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What is a
Math Festival?
Is this a new program?
Is there more than one
CMC Math Festival?
What California
Mathematics Standards are addressed in the Festivals?
Which Math Festival
Topic is best for our students?
How many students can
you accommodate in one day?
What
kind of space is required to hold a festival for students and
families?
How will our school day
be impacted?
Must
anyone from my school be released from their duties that
day?
How have schools
been funding the event?
How
independent are the math centers? Must teachers teach certain concepts
prior to the festival?
Who provides the
Festival materials? What does a school need to provide?
Who will conduct our Math
Festival?
Will the CMC Math Festival presenter need to be
fingerprinted by our district?
What does a typical Math
Festival schedule look like?
What is the
Family Math Festival?
What is the
Math Festival After-School Teacher Workshop?
Can we offer only the Family Math
Festival?
Can you
conduct a Festival on a minimum day?
What Math Festival
materials do we get to keep?
How can we justify the cost of a Math
Festival Program?
Is
the cost of the Math Festival reduced if we only have a small number of
students in our school?
Can we
purchase only the Math Festival Materials if we don't host a Math
Festival?
What are the related
travel costs?
What is the billing process
for contracting for a Math Festival?
Do we need volunteers
to help students?
Who provides the
Festival materials?
Is the
Math Festival suitable for Middle School students?
Is
the Festival appropriate
for non-English speaking students?
Are the materials
translated for use by non-English speaking parents at the
Parent/Student Festival?
RETURN to the Math Festival main
page for pictures, process, prices, plus more.
What is a Math
Festival?
A CMC Math Festival is a
special event that demonstrates to students how important Mathematics
is, and that it's not something to fear but a subject that EVERYONE can
enjoy, marvel at, and be successful. A Math Festival is made up of 12
to 18 "math stations" where students of all abilities and grades,
K–8,can actively participate in different hands-on mathematics
activities and practice their math skills at the same time. Each Math
Festival station is hands-on; there's everything from blocks and beans
to laptop computers that students use in solving problems. Each Math
Festival station is different, and each touches upon a different key
mathematics concept. For example, students make function patterns out
of cubes at one station, while at another they solve simultaneous
equations with beans in the Algebra Math Festival.
Students working with a partner choose a station to visit and
work at that activity as long as they wish, working harder and harder
problems. When they are ready, they move to another station and do a
completely different activity. Each station has challenging tasks of
different levels of difficulty, some very easy for young primary
students, and some hard enough to challenge
adults!
The students walk away from their time at
the Math Festival thinking that math is fun, interesting, AND that they
CAN DO IT. Their teachers can build on that enthusiasm by using the
Math Festival Curriculum activities with students after the Festival in
their own classrooms. A CMC Math Festival does an excellent job of
getting students excited about this very important subject, and helps
them see the value of mathematics in their lives. If you don't believe
it, see for yourself! Click on:
Is this a new
program?
The Math Festival Program sprang from an Eisenhower federally
funded project at the University of California at Berkeley called the
Accentuate Mathematics! Project. Paul Giganti, the CMC Math Festival
Program Coordinator, was the Director of that project. The project was
designed to bring math to the forefront in the minds of students,
teachers, and families, in urban and rural schools. In the last few
years the California Mathematics Council has hosted over 150 Math
Festivals all over California and beyond; as far north as Alaska in
Native American villages, and as far south as urban schools in San
Diego, all with equal success. Because the three Math Festival Programs
have been fully developed, tested, and refined over time, and in all
types of schools, all Math Festival stations are composed of highly
successful math activities using child tested materials, and can be
replicated in your classrooms. CMC's detailed planning and logistical
support for every Math Festival program guarantees a successful
Festival program in ANY school, public or private schools, for any
grades K through 8. CMC can host a successful Math Festival in your
school
Is there more than
one CMC Math Festival?
Yes. Currently the California
Mathematics Council is offering three Math Festival programs: Algebra,
Geometry, and Number. Each of the three Festivals consists of 15 to 20
Festival stations that are completely different from the other
Festivals. Each Math Festival focuses on theK-8concepts and Standards
from that topic's strand of mathematics. A school could host each of
the three Math Festivals, one at a time, and each will be a different
math experience for students. Your school chooses the Math Festival
topic of your choice, and that Festival topic is the focus for your
Math Festival day. However, many schools have hosted ALL THREE Math
Festivals at their school in the same or consecutive
years.
What California
Mathematics Standards are addressed in the Festivals?
Each of the three Math Festivals was developed
under a state and federal grant. Therefore, great attention was paid to
addressing the California Curriculum Standards of the three strands of
mathematics: Algebra, Geometry, and Number. Activities were chosen
based
upon how many different Standards could be addressed in a Math Festival
day. While it's impossible to address all the K-8th grade Standards in
one day, most of the key Standards are addressed. Well over 100 of the
California Mathematics Standards are addressed in a CMC Math Festival,
a
quantity too large to easily list.
Which Math
Festival Topic is best for our students?
Each of
the Math Festivals has its own appeal to meet the needs of specific
schools. All three Festivals, Algebra, Geometry, and Number, are very
hands-on and interactive, and all three have different stations with
almost no overlap.
Schools choose the Algebra
Festival if they feel they want to focus on this now all-important
subject. It can help teachers, parents, and students see that algebra
is many things, perhaps much more than they remember from high school,
and not a subject to be feared and avoided. And yet at the same time,
the Algebra Math Festival demonstrates the EVERYONE can have success in
algebra.
Schools often choose Geometry because they
feel that the subject has gotten decreased attention in their math
curriculum. Geometry also has the broadest appeal to students of all
grades, Kindergarten through 8th. It is a highly interactive Festival
with lots of geometric manipulatives for the students to explore,
problems to solve, and spatial skills to
practice.
Schools choose Number when they want to
give their students a bit of a boost in their number sense. This Math
Festival gives students an opportunity to see number in a different and
more positive light than it is often portrayed in the textbook or on
tests. The Number stations, including several measurement activities,
give students a view of number and number sense through the stimulating
use of hands-on materials and problem solving. The Number Festival will
reinforce students' classroom and textbook
experience!
How many students
can you accommodate in one day?
We can accommodate schools
with K–8 student populations as large as 900 in a normal six-hour
school
day. However, the number of students we can accommodate in your Math
Festival program is dependent on your facility. There will be a maximum
of six Math Festival sessions during your school day, and with a large
enough facility, we can accommodate a maximum of 150 students per Math
Festival session. While 900 students in one day is possible, it is a
rush;
600 to 750 is quite comfortable for most school's facilities.
To meet the needs of large schools with student bodies
greater
than 900 students, we can schedule a multi-day Math Festival on
consecutive days. Our staff, together with a teacher-leader at your
school, will set up a schedule that takes several classes of K-8
students through the Math Festival in each session. (Yes, we like the
grades mixed.)
What kind of space is required to host a student and/or
Family Mathematics Festival?
A Math Festival is held in a
school gym, multiuse room, or school cafeteria. Libraries and
classrooms are too small to house a Math Festival, and it cannot be
held outside. The Math Festival requires the exclusive use of this
whole facility for the entire day, including before school, lunchtime,
after school, and into the evening (if your school also hosts a Family
Mathematics Festival that same evening). Nothing else can happen as
usual in the cafeteria (or gym) that day—the Festival stations must
remain up all day since they can't be easily or quickly taken down and
set up again.
If we are using your school cafeteria
on your Math Festival day, students must have lunch in a different
location that day. However we can accommodate an isle through the
cafeteria where students enter and exit to be served lunch at their
regular time. If your school has a breakfast program, the Math Festival
can officially begin AFTER your students finish breakfast and a quick
cleanup. Your Math Festival presenter can usually set up the Festival's
materials prior to or during breakfast, and be ready for the first
student Math Festival session soon after. Your first Math Festival
session need not start at the very beginning of your school
day.
If your cafeteria has approximately 12 to 16
double-double tables (as most cafeterias have), and sufficient room for
students to move about, then accommodating 100 to 150 students per
session in 6 sessions throughout the day is usually no problem. Each
double-double fold-down table will accommodate ONE Math Festival
station.
If your Math Festival will be help in a gym
or multi-use room, then 6 foot by 4 foot folding tables can be used.
TWO 6 foot by 4 foot folding tables placed end to end provide
sufficient space for ONE Math Festival station and up to 12 students.
For example, to have twelve Math Festival stations you would need
twenty-four (24) 6 foot by 4 foot folding tables.
How will our
school day be impacted?
The students in your
school will visit the Math Festival in groups of 80 to 150 per session,
several classes at a time. Up to six Math Festival sessions can be
scheduled in a regular school day. This is how a Math Festival can
accommodate up to 900 students in one day. Students are only out of
class for approximately 50 to 60 minutes for their own session, so
their whole school day is not impacted. Since teachers must attend
along with their students for their scheduled Math Festival session,
there is no need for teachers to be released for the day (see
below).Teachers must organize their students in working pairs BEFORE
coming to the Festival, show up for their session on time, and MUST
attend their whole session along with their students. Other than that,
teachers have no other obligations and there is no special preparation
the teachers must do before the Math Festival day.
Must anyone from
my school be released from her duties that day?
Math
Festival programs also require a lead teacher or administrator to be
present and officially in charge. This is required by California law.
ONE teacher-leader must be released by your school for this purpose for
the entire Math Festival day. It is the school's responsibility to fund
that teacher-leader's release for the day since he or she must work
alongside the Math Festival presenter all day. We prefer that the
person who has arranged your school's Math Festival schedule and
logistics beforehand be the same person who assists that day. Though
our presenter does most of the work, this person's release for the day
is VERY important to the success of a Festival because he or she knows
your teachers and the daily operation of your site. It is not advisable
that the released person be the principal or vice principal as they are
frequently pulled away on pressing school business. Together, along
with parent volunteers, your released teacher and the CMC Math Festival
presenter can easily run your Math Festival
program.
How have schools
been funding the event?
Schools that have Title I
funding can use part of their funds earmarked for math staff
development
and parent outreach. You can include a CMC Mathematics Festival Program
in your Single School Plan or Title I Improvement Plan for the year.
Since it's an all school event, some schools have gone to their PTAs or
Site Councils for funding. Still other schools have gotten corporate
partners to fund their Math Festival. Math Festivals for students,
teachers, and families are a nice concise, yet highly visible way for
local business and industry to invest in a school.
How independent
are the math centers? Must teachers teach certain concepts
prior to the Math Festival?
After a brief orientation,
each student-partner pair work at station tables of their choice. All
Math Festival stations are self-explanatory and
multi-graded. Parent volunteers at each station activity answer
questions
and give assistance when needed. The tasks at any given table range
from
Kindergarten through 8th grade in difficulty. It is not necessary that
teachers teach certain concepts before a student is able to work
effectively at any Math Festival station in the room. The Math Festival
station activities and problems represent wonderful opportunities for
students to practice the skills and concepts they have learned in
class.
Who provides the
Festival materials? What does a school need to
provide?
CMC provides EVERYTHING for a successful Math
Festival, even the expendable materials. Look at the pictures taken at
other schools’ Festivals in our brochure or on this CMC website; we
bring everything you see. We bring enough of everything based upon the
number of students (and/or parents) scheduled to attend your Math
Festival events.
Who will
conduct our Math Festival?
The
California Mathematics Council will send ONE presenter to conduct your
Math Festival events for the day. All of the presenters for the CMC
Math Festival programs are experienced classroom teachers, credentialed
in California. Besides many years teaching experience in classrooms and
in diverse communities, ALL the CMC presenters have a variety of
experience working with multi-age students, teachers of all grades, and
parents, guardians, and families. On the appointed day, your Math
Festival presenter will arrive early in the morning for setup, and lead
the Festival sessions all day long. If your school has contracted for
the optional Family Mathematics Festival and/or after-school Math
Festival teacher workshop, this same presenter has been trained to
conduct those events as well. We’re sure you, your administration,
teachers, students, and families will enjoy working with our wonderful
CMC Math Festival presenters; they are friendly, knowledgeable, and
professional.
Will the CMC Math
Festival presenter need to be fingerprinted by our
district?
Very occasionally we are asked by districts to
have our Math Festival presenter fingerprinted specifically for the one-day visit to your school. This isn't possible or feasible, and is not
required by the law. Therefore, as a policy, we do not comply with
requests for fingerprinting. The law governing fingerprinting of school
employees, Education Code Section45125.1, requires that employees of
entities providing services to school districts who will come in
contact with students, must be fingerprinted by the California
Department of Justice for a criminal records check, UNLESS your
DISTRICT determines that the CONTRACTOR and CONTRACTOR's staff will
have limited contact with pupils. In making this determination, your
DISTRICT must consider the totality of the circumstances, including
factors such as the length of time CMC's presenters will be on school
grounds, whether pupils will be in proximity with the site where CMC
personnel will be working, and whether they will be alone or with other
district employees.
Under the conditions of your
student CMC Math Festival, the California Mathematics Council’s
presenters will have limited contact with pupils and ARE NOT SUBJECT TO
THE FINGERPRINTING REQUIREMENTS OF EDUCATION CODE SECTION 45125.1 OR
45125.2. CMC expressly acknowledges the following conditions will apply
to any work performed by CMC personnel on your school
site:
- CMC's representative will check in
with the school office each day immediately upon arriving at the school
site;
- She will inform school office staff of her
proposed activities and location at the school
site;
- Once at the designated location, she will not
change locations without contacting the school
office;
- She will be under the direct supervision of
a district employee (a Teacher-Leader) released for the entire day for
this purpose;
- She will not use student rest room
facilities unless told to do so by a school employee;
and
- If she finds herself alone with a
student, she will immediately contact the school office and request
that a member of the school staff be assigned to the work
location.
ALL CMC Math Festival
presenters are, however, current or former certificated public school
teachers in California, and as such, have been fingerprinted by their
own district and county office of education. Their fingerprints ARE on
file at the Department of Justice.
What does a
typical Math Festival schedule look like?
Here is
a SAMPLE Math Festival schedule (yours may start and end at different
times, and have a different number of sessions):
Set up
| 7:30 - 9:00
(minimum 90
minutes)
| Session
1
| 9:00 -
9:35
|
| Passing
break | Session
2
| 9:45 -
10:20
|
| Passing
break | Session
3
| 10:30 -
11:05 |
| Passing
break | Session
4
| 11:15-
11:50 | LUNCH
| 12:00 -
1:00
(45
min minimum for staff and volunteers to
eat)
| Session
5
| 1:00 -
1:35 |
| Passing
break | Session
6
| 1:45 -
2:20
| Teacher
After-School
Workshop
| Set-up
| 30 min
minimum
| Workshop
| 2:50 -
4:10
| | Dinner | 45 min
minimum | | Family Mathematics Festival | Session
| 6:00 - 7:00
(90 min maximum)
| Clean up
| 45 minutes
|
What is the Family
Mathematics Festival?
The Family Math Festival is a wonderfully effective parent outreach event that welcomes your school community to your school to celebrate this important subject. If you wish to host the optional Family Mathematics Festival, the event must be held the SAME evening of your school's student Math Festival. It is usually open to all members of students' families regardless of their age; everybody from Grandma to baby sister can find a fun math activity to do at a Family Mathematics Festival.
Since students who have attended the Math Festival that same day tend to pull their families to the Family Mathematics Festival that evening, many schools have had the best-attended, non-student-performance family event ever. Families tour the same Math Festival stations the students did during the day. Their students become their tour guides and teachers, so there is no need for parent or teacher volunteers to assist at the Family Mathematics Festival stations. It is wonderful to watch mothers, fathers, and guardians doing math with their children—and having fun at the same time.
The Family Math Festival usually runs from 6 or 6:30 to 7:30 or 8:00, and an hour is usually about right if no additional program is scheduled (raffle, talk by principal or speaker, etc.). 90 minutes is the MAXIMUM length of the Family Mathematics Festival, due to the very long Math Festival day for the presenter and released teacher-leader. The same-day Family Mathematics Festival is optional for an additional $700.
Depending on your facility, an evening Family Math Festival can accommodate 200+family members and students. If you wish, your Math Festival presenter will be happy to make a few comments to families about the importance of mathematics for their children, and how they can support their student's learning of this critical subject. CMC can also provide the booklet, Math at Home, A Parent's Guide to Helping Children Learn Mathematics, to the families that attend your Family Mathematics Festival, at a cost of $.35 per booklet. Math at Home booklets are optional and are available in English and Spanish. Click here to
download a free PDF copy of this parent booklet.
What is the
Math Festival After-School Teacher Workshop?
We also offer an inservice professional development program for teachers on how to integrate the Math Festival activities into K-8classrooms. The emphasis of this workshop is extending the experience of the Festival throughout the year, and the focus is on teachers using the Standards based Math Festival curriculum materials as stations, enrichment, or as structured lessons. This workshop adds a ninety-minute to two-hour after-school professional development program for your staff following the student Festival and preceding the evening Family Math Festival. This teacher workshop completes a coordinated school community Math Festival package. Together with our student and family Math Festival programs, with this inservice your school can have Math Festival Programs that benefit students, teachers, and families, all in the same day. This Math Festival Professional Development program is optional for an additional $800.
Can we offer only
the Family Mathematics Festival?
Although the Family Mathematics Festival makes a perfect event to follow your student Math Festival, due to popular demand, the California Mathematics Council has begun offering stand-alone Family Mathematics Festival events on evenings and weekends. It's more expensive to offer ONLY the Family Mathematics Festival because the materials, set-up and breakdown time, and travel involved are the same as for a student Math Festival. Hosting only a Parent Festival costs $1500 plus related travel expenses. A stand-alone Family Mathematics Festival can last 2 hours MAXIMUM; Family Mathematics Festivals longer than 2 hours are available, but their cost is equal to a student Math Festival.
Whenever possible, we encourage schools to offer the student Festival during the day and a parent/student Festival that evening, for an extra charge of only $700. The benefit of hosting a daytime student Math Festival for your whole student body followed by an evening Family Mathematics Festival, is that the students who pass through the Festival that day tend to urge (some might say "drag") their parents to the evening Festival. Some schools have had their highest parent attendance EVER because of this effect. However, we are happy to accommodate schools who only wish to host an evening or Saturday Family Mathematics Festival.
Can you conduct a
Festival on a minimum day?
Depending on the size of your
student population, it MIGHT be possible to conduct a Festival on a
minimum day. Each session lasts 45 to 50 minutes, including clean-up and
passing time between sessions. The Math Festival can accommodate a
maximum of 150 students per session (if your facility is large
enough). Normally we conduct 5 or 6 of these sessions in one day in order
to allow every student to visit the Festival. You could "do the math"
using your school's schedule and number of students to see if it will
work on a minimum day.
What Math Festival
materials do we get to keep?
Each school that hosts a
Festival receives a complete set of that Math Festival's printed
curriculum materials (Algebra, Geometry, or Number); your
teachers are encouraged to use these in their own classrooms. There are three
CMC Math Festivals: Algebra, Geometry, and Number, and each has its own
completely different Math Festival curriculum. We do this to help your
school extend the learning and excitement of your Math Festival day—all
year long! The printed Math Festival materials consist of copies of ALL the Math Festival station posters with directions for each activity;
Spanish translations of the instructions; copies of EVERY task for each
Math Festival station (average 12 different problem solving tasks per
station); lists of manipulatives and materials needed for each station;
and answers to all the stations' tasks. In addition to your teachers'
use of these materials in creative ways, with these printed materials
your school could host YOUR OWN Math Festival, and several schools have
done so!
How can we justify
the cost of a Math Festival Program?
The California
Mathematics Council Math Festival Program is not funded or subsidized by
any company or government agency. As a non-profit organization, CMC does
not have adequate funding to offer this program to schools below our
costs. We hope someday that a corporate sponsor might be found to help
us offer Math Festivals to schools at reduced costs. At the present
time, we must offer the Math Festival Program to schools on a
fee-for-service basis so that CMC can recover its costs and continue to
offer this outreach program to schools all over California.
While $2000 for the full day's student Math Festival may
sound expensive, consider that in the space of a day every student in your
school, from Kindergarten through 8th grade (up to 900 students), can
pass through and experience a Math Festival. At a cost per student, it
compares quite reasonably to brief student assemblies and many programs
that only work with one class or a specific grade within the school.
In addition, we offer the optional evening Family
Mathematics Festival at a reduced rate of only $700 as a way to
encourage schools to involve parents, guardians, and families to
experience this important subject alongside their children. (The reduced
rate is for a Family Mathematics Festival program held the SAME EVENING
as a school's student Math Festival). If your school also chooses to
hold the after-school Math Festival inservice workshop for teachers, in
a single day your school can host THREE Family Mathematics Festival
events that will have your students, teachers, and families talking
about MATH for weeks!
Is the cost of the
Math Festival reduced if we only have a small number of students in
our school?
Unfortunately, the cost of presenting
a Festival to 100 students is the same as for 900 students because the
cost of delivering the program does not change in terms of travel and
time. However, some smaller schools have opted to host a Math Festival at ONE school site for TWO schools: then both schools can share the
costs as long as the total student numbers are not over 900 and the Math
Festival sessions can be scheduled during a normal six-hour school day.
Perhaps there is another small school within walking distance that could
send classes to the Math Festival at your site. We will gladly issue
separate invoices that easily allow the two or more schools to pay just
their share of the costs of a multi-school Math Festival program. One
middle school hosted a K–8 Math Festival at their site, and FOUR other
schools were able to attend and enjoy the Math Festival's
activities.
Can we purchase
only the Math Festival Materials if we don't host a Math
Festival?
Currently the CMC Math Festival printed curriculum
materials are available only to schools that host a CMC Math Festival
Program. The California Mathematics Council is putting all our efforts
into offering the CMC student and parent Math Festival programs
throughout California, but we hope to make these materials available
some day in publications for sale.
What are the
related travel costs?
Travel costs related to hosting a
Math Festival at your school include auto mileage billed at the federal
mileage rate, a daily meal allowance, and hotel accommodations for your
Math Festival presenter (depending on distance traveled). Because of the
large amount of materials associated with hosting a Math Festival, we
must drive, not fly, to your school. However, we are fortunate to have
CMC Math Festival presenters located in different parts of the state to
reduce travel expenses for schools. Hotel accommodations are only
required if your presenter must drive the night before to be there
early in the a.m. for setup, and/or stay over a second night if your school
hosts an evening Family Mathematics Festival and it's too late to drive
home. The travel related expenses of hosting a Math Festival will depend
on the individual circumstances of travel time and distance to your
site, but can be estimated quite closely for your purchase order.
If more than one Math Festival can be arranged on
consecutive days with a nearby school(s), the schools can share the
travel costs. (This must be arranged in advance with confirmation of dates by ALL
schools involved.)
When you tell us the street
address of your school, and which Math Festival programs you wish to
host (student Math Festival, Family Mathematics Festival, and/or
after-school Math Festival teacher workshop), we will email you
a detailed cost estimate for your Math Festival events upon
request.
What is the
billing process for contracting for a Math Festival?
After
looking over the Math Festival information, if you would like to book a
Math Festival date for your school, it's best to begin by indicating
your first, second, and third choice of dates. We will then let you know
which of those dates fit into our calendar. We ask that your school or
district start processing a purchase order immediately upon confirmation
of the Math Festival date for your school. CMC will provide you with a
detailed cost estimate with all charges and travel expenses broken
down.
CMC prefers the purchase order process for
payment. Your purchase order must be in the amount of the estimate and
sent to CMC BEFORE the date of your Math Festival. If we don't receive a
purchase order from your school or district at least two weeks prior
to your school's Math Festival date, it may result in a
cancellation.
The address of the California
Mathematics Council is:
MATH FESTIVAL
PROGRAMS
CALIFORNIA MATHEMATICS COUNCIL
PO BOX
880
CLAYTON CA
94517-0880
The California Mathematics Council is a
tax-exempt non-profit corporation, federal tax ID number
94-6123312
For more information, questions, a cost
estimate, or to book a Math Festival date for your school, please
contact Paul Giganti, Jr., Director of the CMC Math Festival Program,
at: pgiganti@berkeley.edu
Do we need
volunteers to help students?
Yes! One of the nicest elements
of any CMC Math Festival program is parent involvement. For your student
Math Festival, we ask the school to sign up parent volunteers, aides, or
other adults in advance so they can assist the students at the Festival stations during the day. Parents or adult volunteers NEED NOT BE MATH
EXPERTS to help out; they can learn all they need to know in a brief
orientation that morning, and by participating in the sessions. Your
school will need to sign up 12 to 16 parents or other volunteers for
each Math Festival student session; parents can volunteer to work in
shifts. It's ideal if your school can have one adult helping at each
Math Festival station. We will provide your school with information,
advice, and flyers in advance to use in the process of gathering parent
volunteers. Speaking English IS NOT required of the help at your Math
Festival; in fact, non-English speaking volunteers can help non-English
speaking students quite nicely.
While all Math
Festivals have been successful, those that have parent/adult volunteers
to assist the students during the Math Festival have been are even more
successful for the entire school community. Having parents help at each
of the Math Festival tables not only makes for a better learning
experience for each student, it also provides a rich mathematics
experience for the assisting adult, and allows teachers to circulate and
observe their students. Schools benefit greatly by reaching out to
parents and bringing them into the school. A Math Festival is a great
vehicle to encourage parents to get involved in an academically
satisfying yet enjoyable and non-threatening school event. Your Math
Festival can generate great public relations for your community. In fact,
a Math Festival can provide positive stories and wonderful photos for
your local newspaper, radio, and TV station, and we encourage schools
to contact their local education reporter in advance of the
day.
Who provides the
Festival materials?
CMC provides EVERYTHING for a
successful Festival, even the expendable materials used during a
Festival. If you look in the brochure or on the web site at the
pictures taken at other schools' Festivals, everything you see was
brought by the CMC presenter. We bring enough of all the necessary Math
Festival materials for the number of students (and families) scheduled
to attend your Math Festival that day.
When the
Festival day is done, we leave a binder with ALL the printed material
from that particular Math Festival for your teachers to reproduce and
use in their own classrooms.
Is the Math
Festival suitable for Middle School students?
We have
conducted over 150 Math Festivals, and almost a third of those were
successful programs at middle schools. A CMC Math Festival is VERY
appropriate for 6th through 8th grade students. For a middle school Math
Festival we choose the more advanced stations to set up, and they've
proven very challenging for ALL middle school students from Special
Education to Gifted and Talented. Because of the different levels of
difficulty at each station, students can naturally seek their own level
of ability. If you have low-ability students, they will find MANY
activities at each station at which they can be successful while
gradually working harder and harder problems. If you have exceptional
8th grade students, they too will find ample problems that challenge even
adults. In scheduling a Math Festival for a middle school, please take
note that the Festival takes over the entire gym or cafeteria for the
whole day, and precludes any other activity from happening before,
during, or after the Math Festival sessions; this includes after school
as well if there is a Family Math Festival scheduled that evening.
Is the Festival
appropriate for non-English speaking students?
Students throughout California have been fully able to
participate in their school's Math Festival including sites with high
populations of English language learners. The instructions for each
Festival station have been translated into Spanish, and even though
the individual station tasks are not translated, they have VERY FEW
words. None of the Math Festivals activities are reading intensive, nor
does reading play a key role in student access. Students who are second-language learners have no problem figuring out the tasks at ANY Math
Festival station because they are very intuitive and include MANY visual
examples, pictures, and diagrams. In addition, parent volunteers give
students the level of assistance they need. This is one of the most
important roles of the parent volunteers during a Festival; they can
show students how to do an activity in a very brief time. We have even
hosted TWO very successful Math Festival programs at the California
School for the Deaf!
Are the materials
translated for use by non-English speaking parents at the Parent/Student
Festival?
While there are the Spanish translations of the
instructions at each Festival station for the Algebra, Geometry, and
Number Math Festivals, a most interesting and wonderful effect makes
further translation unnecessary: since their students have passed
through the school’s Math Festival that very day, they become instant
"experts" and take on the role of teacher and translator for their own
family members. The only need for a real translator is during the opening
comments and instructions for the Math Festival before the families are
released to go to the Festival stations.
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This Page was last updated: Friday, August 31, 2007 at 12:26:45 PM
This page was originally posted: 9/22/2005; 5:59:25 PM.
Copyright 2008 cmcmath
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