Multiplication Explorers LIVE workshop
HIGHLIGHTS of what your children and you get:
All past and future Multiplication Explorers recordings; bridges to topics in calculus and algebra, made accessible; understanding, appreciation, and smart memory skills for multiplication; live, active meetings with leaders and participants from all over the world.
- What: An intensive two-day online workshop on multiplication for parents and teachers with children ages 3 and up, PLUS access to the online course materials and forum.
- Why: Learn how to help your children play with rich and beautiful math.
- Who: 25 parents, teachers, math circle leaders, and their children, with Marina Kopylova and Sally Bishop as organizers.
- When: Live meetings March 28 and 30 at noon-1:30 PM EST (New York).
- Where: Online video-talk software Zoom (similar to Skype).
- Price: Registration is $40. Work-trade is available upon request.
- Supplies: Paper, markers, scissors, glue, tape, hole punch.
Missed this course? Check out our available courses at NaturalMath.com/courses/
We are running a two-day online workshop for 25 parents, math circle leaders, and teachers with their children ages 3 and up. The goals of Multiplication Explorers LIVE are to grow your math intuition, share the joy and beauty of mathematical activities related to multiplication, and to develop your confidence in leading activities with your family, math circle, or class.
Let’s Explore!
Do you remember how you felt studying the multiplication tables? For so many people we meet, the dislike and fear of math can be traced all the way back to their struggles to understand (and not just memorize) multiplication. Can we change this pattern so our children feel curiosity, joy, and affinity – rather than fear, anxiety, and alienation? Can multiplication be more about smart play, rich mathematical thinking and usefulness everywhere in life?
Multiplication Explorers materials explore holistic approaches to learning multiplication. We invite you to boldly go beyond the familiar representations of multiplication such as skip counting and repeated addition, to work and play with many meaningful, beautiful, and fun models. Make bridges to algebra and calculus for a fresh point of view on multiplication! This live workshop will get you started with adventures across the universe of multiplication.
Here’s how it works:
Participants from all over the world meet twice in an active, face-and-voice webinar (March 28 and 30). During the first workshop, you will become familiar with Natural Math methods, and explore multiplication with hands-on activities. You can try the activities live, ask questions, and discuss ideas with other participants and the workshop leaders.
Between the first and second workshop, you will try out a math activity with your children or students. We want you to bring your experience back to the second workshop. Bring the successes, the challenges, the struggles, whatever happens – we want to know!
Our second workshop will give you the support, feedback and confidence you need to try out even more math sparks on your own. We will discuss your experiences, play one more activity, tour the online Multiplication Explorers course (which has many more activities for you to use), and share feedback and ideas.
After the initial two workshops, you get to explore with your family, students, or math circle! Dive into our support materials and discuss your experiences in an online forum. You can try as much or as little as you like. Sally and Marina will be actively answering questions in the forum. You are invited to share your experiences and help others, too! Even after this workshop is over, you will always have that access to the support materials and forum.
Here is a sample of our Math Sparks: Tree Fractals, Substitution Fractals, and Chimeras. The goal is to start thinking about ideas – to spark curiosity. Click to see the full-size PDF and ponder the questions in it.
Marina Kopylova loves math; she sees the world in very mathematical ways. With a masters degree in Math from Cleveland State University, she has twenty-five years of experience teaching mathematics, in several countries and to different people. She has worked as a university instructor, volunteered with struggling kids at local schools, tutored for test preparation, and led activities at a summer camp for gifted children.
Sally Bishop has loved math her entire life. A self-described introvert, she has an innate ability to recognize patterns in nature, ideas and people. She enjoys sharing her enthusiasm for math with people of all ages, both online and in-person, and is a talented editor with a knack for the big picture and details. Sally started helping others see the inherent beauty of math in homeschool math cooperatives, where she embraces math learning that is empowering and fun. In her spare time, she reads widely and creates handmade books, often with a dog asleep across her shoulders and a cat in her lap.
Bridges is one of the seven Natural Math main principles, and the focus of this class. Bridges connect and unite. In the class, you will learn to link math ideas to one another, math to other human endeavors, and people to math-rich communities. Connections help us to make sense of math, and to use math to make sense of life.
What do you get from Multiplication Explorers LIVE Workshop?
- A highly interactive experience where you make models, talk, and collaborate with other parents and teachers.
- Leading your children or students on playful math adventures.
- Two live online meetings in a math circle format (you as a student!) to see how to run these activities, and to get inspired. You will have access to meeting’s recordings on YouTube.
- A day to try activities with children and friends.
- The second meeting to answer your questions, overview other activities, and prepare to do them with children.
- Mentoring and peer discussions on the forums.
- More than a dozen short and sweet reference cards (Math Sparks) to help you try out the activities with your children.
- Access to 15 engaging math activities that will help you and your child look at multiplication as something fun and fascinating. A badge system to easily track your progress through activities.
- Most importantly, you’ll get the confidence to make a real difference in children’s mathematics.
Questions? Email reach.out@naturalmath.com or ask in comments to this page.
- Connection and devices: you will need fast internet to watch and listen. It’s better to have a microphone and a webcam so you can show and tell as well, but you can also use text chat. We recommend larger screens rather than phones.
- Software: Zoom is a tool for talking, like Skype or Google Hangouts. Please download and try it, here: https://zoom.us/test The same page has the link to a tech support center, in case you need it.
- Recording: The meetings will be available to course participants as YouTube videos.
