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Health & Fitness

Math Nightmare in Hercules

This is the nightmare:  It's Math Night at Hercules Middle-High School.  I peer through the multipurpose room door window.  I see almost 10 individuals.  Ok, Math Might will not be a major success with respect to numbers of participants, but those who have attended, will get to take advantage of the small group setting.  I entered the room and took my seat.   They all looked at me.  "Welcome!" they said.  "You are our only parent."  Another parent did join us an hour later.  It wasn't a nightmare.  It really happened.  It got worse.  I have a little bit of a math phobia, childhood thing I guess.  At this workshop, I was given some math sample problems to work out.  My paper was then taken and placed on an overhead projector for all math staff to view.  Again, this really happened, but it could have been my worst math nightmare.  

On the positive side was that these math professionals were some of the kindest, most supportive, most enthusiastic teaching professionals I have met.  I was grateful to have had this time with them as they shared with me what math education would look like in the Common Core standards era.   I had plenty of questions and they answered them all, including those regarding the logistical challenges of large class size. 

One idea was mentioned and I think we need to pounce on it like a cat on a mouse. That is the use of an internet platform such as FaceTime, for conducting regular math help/discussion meetings with communities of parents. We can pay a math coach weekly or monthly to help parents better understand what their children are currently learning in their classroom.  In turn, parents can become better math advocates for their children.  I hope this idea takes off.  Maybe getting to the school last night was the problem, that we need to take this out to our communities in Hercules.  

Yes, in one blog article, I have gone from having a nightmare to dreaming.   

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