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. “Ahas” the teachers experienced while facilitating each mini-course sessionwere: 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
MAPPS - Math and Parent Partners 