “stations” with games, puzzles, math crafts and the like, where kids (and their parents) can touch, feel and experience math in ways that they don’t get to do in a regular class setting.

“Many of you have heard me talking about this idea for the past year, and I am excited to say that I have finally decided to give it a shot! The idea for this event is inspired by Jane Kats (an educator and an author from Russia, who inspires many of my undertakings: )). Those who can read in Russian can read about her events HERE and HERE (and if you don’t read Russian, you can look at the pictures :)).  The scale of this event may not be quite as large, but I’m hoping the spirit and the excitement will be captured 🙂

“One thing to point out is that I absolutely will not be able to pull this off alone.  So if you’re willing to help, either with preparations beforehand or to run a station during the event, please-please-please sign up (see link to google form below)!  If you’re interested but hesitant because you’ve never done this before – sign up! I promise it’s not that hard and it’ll be really cool and rewarding!   Or if you know of any teenagers who like math and/or working with kids and want to help out, please let send them my way.

• What: Fun Math Festival

• Who: Children ages 4-10, together with their parents (please note that while you can bring young children, the activities really won’t be geared towards the under-4 crowd)

• When: Sunday, February 14th, 2-5 pm (President’s Day weekend. For GKRS students – there’s no school that day)

• Where: we are graciously being hosted by Ari’s wonderful elementary school, The Classical Academy. Their address is 455 South Roberts Rd, Bryn Mawr, PA 19010

• Language: all stations will be conducted in English

• Volunteers: if you are willing to lead a station (either your own idea or one of ours), please fill out THIS GOOGLE FORM. If you’re thinking “this might be fun, but I’m not sure what to do” – sign up and we’ll help! And it WILL be fun 🙂

• Cost: $10/child, $15/two children, $20/three or more children for general participants. Children under 4 are free (though we encourage you to leave the little one at home :)). FREE for event volunteers.

• Payment: Please send payments via PayPal to ashpilman@gmail.com, select “send money to family or friends”, and put a note “math festival”. We need to collect money in advance to estimate the number of attendees to ensure that we have enough supplies and materials for everyone to have a good time.

“If there are others who may be interested, please feel free to forward them my email.  Any questions – send me a note. Hoping to see many of you there!

Yulia”

NOTE:  You MUST RSVP to Yulia at yshpilman@sloan.mit.edu if you would like to attend.  Please do not show up without giving her a heads up.

MINDFULNESS in EDUCATION CONFERENCE 3/4-6

I have attended the following conference a number of times, and used what I have learned in  Math Circles and other educational situations.  I highly recommend it.

“Dear Recent Mindfulness in Education Conference Attendees,

“I’m writing on behalf of the Mindfulness in Education Network’s Board to ask for your help.  This year we got a late start advertising our March 4-6 conference at Bryn Mawr College outside of Philadelphia, and registrations are lower than we would like them to be one month before the conference.

“You, more than anyone else, know the quality and value of our conferences.  Whether or not you are able to come this year, we need your help getting the word out about it.  Early bird conference rates are are in effect through February 15th, and there are still work/study scholarships available.  If you could share the following information soon with friends and colleagues, we would greatly appreciate it. 

“Register for the 3-Day Conference for $300 through February 15; ($420 after 2/15)

http://www.mindfuled.org/conferences/2016-conference-information/

“Any PK-12 Educator receives 15% off their conference fees

Groups of 6 or more receive a 50% discount

Student volunteers receive a 50% discount

Contact: info@mindfuled.org for discount codes and volunteer information

“ACT 48 and CEU’s available through Bryn Mawr College

Number of credits awarded will be announced on mindfuled.org in the near future

“Many smiles,

Richard Brady

MiEN Board”

MATH EDUCATION COURSE 2/5, 6, and 27

I have also taken a version of this course, and highly recommend it.  It’s organized by Maria Droujkova of Natural Math.

“Join Inspired by Calculus: Online course for parents, teachers, and their children ages 5-12

• What: An intensive three-week online course on calculus for young children
• Why: Learn how to help your children play with rich and beautiful math.
• Who: 25 parents, teachers, math circle leaders, and their children, with Kalid Azad and Shelley Nash as organizers
• When: Live meetings February 5, 6, and 27 at noon EST (New York)
• Where: Online video-talk software Zoom (similar to Skype)
• Price: Registration is $40. Work-trade stipends are available upon request.
• Supplies: Paper, markers, scissors, glue, tape, building blocks

More details about the course and registration is here: http://naturalmath.com/inspired-by-calculus-online/”

Feel free to email me questions about any of these.
Rodi