[The Math We See] [The Math We Do]

There are two ways I present Math in Your Feet. The first way is to upper elementary students.  In this version, the five-day residency revolves around the creative problem solving process of making our own percussive dance patterns.  Along the way, this pattern-focused process engages students in a flurry of mathematical activity within the dance making itself.  In addition, relevant math ideas/facts are identified and/or folded in to the experience to help describe, inform and improve our creative work.

The second way I present the program is to teachers. In the current version, our 3-hour workshop revolves around giving educators an experience of making math and dance at the same time; I lead teachers through the same core Math in Your Feet lessons as I do the students. This is a program about learning while doing so it makes sense that if you're interested in teaching the program to your own students, you need to have experienced the work first hand.

I have had the thought for a year or two now that I am dissatisfied with my teacher workshop model in some subtle but important ways. There are few things in particular that have come clear since my most recent teacher workshop:

1. Three hours is enough time for experiencing Math in Your Feet, but not much more. We need another session for processing that learning and what it means for students, making connections between the dance work to other ways we do and learn math (especially on the page) and hashing out all the permutations of classroom implementation.

2. On the whole, people will see the math with which they are already familiar in the work they are doing, often geometry.

3. Math in Your Feet is not a geometry unit.

4. It's time I made this fact more explicit.

5. When I can clarify for others the core of the learning that occurs while making math and dance at the same time I will finally have the conceptual base for creating a meaningful learning experience for teachers as learners first. 

I spent the last two days mulling all this over and came up with this. I think it's a good start:

An in-depth inquiry into patterns is at the core of the program. We spend the entire first day understanding how these patterns are built and structured, and how we might go about making our own.  We begin to understand that within a single beat in a dance pattern we can describe that one moment in at least three different ways (foot position, type of movement or direction).  This is the essence of mathematical abstraction.  This program is not about any one mathematical topic or strand or subject, it is simply about how we think when we do math.

This thinking occurs when we use attributes and variables to make, compare, compose, decompose, sequence, combine and discuss our Patterns A & B. This thinking also occurs when we sort, classify, choose, name and compare the variables/attributes that make up these dance patterns.

This thinking happens in the conversations and creative work within partner teams of two and in the active observation and analysis of patterns during our sit-down group observation and discussion times.

Patterns are our focus, our purpose, and what drives us forward. This important work is informed and supported by geometry concepts as well as the use of mathematical language and spatial reasoning in context. We are also immersed in matters of equivalence:

"What does it mean to dance the same as my partner?"
"How do you know that pattern was reflected?"
"It looked like both the A and the B patterns in their Pattern C were the same, but let's take a closer look and figure out if that's so. If not, how are they different from each other?"

In the end, it all boils down to clarifying the relationship between the math we see and the math we do.

The math we see are the "mathematical objects" that can be identified, named, memorized, tested, and are often the 'things' we hold before others as proof of learning. Many of these things are important, but they in and of themselves are only half the picture of what it means to learn math.

The math we do in Math in Your Feet? Those questions that spark inquiry, noticing, wondering and new questions? This is the process side of math, the action part, the really, truly, super fun part. It doesn't matter whether it's dancing or daily number routines, or working out how many different kinds of hexagons you can make with pattern blocks, or anything else. No matter the vehicle, this is how we think when we do math.

My goal now is to make this process side explicit and to figure out how to design an inquiry for teachers that revolves around the dance making but is as intellectually engaging for the adults as the inquiry I have developed for students. And when I can figure that out, we are going to have SO. MUCH. FUN.

3 Ways to Bring Math in Your Feet to Your Area

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.

Spring & Summer Fun: Updated Teacher Professional Learning Workshops

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.

June 16-18, 2014
Richland Institute for Professional Learning, Union College, KY. 
Three full days of hands-on learning integrating 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 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. There are three separate tracks for primary, intermediate, and middle/high school teachers and a number of artistic mediums represented.  Awesome.

July 24-27, 2014
Twitter Math Camp, Tulsa, OK.
Embodied Mathematics: Tools, Manipulatives, and Meaningful Movement in Math Class, 2-hour sessions over three mornings, Co-presenting with Christopher Danielson, and make sure to read his post on our session!

This workshop is for anyone who uses, or is considering using, physical objects in math instruction at any grade level.  This three-part session asks participants to actively engage with the following questions:

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?”

In the first session, we will pose these questions and brainstorm some initial answers as a way to frame the work ahead. Participants will then experience a ‘disruption of scale’ moving away from the more familiar activity of small hand-based tasks and toward the use of the whole body in math learning.  At the base of this inquiry are the core lessons of the Math in Your Feet program.

In the second and third sessions, participants will engage with more familiar tasks using traditional math manipulatives. Each task will be chosen to highlight useful similarities and contrasts with the Math in Your Feet work, and to raise important questions about the assumptions we hold when we do “hands on” work in math classes.

The products of these sessions will be a more mindful approach to selecting manipulatives, a new appreciation for the body’s role in math learning, clearer shared language regarding “hands-on” inquiry for use in our professional relationships and activities, and public displays to engage other TMC attendees in the conversation.

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.

Teacher Workshops for Everyone!

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.

Starting Small, Thinking Big

Well, it's been an exciting week bracketed by two incredible conversations that have me thinking a mile a minute.

The short version is I think I finally have a good starting concept for a new Math in Your Feet project, this time for teachers. I already provide teacher workshops but it's clearly time to expand my offerings.

Work has begun in earnest on this project. I'm going to start small(ish) with a book about everything I'm thinking as I teach my young learners, and everything I want to communicate during teacher workshops but never have enough time for. I already have an introduction drafted and a workable outline.

This new project will also include curriculum and DVD content, online courses for educators and an online learning and peer support community for people learning to teach the program.

The materials in this series are for anyone interested in learning and using the Math in Your Feet program with kids in grades K-8 whether during school hours, after-school, summer programs, enrichment, remedial, special education or home education.  If you would like to be notified as these materials and courses become available, please let me know. And, if you know of anyone who might also be interested in this kind of work, please pass on this information.

When will it be ready? Great question! Hopefully sooner rather than later and, most likely, in stages. Sign up for infrequent but, in all likelihood, quite thrilling updates.

If you're interested in something new right this very instant go read my brand new article in the Teaching Artist Journal called Making Math and Making Dance: A Closer Look at Integration.  It's probably the best writing and thinking I've done to date.

This is big, y'all.  I can't wait to see where in the world we can get kids and adults making math and making dance together. 

Teachers in Motion! (Video)

I was in Kansas last week working with 38 physical education teachers (both elementary and middle school).  Yes, I know it was massive, but it was a lot of fun!  The mostly hands-on, active morning was full of the core Math in Your Feet lessons: creating patterns and rhythm in our feet using my Jump Patterns tool and then combining and transforming those patterns. 

PE teachers are used to organizing moving bodies (their own and those of their students) but they are not as familiar with math curriculum, especially in relation to movement work.  It was gratifying to see them open up to the experience of both a new movement/art form and the idea of math outside the context of a textbook or a checkbook.  This program is truly mathematical 'activity'!

Here is a quick video clip of some of the the teachers' creative work.  Just like the kids do, they paired up to work through the Jump Patterns movement variables until they had created a four-beat pattern they could repeat, dance in unison (congruently) with their partner and, most importantly, be happy about.

It's a little hard to hear but the teacher in orange is saying "We combined and we reflected...alternating the reflection... [I think that's what she said -- I didn't hear her at the time either, and I guess I was expecting that the two folks on the inside would be the original pattern, and the two on the outside would reflect that pattern.  That's why I was sort of confused on tape!]  Here's what they did -- remember it's two individual four beat patterns that have been combined to make eight beats:



What was also surprising and interesting about this pattern is that the second four beats could not be reflected because it already was a reflection and congruent at the same time.  Regardless, the team wanted to make it different somehow, so that's why when the original pattern jumps forward, the 'reflection' jumps back.  After I turned off the camera we had a good laugh about how they had used the math to inform their creative work but, ultimately, it's a choreographic process and you absolutely have to stay true to the dance aesthetic as well.

That, and sometimes ignoring your students (as long as they're working on something) produces the most wonderful results!

p.s. And, if you want more  footage, it might be a while, but I have finally (!) accessed footage of students in Math in Your Feet that I've been collecting for the last couple years.  A short video summary of the program and a longer curriculum guide with an accompanying video is in the works.  It's a massive project, but I am super excited about finally being able to share the program this way.  In the meantime you can read about the program in detail by going here.

p.p.s.  We've been have a whole bunch of fun over at the Math in Your Feet Facebook page.  Why not join us?

One Awesome List

The participants of the Math in Your Feet teacher workshop at Clowes Memorial Hall (Butler University) last Thursday night created this list at the start of our three hours together:


Smiley faces indicate that point is no longer an issue.  A check mark means that this
will always be an issue, but not insurmountable. 



























This was the most comprehensive list thus far compiled in one of my teacher workshops.  By the end of the workshop, it was collectively agreed that most of the items on the list were no longer viewed as challenges.  Here's why:

• Large class size:  Taping down fifteen pairs of boxes onto the floor takes some spatial problem solving in limited space, but it is doable.  Students do all their work in the little boxes, there is no need to move around.  So, if you have the space for the boxes, you've got space for this program.
• Room size/obstacles: This one got a check mark because there are always going to be issues with room size and obstacles, but they are not insurmountable.  One idea that teachers have had is to have kids push their chairs under their desks and tape the squares directly behind their chairs.
• Behavior management/self control:  The rules are clearly laid out -- stay in your square and do whatever you like, except for 360 degree turns on one beat.  Because kids are focused on self-initiated work and collaborate with partners, there is always something for them to do, including simply sitting down and taking a break.  If things do start going off track, then it's 'group practice time,' time for teams to demo their work, time to add some new math, or even just time to stop.
• The teachers were initially worried about how to keep order and whether adding movement would lead to chaos.  They collectively agreed this would not be a problem using the room layout and my suggested formula of 3-5 minutes of moving, creative work and/or practice, followed by a few minutes of new information or observation, followed by a little more movement, etc.
• Overloaded kids: This is a really active, often noisy program, but there are regular times where we stop and quiet our bodies.  During the workshop I modeled a number of ways for kids to move and maintain self-regulation at the same time; some of this I already knew I was doing, others strategies were pointed out by the participants.  I purposefully use my 'count down to silence' to bring us back to a group focus.  It ends with smooth quiet movements and voices, by which time we are all on the same page and ready to focus on new information.  There are also times I communicate without talking (hand gestures, pointing to words on a poster, etc.)  Someone pointed out that everything in my class is really predictable, including the flow of events -- stand/sit, move/quiet, etc. as well as my expectations for staying focused on creative work.  This is an on-task program with a creative process broken down into manageable bits, one bit at a time. 
• They were initially worried that not every child would want to participate -- shy kids, kids who are normally disinclined to participate, kids who don't like to move, etc.  There are always slow starters, ones who need to observe before jumping in.  As long as they don't get in others' way, that's totally okay.  There are also always a few teams of kids who never volunteer to show their work.  I tell those kids privately that it's okay if they don't want to come up now, but by the end of the week they will be expected to show what they've been working on.  Final presentations are never an issue on the last day because of this.  A participant noticed that 'everything is a positive' in this program meaning no matter a person's skill level we can always find success.  This aids participation because as long as they've moved forward in some way from the first day, mathematically, choreographically or socially, it is time to celebrate!
• Another big worry was about the attitudes of school administrators: "Why are the students out of their seats?!?"  By the end of this workshop the teachers said that all you need to do is show the list of vocabulary and concepts used in this program to those who might doubt the value of such an approach to illustrate the relevant learning happening while the kids are moving. 

The teachers in this particular workshop had between eight and 37 years of full-time teaching experience.  What I love is that, based on evaluations, they all found this three-hour workshop to be a positive learning experience and that the ideas presented would be useful in their teaching.

To Each its Own: Targeting My Professional Development Workshops

In the last couple months I've had whole bunches of fun presenting professional development workshops in a variety of settings, to a variety of people.  Let's see...math teachers from all over the U.S., PE teachers from across Indiana, classroom teachers from Indianapolis, fellow Teaching Artists from a variety of disciplines, and arts education administrators from Young Audiences affiliates from around the country. 

Each session bore the title 'Math in Your Feet' and was a combination of big picture information and hands-on experience, but that is where the similarity ended and my job got really interesting!

For the classroom teachers I started by focusing on the challenges of using movement in a classroom setting.  As they started to move and experiment with foot-based percussive patterns they became more comfortable and sure in their own movement.  This approach usually leads to a greater willingness to embrace, sometimes for the first time, the possibility of leading their own students in movement-based learning.  To some extent I am also encouraging them to have fun with math, many for the first time.  I consider the 'doing and making' of percussive dance patterns in this program the same as the 'doing and making' of math so, in every teacher workshop I do, I walk them step by step through the intersection where math and dance meet.  We're so used to focusing on the symbolic, static realm of mathematics that we don't always recognize when we see math happening in front of our eyes.  It helps to have a guide.

For the self-identified math teachers at the NCTM annual meeting I also started with a message of 'anyone can lead movement in the classroom and here are some tools' but then quickly moved toward 'here is an opportunity for your students to represent their math understanding in a new way within the kinesthetic realm'.  I also drew their attention to the fact that the processes of solving a problem in both math and dance (choreography) are often similar -- question, understand what tools it might take to answer the question, experiment with ideas, use your resources, find an answer that seems to work, evaluate and then ask more questions. 

The group of 80 or so PE teachers was a new one for me simply because there was not one bit of trepidation or reluctance to get up and move!  Not all of them were comfortable with the idea of dance, at least initially, but they were definitely game.  I was only with them for about an hour, and I couldn't go very deep, so I stuck with active modeling of the bridge between my particular brand of movement with an academic content area.  If I had had more time with them, I would have focused on the  process for moving the dance to the page -- speaking the words that describe aspects of our movement as we move, writing those words down, turning these words into symbols, and graphing foot positions on a coordinate grid.  I did the point that Math in Your Feet can be a collaboration between classroom and specials teachers, just like it is when I lead my residency.  The concrete movement and math activities can be done in PE or music class which then build the bridge to the formal, written, symbolic realm of math back in the regular classroom.

At their conference the arts education administrators were focusing on how to add the A in arts to STEM topics (STEM to STEAM).  I gave a general overview of the program and laid out my process for building the program and integrating the dance with the math.  The most important issue for me is that when you are thinking about integrating any art form with another content area you really need to be honest with yourself and ask 'is it a good fit?'  If the answer is no then it is not worth forcing the issue.  If you think 'maybe' then do a little more work to explore the connections.  In the end, though, the connections need to be more than skin deep.  Just because we count our beats in this program doesn't mean I consider that a good example of what math and dance have in common.  I also gave a similar account of how I combined math and dance to my fellow Teaching Artists.

My favorite moments while teaching teachers are when they ask me questions that show me they are imagining how they will do this work with their own students.  It's similar to house hunting, I suppose.  The minute you start imagining where you're going to put your furniture the realtor knows you might really be serious!  I love hearing all the different ways engaged and caring education professionals imagine tailoring my ideas for their own particular learning environments. 

Looking Forward...to the NCTM Annual Meeting!

The 2011 Annual Meeting of the NCTM is coming up in about three weeks, and it happens to be in Indianapolis, IN this year, about an hour from my home. 

I'm starting to get excited!  There are many things to look forward to including (but not limited to):

• the possibility of meeting Keith Devlin, NPR's Math Guy
• the possibility of meeting Scott Kim (one of the MathDance guys)

Both Keith and Scott are presenting.  Also:

• the possibility of meeting other really interesting people, still to be discovered but no less exciting
• the sheer volume of workshops on interesting arts connections to teaching math

And, last but not least:

• a chance to share my own work, and to give teachers some concrete experience with integrating percussive dance and elementary mathematics as well as tools and lesson plans that they can take right back to their classrooms after the conference is over!  And all in 90 minutes.  

You gonna' be there?

Making Things

Curried red lentil soup with sweet potatoes and greens.

I know a lot of people who make things -- dinner, for example.  I know people who grow their own food, make their own music, build their own rock walls, design and build their own houses, decorate their homes with their own artwork, sew their own quilts, and bake their own bread, all as a matter of course.  I know people who knit their own socks!

Then again, when I go into schools, I meet legions of children who never even considered the possibility that they could make something, let alone their own percussive dance patterns.  Here the thing, though -- most kids, even if they don't regularly engage in making things, get excited when it's their turn to make their own dance patterns in class.  It's amazing and energizing to watch, honestly.  It's like I'm giving them permission to take their rightful place in the human race.

I have been reading back issues of the Teaching Artist Journal and finding common themes emerging in what I read.  One of the things that comes forward is that many Teaching Artists (like myself) teach with less of a focus on the technical aspects of their art and put more emphasis on helping their students make things within the structure of an artistic practice and process.  When a Teaching Artist takes their art into the classroom (or community center, or after-school program, or a nursing home, or wherever people are)  they work with people who may have never taken a dance class or made music or used paint in a meaningful way in their entire lives.  They usually have limited amounts of time to work with a group of students and so they become masters at helping people make personally relevant art with a limited vocabulary of skills.  

This is what I do in Math in Your Feet.  In an upcoming article to be published in April 2011 in the Teaching Artist Journal, I go into detail about a teaching tool I created which I call 'Jump Patterns.'  Essentially, Jump Patterns are to percussive dance what creative movement is to ballet or modern dance.  Jump Patterns reflect the elements of percussive dance and allow children to be creative and successful in this particular dance style, but without great need for technical development. 



Don't get me wrong, skill development is important, but sometimes a focus on technical issues creates a huge obstacle to experiencing the incredible joy and importance of just making...things.  Art.  Ideas.  Music.  Shoes out of paper plates.  Even having this particular discussion is part of the cultural baggage we carry, a particular mindset that gets activated and reactivated whenever we think of art solely as something to be 'good' at  instead of an opportunity to make things.  And that's a pity, because I believe that making things is one of the most meaningful activities in which a person can engage. 

An 'old fashioned dress' the creation
of which was facilitated by safety pins and
some adult modeling.

Right about now you might be asking yourself, 'Just how can someone make something without skills?'  The answer is facilitated making.  Kids are like everyone else, you do have to give them something to work with before they can begin to create.  But, in the end, all you really have to do is help kids explore the medium, find a way for them to  investigate the processes of the art form, help them formulate some questions or just wait until one is asked, and, when it's time, add instruction on specific skills when the student is ready for them.

Here are some examples of what I mean by facilitated making:

Example I:  In Math in Your Feet, Jump Patterns are the tool that facilitate the making of foot-based dance patterns.  Once a kid learns three of the four elements of percussive dance (leaving out the most technical aspect, parts of the feet) they are then ready to experiment and create their work.  They become participants in the traditional aesthetic -- everyone has something to offer, everyone has their own style or take on the dance, everyone is welcome.  Not everyone is good but, more importantly, everyone participates.  Without participation there is no form.

Example II: A Teaching Artist friend of mine works with kids who, more often that not, have no formal music training.  When he sets up digital recording studios in their schools they are able to get immediate feedback on their own ideas and find ways to evaluate and adjust their ideas to make real, and often interesting, music and lyrics in a collaborative way with their friends.  He spends parts of each class talking about the science of sound or new techniques for using the equipment but mostly the kids experiment on their own and come to him if they have questions.  In this case, the facilitation is the TA's approach to using the equipment with his students. 

Mermaid's Tail

Example III: My daughter, who is five, has always had many ideas and many of them get expressed through her art supplies.  When she was two, she wanted paper cut into shapes so she could make something with them.  She had an idea but still did not yet have the skill to cut the paper the way she wanted.  Did I say, "Sorry darlin'.  You'll have to wait until your hand muscles are stronger and more coordinated before you can get that idea out of your head"?  Nope.  I cut the shapes for her and she did the rest.  Did it change the fact that it was her artwork?  Nope.  A few years later, when she was a few months shy of her fourth birthday, she had an idea for a mermaid's tail.  By then, facilitating her making process simply consisted of making sure the tape was secure so all those little pieces stayed together.

Making things is not rocket science...well, unless you're trying to build a rocket.  But what comes before that rocket?   All the times when kids get a chance to ask questions, experiment with materials, find their own answers and get some help and guidance from adults along the way.  We can sometimes get wrapped up in giving kids what we think they need to learn, but it's in the doing where the meaning is made. 

Featured NCTM Workshop!

Hey, check this out!  My workshop at the NCTM 2011 Annual Meeting and Exposition is featured in their promotion of hands-on workshops at the conference this coming April.  I see a few there I'd like to attend myself.  Maybe next year I can do one on tape as the ultimate math manipulative?  Big talk, I know, but I'm on a mission to prove my theory.

Will you be there?

Teachers: Be There and Be (in a) Square!

Are you going to the NCTM 2011 Annual Meeting in Indianapolis, IN in April? 

I'll be there, so let me know your plans!  My 90 minute hands-on workshop Math in Your Feet: Teaching Geometry through Rhythm and Movement is one of the 650 presentations offered.  I was excited to see that it's been included in their presentation sampling for the 3-5 grade band. 

Come even if you're just curious, but know that teachers can learn to do this too and many before you have successfully implemented Math in Your Feet programming in their own classrooms!  A few years ago I developed a two-part professional development series in association with Clowes Memorial Hall of Butler University and Young Audiences of Indiana.  As part of this process I participated in the Kennedy Center's Seminar, "Artists as Educators: Planning Effective Workshops for Teachers."  This six-hour professional development series presents Math in Your Feet as a sequential program of activities which anyone can teach, even if they don't wish to do much moving themselves. 

My hands-on NCTM workshop will present a portion of the Math in Your Feet program.  You will be engaged in an in-depth investigation of transformations using simple foot-based patterns.  In particular, we'll harness the power of kinesthetic learning for understanding reflection and rotation symmetries in 3-D, a process which I'm sure will bring you some exciting new insights on the subject.  In addition to the math content you will experience learning with and through the arts. 

Hope to see you there...in a square!