Regents School of Austin, where I teach, will be hosting a summer institute for teachers and I’ll be leading a workshop on implementing service-learning in math courses. The target audience is math teachers at any level K-16 or pre-service math teachers.

Here are the details:

This workshop will assist you in developing successful service-learning projects in mathematics. Service-learning projects engage students in integrating their conceptual understanding of mathematics with the practical functioning of their local community. Ultimately students gain deeper content knowledge and a deeper appreciation for the role math plays in society.

Several examples of service-learning projects will be presented in detail from geometry and statistics, as well implementable ideas for other math courses. You will have the opportunity to brainstorm and work in conjunction with other educators to analyze the key components of a successful project, engage in discussion assessing the feasibility and logistics of implementing service projects in your own curriculum, critique project evaluation rubrics, and begin the design of your own service-learning project.

You will leave this workshop equipped to:

• Determine the keys to a rewarding service-learning experience (after hearing personal testimony from students and community partners)

• Modify and implement sample materials from past Regents projects (including project descriptions, calendars, and grading rubrics)

• Connect the enduring understandings of your course with a community need

• Evaluate student learning outcomes in keeping with your curriculum

• Engage students with meaningful applications of math in the personal context of their local community

If you are interested, here is the link to registration page (that contains further details). 

A word on cost (as I know it is high, and also out of my control). If someone is interested the workshop (setting price aside), please contact me and I will try to make it work. I would really love for anyone interested to attend and not have cost be a hurdle.

Feel free to contact me if you have any questions and please share with colleagues that you think might be interested.