Thank you for sharing Make Connections with others! Follow these tips for a fun and successful training, online or face-to-face:
Many adults are shy when it comes to math. Try some of these approaches:
That’s fine! Whether or not the activities are familiar, participants will learn about children’s mathematical development, about math topics appropriate for young children, and about how to talk with children so that they explore, notice, and explain mathematical ideas.
Most of us learned math as a right-wrong subject. Learning to ask open-ended math questions requires a shift in thinking about math. Here’s how to help:
– Point to a triangle and ask, “How can you tell this is a triangle?” To answer, children need to reflect on and describe properties of triangles. If they are not yet able to explain, the caregiver can offer ideas: “Here’s why I think it’s a triangle. It has three straight sides and three corners (angles).” Children will hear and learn from the adult explanation.
– Show the child a triangle and a square and ask her how they are alike and different. That way, you encourage children to notice and describe features of shapes. If children are not yet able to explain their thinking, the adult can offer their own.
Remote training is ideal when participants are in different locations or when no local trainer is available for face-to-face training. If you would like to set up a remote training, contact doreen.hassan@ymcasv.org.
Leading a remote training brings a few challenges. Follow these tips to make sure your remote training is successful!
Welcome/introductions: Ask each participant to give name, region, and role.
Participants discuss: Give participants a chance to talk to a partner for 2 minutes.
Hands-on activities and filling out sheets: Have participants spend 5-10 minutes doing the activity and filling out the sheets in pairs. If you have virtual chat room capabilities, assign pairs to virtual chat rooms. Invite pairs to unmute and have a private chat with you to talk over their ideas for math talk.
Welcome/introductions: Ask each participant to give name, region, and role.
Participants discuss:
Hands-on activities and filling out sheets:
If you have virtual chat rooms, have participants spend 5-10 minutes doing the activity alone in their separate locations but put pairs in chatrooms so that they can talk as they do the activity and discuss their ideas for filling out the sheets together. Invite pairs to unmute and have a private chat with you to talk over their ideas for math talk.
Send materials list and PDFs of handouts to participants two weeks in advance, with a reminder the day before. Do not send the entire training unit. Let participants know it is very important that they print out the handouts in advance. They need to use their screens for virtual face to face communication.
Make sure that you have printouts of everything. You will need your screen for the videos and for virtual face to face communication.
Materials are listed for face to face, so that participants can share. If participants are at separate sites, they each need access to all the materials. For instance, TU1 materials lists “Scissors (1 for every five participants).” If participants are alone, each need a pair of scissors.
Other questions? E-mail doreen.hassan@ymcasv.org, and we will get back to you within a day.