First of all, we at the Making Math Real Institute wish you a happy holiday season and hope all of you are staying healthy and safe. It is our highest priority to return to our normal structure of presenting our series of 12 courses in person at our two locations in Oakland, CA, once conditions of the pandemic improve to guarantee the health and safety for all of us.
Drastic Times Call for Drastic Measures
At the time of this writing, a drastic surge in the spread of COVID-19 has precipitated another Stay-At-Home order from the state of California, so my hopes expressed back in August 2020 that we would soon be able to return to an in-person format for all the MMR courses have been dashed. Drastic times call for drastic measures, and as I stated at the end of the Part 5 of Making Math Real’s Response to COVID-19 from August 4, 2020:
“If the unsafe conditions of the COVID-19 pandemic persist indefinitely, and continue to require distance learning only, I will endeavor to create new structures for teaching Making Math Real via distance learning.”
>> read the full excerpt
Since the unsafe conditions surrounding COVID-19 continue to persist, rather than continuing to postpone all the MMR courses that are heavily focused on the use of manipulatives, I have created a way to provide both the Making Math Real: Overview, K-12 and the Making Math Real: 9 Lines Intensive in a distance learning format.
The Overview, K-12 and 9 Lines Intensive
Will Be Offered in Summer 2021 Via Distance Learning
For the first time since January 2020, both the Overview, K-12 and the 9 Lines Intensive will be offered again, and scheduled as part of the 2021 Annual Making Math Real Summer Institute. Whether or not it becomes “safe” to return to an in-person format by summer 2021, I am committing now to a distance learning format for both courses. Please note that offering the Overview, K-12 and the 9 Lines Intensive via distance learning is a temporary measure only; and as soon as it is safe to return to our in-person format, these courses, and all 12 of the Making Math Real Series of courses, will be exclusively presented in the intended in-person format.
Silver Linings: Benefits of the Distance Learning Format
I have explained repeatedly in Making Math Real’s Response to COVID-19 Parts 1-5 why Making Math Real was never intended to be taught via distance learning. Now that conditions require I transition the Overview, K-12 and the 9 Lines Intensive into a distance learning format, the need for travel to our Institute locations in Oakland, CA is eliminated, so people can attend these courses from around the world while staying safe at home. In addition, instructional days will be cut in half – four hours each day instead of eight, from 9am – 1pm Pacific Time each day. The Overview will be four 4-hour days and the 9 Lines Intensive, six 4-hour days.
Register Early as Enrollment Will Be Limited
Due to the limitations of online distance learning formats and unprecedented in the history of the Making Math Real Institute, enrollment will be capped, so if these are courses in which you have been waiting to enroll, to guarantee your place in the Overview, K-12 and the 9 Lines Intensive, please enroll as soon as possible once registration for the 2021 Summer Institute is opened in February.
We hope all of you are safe and have managed to make the best of these difficult times and conditions. We are extremely optimistic about better times ahead in 2021. Next year will be the 25th Anniversary of Making Math Real, and in celebration of this landmark event, we will be presenting to you new, major expansions and innovations in our services, products, and opportunities. Please stay tuned – we will be sending out a series of email notifications throughout the year and starting just after the New Year about the new branches of the Making Math Real Institute, new products and services, and special events and sales.
Stay safe and be well.
David Berg, E.T.
Founder & Director of the Making Math Real Institute
Creator of the Making Math Real Simultaneous Multisensory Structured Methods
