May 4, 2020
The Impact of Distance Learning on the MMR Series of Courses:
Some 2020 Summer Institute Courses Rescheduled for Summer 2021
We at the Making Math Real Institute hope that all of you are staying healthy and safe and that the impact of COVID-19 will end soon so we may return to our normal structure of presenting our series of 12 courses in person in our two locations in Oakland, CA. In the meantime, we are committed to continue providing as many of the 12 courses in the MMR series as possible. As part of this temporary adjustment, and based on the feasibility of presenting courses online, we are transitioning a number of these 12 courses to a distance learning/online format.
The Physical, Hands-On Use of Manipulatives:
The Cornerstone of all the Making Math Real Series of Courses
that Cover the K-5 Scope and Sequence
As an educator of 45 years, I have always experienced the superior educational benefits of presenting all instruction in a direct, in-person structure in which the physical, hands-on connections that drive the Making Math Real simultaneous multisensory structured methodologies can function appropriately. We are physical beings, and despite the ongoing developments in virtual technologies, virtual forms of educational practice can neither replace nor substitute for the direct physical experience that fosters the integration of all learning in the body. It is through this body-based integration that simultaneous multisensory structured methods achieve the highest priority goal and objective of instruction: the development of essential self-regulatory executive functions that support initiating, activating, and sustaining working memory.
The most significant and effective form of direct, physical learning occurs with the extensive use of manipulatives, which is a cornerstone of the all Making Math Real series of courses that cover the K-5 scope and sequence. Consequently, all of the following Making Math Real series of courses that rely extensively on group interaction with manipulatives cannot be transitioned to an online format:
- Making Math Real: Overview K-12
- Making Math Real: The 9 Lines Intensive
- Making Math Real: Kindergarten
- Making Math Real: The 4 Operations & 400 Math Facts
- Making Math Real: Time & Money
- Making Math Real: Games!
The Direct Impact of COVID-19:
Some of the 2020 Summer Institute Courses Will Be Rescheduled
In 2021, Making Math Real will be celebrating 25 years of providing services, and in all that time we have never cancelled a course. However, due to the impact of COVID-19 and based on those MMR courses that cannot be successfully transitioned into an online format, we regrettably must postpone and reschedule the following previously scheduled 2020 Summer Institute courses:
- Making Math Real: Overview K-12
- Making Math Real: The 9 Lines Intensive
- Making Math Real: Kindergarten
These three courses will be rescheduled as part of the 2021 Summer Institute, but, if the current COVID-19 conditions change to allow the return to presenting courses in our traditional in-person structure by September 2020, the Overview K-12, will be offered in early September at the start of the Fall 2020 semester, and again in early January 2021 at the start of the Spring 2021 semester; and The 9 Lines Intensive, will be offered again in Spring 2021. Please see the MMR Calendar for the projected dates of these courses.
For those of you who had already registered for these three courses in June 2020, or were intending to do so, we apologize for the necessity of postponing and rescheduling these courses. For those of you who had already registered for Overview K-12, The 9 Lines Intensive, and Kindergarten, we would like to encourage you to consider the potential benefits of using your current enrollment value as an investment in future MMR courses by transferring your current registration to a future MMR course(s). The benefits of transferring your current registration are 1) your current registration is locked in, which means you are guaranteed enrollment in a future offering of the same course, even if that same course has a higher enrollment fee than the current enrollment value 2) MMR will waive all course transfer fees. Also, it is possible to transfer your current enrollment value to cover part or all of the enrollment fee for a different course(s). However, if you would prefer, refunds will be made in full.
In Place of the Rescheduled Courses and Presented in a Distance Learning/Online Format:
The Summer Intensives: 3 Mini-Courses to Refresh and Expand Your Learning of the Most Frequently Requested Units in the Making Math Real Series of Courses
In place of the rescheduled 2020 Summer Institute courses, and for the first time in our history, I will present in a distance learning/online format a series of three refresher intensive courses intended to expand and maximize several key units from the two major courses, The 4 Operations & 400 Math Facts and Fractions, Decimals, and Advanced Place Value. These Summer Intensives are Long Division, Decimal Long Division, and Fractions on the Number Line & Decimals on the Number Line. For details about the online Summer Intensives mini-courses, please stay tuned for the upcoming Part 3 blog post on the Making Math Real Summer Intensives coming very soon.
We sincerely hope that all of you who were looking forward to receiving an overview of Making Math Real, learning how to use the 9 Lines Multiplication Fact Acquisition and Application Strategy, and learning how to teach the scope and sequence of math for kindergarten, can wait a bit longer until it becomes safe again to reconvene in our direct, in-person structure.
Be well and stay healthy,
David Berg, E.T.
Founder & Director of the Making Math Real Institute
