TSBVI Coffee Hour: Nemeth in a Box - 10-18-21 >>Hello. This is Susan Osterhaus and as Kaycee said I am from the Texas school for the blind and visually impaired and I am the statewide mathematics consultant. What a mouthful. Okay. Take it away, Tina. >>Tina, are you on mute? >>I am. I just realized that I was on mute but also not seeing the slide advance either so sorry. So we are here to talk about Nemeth in a box for middle school students so this is actually part of a federal grant. We have -- >>Tina, Tina. We just wanted you, at this point we just wanted you to introduce yourself and -- >>Oh, I am sorry. I was going ahead and getting started. Hi, I am Tina Herzberg and actually a professor and coordinator of the visual impairment education program at the University of South Carolina upstate. And a long time ago, though, I actually worked for region 12 in Waco, so it is nice seeing all of these towns pop up. It is like, wow I know exactly where that is. Good to see you today. >>I am Sara Larkin, similar to Susan I am the statewide math consultant but for the Iowa educational services for the blind and visually impaired. And we thought we would take just a quick moment to get to know who all is here. So we have a poll for you and we would like to know what is your role and what area you are from. Go ahead and post that poll, if you would, perfect. And at the point that we have most people polled, I will go ahead and show the results. We are excited to find out where everybody is from. I have seen the chat going a little bit. Just two questions for you. All right. Let's go ahead and show at least who has voted so far. Lots of .TSBVI, 71 percent or TVI's. We have seven percent OMS, two percent classroom teacher. One parent. 1 VI consultant. A couple of administrators, and then eight others. And then as far as where, we have got lots of Midwest and Texas. And then next is southeast and a few from the -- I don't see any north central. They probably just called themselves the Midwest. Great. Thank you so much. Okay. Whoops. Let me see if -- now Tina I will let you really talk. >>Sorry, you all. The I am just so excited I was ready to get started. I apologize. But Nemeth in the box is actually part of a federal grant project that we have here at the university. So it is funded be at this U.S. Department of Education and what we are doing, the first part of it is professional development for teachers and students with visual impairments, such as today. Then we also offer courses more about that will be coming later. And then what we are really here to talk about today is some of the extracurricular programming that we have been working on, because this program is really about supporting the use of -- codes by student in both math and science so we are just beginning, we are actually like days into the beginning of year 3:and in years 1 and 3. We are really focusing on Nemeth code with UMV context. And in four or five we will continue to have some -- a little part about Nemeth code, but most of our training, extracurricular programming will be targeting individuals living in states using UEB technical. So what is Nemeth in a box? Some of you are going, I have never heard of Nemeth in a box. Well, that's what we did, whatever you would think of meeting for these sessions we put in a box. But what kind of materials? All kinds of puzzles and hand on learning materials because what we know is that in the general math literature that puzzles and hands on learning can increase conceptual knowledge of mathematic concepts. Well we don't have a lot of research about the Nemeth code, and so what we wanted to explore is are puzzles and hand on learning experiences effective ways to learn Nemeth code and is it also helping in building the studentsÕ mathematical concepts? >>And in an on, especially in an on-line learning environment. So how will we measure progress? So we collected data all along the way. So we began before the first -- saying that individually, with either me or another colleague and they put a pre-test and after the last 6, usually within three or four days of the last session but we did have a couple of, that took a little longer to get ahold of they took a post-test with us. So that way we really can measure what they knew before to what they learned by the very end. And then I think just as powerful though sometimes were those field notes so we had somebody, and their whole job really was just rocked field notes about questions the students had along the way. Some of their math Matt cam speaking discussion points .. So we have all of that documents. The student also completed a survey, a pre and post. We will share a little of the results with that today. And there is a pre and post-test for teachers as well. So as you all can tell, lots of data. >>And we thought we would let you know about what symbols that we targeted and what math concepts we targeted. And in lesson one, we had fractions, mixed numbers, less than or equal to, greater than or equal to and not equal to. And although we know that fractions are really taught in second to third grade and mixed numbers in fourth grade, inequalities do start in sixth grade but the we wanted to be sure that we gave them that little bit of a review. And so we would have a way like using fractions and mixed numbers to use our inequality signs. And in 112 we had decimal, percent, dollar sign, cent sign and approximately equal to. Again the cent signed we learn in first grade, decimal signs, first or second grade but percent usually waits until about sixth grade and approximately equal to around seventh grade. So as you are seeing I hope we are kind of like taking a little bit of the what they should have already learned, reviewing that and then using some of those other symbols you know, to introduce these newer ones, that would show up in middle school. You can't just start with every symbol that is just introduced in middle school. You have to have some of those preliminary symbols there. Okay. So in lesson 3 we had parentheses, negative sign, order of operations, which is really the math concept there, and absolute value. Again that is more of the concept vertical bars are the symbols. But again, parentheses are usually learned second to third grade, but if you want to use the negative sign and absolute value signs that starts in about sixth grade. So again we need those parentheses and to get that order of operations we used lots and lots of parentheses. And of course all of the operation, the simple operation signs as well. And then we went into 114 and we thought we would change it up a little bit and because by about you know, somewhere in this middle school area age group, we do want to talk about like can coordinate pairs, you know, plotting points on a graph and being able to put those in like an XY data table. And of course you have to have the mathematical comma to do coordinate pairs so we made sure to review them on that as well and of course the spacing, the formatting. So in lesson 4 is probably a little bit more about formatting, which just to let you know in case you don't, that is Tina, she is our formatting queen so we were sure we got students to be sure that they learned a little bit about that formatting. Now lesson 5 was components and degrees, including the superscript indicator, baseline indicator and the hollow dot, and hopefully you all remember that way back in second grade they are actually learning the degree sign which has the hollow dot but at that grade level we are not talking about -- we are just saying those three cells together make that degree sign. We are not really taking it apart and examining it. By the time we we get to middle school and introducing exponents and the baseline indicator we are telling them all of the different -- and superscript indicator -- test test test -- that was -- wow, we are in the big leagues now because we did introduce them to principal square roots. And off to you now, Sara. >>Stair, are you on mute too? >>Sorry. So I get the opportunity to share with you a few of our games and then we will let them share some of the other games. But really, we wanted to make sure we were hitting on different skills within these games, so the first one is what is the question? For this particular one, we gave them the answer. For this one it was five and a half, because we were doing fractions, week one, and then they had to come up with a question. Now we gave them a sample question, but th So they all got out their Braille writers at their home. This was all done virtually through Zoom so they had their Braille writers at home or their note takers and they were making up their own problems on their devices using the Nemeth code. Then they had an opportunity to share out with the other students what they came up with. And it was really funny because they became super competitive as they were trying to make a better question than the others. Our next game, we would actually like you to participate in, because a lot of people haven't heard of this game. It is called which one doesn't belong? I don't know how many of you have heard of it but it is commonly used in a lot of math room -- or math classrooms anymore. So in this case, we gave them just a two by two array of four different expressions. In this case, we have .5, 0.25, 0.75, and then 0.3 repeating. And of course they are taking out this Braille sheet that is labeled which one doesn't belong? They are looking at those expressions in the Nemeth code. And then this -- this is an opportunity for them to really use discourse, for those of you don't know what discourse is, although you probably do, it is just having that conversation -- -- about a topic, so in this case the students try to figure out which of these doesn't belong? But not just that, but why doesn't it belong? So we would like for you to share in the chat of those four expressions, which one doesn't belong and why do you think it doesn't belong with the other 3? The expressions are 0.5, 0.25, 0.75 and 0.3 repeating. So in the chat, which one do you think doesn't belong? And why? We have a zero .3, because it is a repeating decimal -- you see the only one repeating so they are using that whole -- that terminology, 0.3 because the others are quarters. Same answer, but a different reason. We see lots of the repeating decimal. How about the others? That is what is school about this one is all of them don't belong, but for a different reason. So we have lots of -- so we have 0.3 repeating because it is not finite so lots of 0.3. Now let's have a different one that doesn't belong and why that one might not belong. So for instance, 0.5 doesn't belong for a different reason. Can anybody tell me why 0.5 -- there we have a different one. .75 because the numerator isn't a 1. So we have got our .5 would be like one-half, .25 would be like one-fourth, .3 repeating is one-third, and, yes, .75 would be three-fourths, not a numerator of 1:.5 only has one place after the decimal, exactly. So that one doesn't belong. And then I think zero .5 because it is only in the tenth it is column. Same answer but different reason. And then 0.75 doesn't belong. Any ideas why -- ah, there. Because it is the only one over .5 or greater than .5. So you guys got it. You got all four of them. So it is really cool to have the students discuss and talk about why they felt theirs didn't belong. And what was funny is, we could never end without having an answer for all four of them. Thank you so much for participating. Great. All right. The next game is called what is wrong? And we know that there are common errors that students make when never writing the Nemeth code. So that we did is we actually gave them a document of what is wrong. Again, we used those can kind of four quadrants, two by two grid, and we put in there errors. They all were supposed to say the That is what it is supposed to say. The first 3 boxes are incorrect. They had to tell us what was wrong about them, but then we always like to model the correct way so that fourth one is always the correct answer a. And so even those struggling students that had trouble finding the answer could then look at the correct way and try to figure out why the others were wrong. So it really gave them that good example but also those bad examples so they learned to proof their own work and find their own mistakes. And then we had to finish off that particular game with a challenge where they had to find two mistakes in the same expression. All right. And then next, Tina. >>So in week 2, 4 and sticks, we played a different game and it was basically a spin-off of boggle. I don't know how many of you have ever played boggle where it is actually the more traditional one that is sold in stores was all about letters. And you make words. Well for the boggle for us for the Nemeth code, what we did is we put different Nemeth code symbols into the game board and then we used very similar rules instead of coming up with words they had to come up with pr Now just similar to the game you had to come up with problems that nobody else had in order to make a point. So that means if anybody else got the same problem that you did, darn. It didn't work. And so what would happen is that they all have a their game boards. We decide on how long the game was going to be played, usually depending how much time we really had left. And then students would race to come up with as many problems as possible. So what they would do is they would use their Braille writers or note take sores they would have access to when we went back. And then they could now know ones that were recorded and which ones they got points for. Even in the first week we noticed some students were trying to come up with really pretty short ones so they could make as many as possible. Some other students, though took a little bit of a different strategy. They actually went for like creative like how many symbols they could thinking, ah if I make fewer but come up with ones nobody else came up with. So it was kind of interesting. So we ended up two winners, one who got the most points but we ended up so because we had so many like great problems that incorporated so many symbols we ended up having a most creative one as well. Interesting is some of the students really like this. There is a little bit of a learning curve but once they figured it out they really enjoyed it. So like the first thing we did, though, is that we would go back and we would review all of the symbols on the game board that we had been using just to make sure. So this one, symbol is not actually on this board, but like approximately equal to. That was something that a lot students weren't familiar with so we want do barb -- They had some questions about. So let's just say that we just started the timer, I was going to play the game and sometimes you can always like start at the top on the left side of your game board or you might start like at the bottom of that slide or maybe the bottom right side. What if I decided to be wild and crazy and I will start this time with the bottom of my game board. I am actually going to go to my last row and I am going to go with the fourth box and that is 0.4. And now I have to go to a box that is touching either diagonally, to the left, to the right, up or down, so I am going to go up 0.4 plus and then I will go to the left, negative 4. And that's it. I don't even have to have an answer to it. I am stopping because I will go the with the strategy today I want to go with as many as possible. So I may go and see what is my next one? Maybe I will go to -- I know what I will do. I will go back to the top. Maybe I will go to the second box. Two fifths. Go to the right and this time I want to go diagonally down toward the left. Times seven. There you go, I have a different problem there. I have two already. And then I would be off to find my third 1:and then afterwards, what we do, the kids we would take turns. And all of the students would get to share one at a time which one they had so everybody got a chance, and then we would just keep going through them. By the very end we had one that had three and we listed all three of theirs so everybody got to share what problems they came up with. The thing that is funny because the first game is we hadn't said the one thing they had to be mathematically correct. So that is something we end up having to say. Don't worry after that, though, the kids, the students and us we were all like everybody was like, okay, let's make sure that they did put an answer and they got it just right. So it was kind of fun along the way too and really supportive of one another, even if they got the same problem they got, and they were like oh darn but hey look at us, we both made this great problem so it was nice to see them kind of want to work together. And then -- >>I am sorry. I will say and on the left side is the Nemeth in the box weekly symbol list so this is actually something we began every session with is we, and usually, and the it was -- it was Susan. Susan would go over the weekly symbol whris the students and then that would be right before our very first activity, a great introduction just so we were really focused in knowing what symbols we would be targeting there in our lesson that day. And that's what I was going to say. I was going to steal in your slide, Tina and say that's how I did start with that box -- that Nemeth in a box weekly symbol list. Then after, you know, after we had talked about that a lot, then we would go and of course this is already up to week 5. Then we would go into the Mazie Hirono, each time we, maze, and before you get into that, we have a question in the chat on bog. >>Okay. >>And exactly what came out in some of our sessions. So someone asked, what is the fourth box on the top? I don't recognize the symbol that looks like out. So -- that is that vertical bar for absolute value. And that is what is cool about this, is we, a lot of times could step back and they could have the conversation with each other. So someone else in the chat shared that it was the absolute value of negative 8. And that's exactly what the students would do with each other. >>They are excellent students. Our audience today -- [Laughter] -- they are as much fun as our real students. Okay. So keep those questions coming in to the chat. This is great. This is why we had so much fun. Unlike our real students, though, they got to chatter the whole time and I know you guys are confined to the chat. So -- but I am just going to tell you, we had 12 students at a time so you can imagine if we had as many as you guys, boy, that mine a little problematic so thank you for bearing with us and just putting useful that good stuff in the chat, though. So anyway what we discovered early on it was a good idea to go through like I just mention God through the symbol list, but then we found it was kind of neat to go through the maze, because we could go through that slowly and they would just read -- as we went they would read and they would start, every time we started with the star in the upper left-hand corner and ended up with finish. And so many of the students had not used amaze before, in fact, they would get down to a certain point like here about like the third line down and they would think they should go back to the left and we are saying, no. You have to follow the maze around a, curve around with the maze, which was so different. You know, because they are so used to doing left to right. And this was actually in adults, individual who is blind who said you have to put little doors in. So we put little doors in so they could have openings a gone in the Braille and follow hoe, hopefully follow the maze. But they had the but they got to learn exactly thousand maze was going to work and so forth and so on, and then what you are seeing on the left is for any parents that -- and mostly that is what either the student was by themselves with mom or dad in the other room. Sometimes the parent, we would see parent every now and then. But if the parent is involved or if a teacher is visually impaired wants to use this we have the neat -- The maze is basically put into a different format, we just got the print and the stipulate boll with it and the start to finish, it is kind of a layout of the actual maze. Just to make sure everybody knows that that is buy -- pi squared, and so forth, but the kids had so much fun and as we go along we would let them pick if they wanted to do the next one and it was so funny because you could see some of the kids wanted to do something way at the beginning because those were usual Because they were getting harder, it was just so much fun to see their tactics about when they were going to jump in and try to you know, read whatever was there, to answer. And then of course, as teachers we couldn't help ourselves. We had to go in there and say, oh, well, now, okay, so this is X cubed. Yes, you read that perfectly but what if X had the value of 2 what would the value of that whole expression be? They were ready to do that as well. Anyway, so the maze can be used, as I said, we liked it best to have it right there at the beginning to -- after we should show them the new symbol but then to actually have them were -- within the context, within the math context and go through it that way. And again they all got in the spirit and they had so much fun with it. And just I hope -- I mean, we just feel like kids and adults and parents and teachers and everybody can have fun with this. And then the other thing we came up with is bingo. And I am saying this from week six, because what we wanted to do with the bingo was, we wanted to have as many you know, of the symbols, the most similar symbols they could learn so we waited to not do bingo until week six and we have 12 cards, 12 bingo cards because we realize how much fun they were going to have with the boggle and the bingo. Remember, Tina said boggle was for lessons 2, 4 and 6. Bingo was just for week six and they just wanted -- they wanted much more time to play bingo. And, well, we decided we were just going to have a little post session, a few post sessions to play more with them because they just wanted to play these educational games. These educational Nemeth math games. But anyway, for week 6, for bingo instead of having little bingo balls that you call out -- -- B 32 or whatever, what you see on the left sway list of the symbols, and both in print and Braille, and they each got all of this embossed for them and you will notice it has the print and the Braille so they can cut all of those little strips if you imagine going through and cutting them. So I was basically the bingo master, so to speak. And then I would put out like a label 2 and they would have to look on the bingo card to see if they have it and put a sticky on it until of course they thought they had bingo. And we told everybody, keep your -- keep your cards set with your Wiki sticks in case somebody yelled bingo out prematurely and we had that happen once too. And even after we did one he bingo, they said let's just keep going because I want to bingo too so we changed rules all over the place. But the students had you know, so much fun with it, the bingo as well. But again, we ended up just confining that to week 6, because of the fact that it did have -- we did put all of the symbols on there. Now, you, you could be doing this, in fact, you could have done this with the maze or the boggle or with the bingo. You could use this as a I am just actually suggesting you use this template because the three of you can tell you it is not that easy making a bingo card or a boggle card or amaze that fits you know, to where it can be embossed and the right size and so forth and so on, so cow may just very well want to use these as a template and you do everything you want with them and personalize it. But let's keep going, because this is the really fun thing. So go for it and Sara, tell us what we do with this. >>Thanks. This really was a fun game. And we wanted them to be able to keep track of what categories and amounts -- this is for jeopardy. Most of you have seen jeopardy so you have these categories. So our categories aligned with our different weeks of content, and then we had the values 100, 200, 300, 400 and 500. So we gave them a Braille copy of just the board with the values under each category so that they then .. could scratch off orer raise the categories as someone s And that way they would know what categories and amounts were left. The rest of it was auditory, so I just displayed the jeopardy board on my screen and we had someone pick a category and amount. I gave them the question, tale the answer, and then they gave me the question. So a lot of 0 these questions were things like what is -- or it might be dots. Let's say dots, three, four, dots, four, six, dots, one, three. So -- or excuse me. Yeah. And then they had to figure out what the question was, that it was the not equal to. So it was just an opportunity for them to play and be a little more competitive with each other. And boy did they get to be competitive. We actually at the beginning of each session practiced the keystrokes for zoom. Things like thousand get to the chat and how to mute yourself and how to show your camera, how to raise your hand, so that they practiced those skills at the beginning of each session. We really had to use that in jeopardy. Otherwise everybody got so excited they wanted to talk at the same time. So it was really a chance to use text skills, use Nemeth and play some games and have fun with math at the same time. We have a question. Can you get the files? That is going to be coming up, to be able to emboss some of this so we will talk about this shortly. Tina, I will let you take it over from here. >>That sounds great. So yes, we will definitely come back to that question. So what kind of data did -- what did we learn from our students? Well, the first thing is that 12 students finished in the spring and on the pre-test we had scores, there is a 14 item reading pre-test and we had students all the way that didn't get any of them correct, to one student who got 13 correct. It was an average of about 50 percent correct with 7.2. And then on the post-test, though, that average went up to 11.7. We had one student that earned a score of three, all the way up to perfect post-test of 14. Now, what is really cool, though. Out of those 12 completers, 11 out of 12 by the end toward 75 percent or higher, and used 11 out of the 14 correct on your post-test. Which we thought were really impressive. And then we -- and then we also gave them a survey and everyone -- every one of the students said they would like to participate in Nemeth, another Nemeth in the box or another event in the future and they also indicated they would like to trem program to other students. And it was like, yay, we are on to something. Oops, I am sorry. Did I cut you off? Is that all right? >>Oh, no. Go for it. This is the fun part. >>Right. That's what we would like to tell you and these are some direct quotes from, as far as when they were asked what they liked best. And one of those was, just plain bog. They just loved Bogdanovichable. In fact we were think we should thank boggle to MOGG. L, MOGGLE for math but another student said I liked getting to know new people and play the math games. Another, getting to know some of my blind peers from around the country. And I enjoyed most, though, is the puzzle which one doesn't belong. I enjoyed this because I got to give out my own opinion on which one I thought was different, and I also got to listen to other's opinions and choices. Guys, I know that this is not really that directly related to Nemeth and math, but these are skills that I just think are fantastic. These are the type of skills that all of our students, blind or not, need to be learning, that they can listen to others, other's opinions and choices and realize that everybody, everybody's opinion counts, everybody's opinion and what they think is right -- they can have a lot -- we can have everybody be right and a even be different is what I am Another one said, I really enjoyed working as a team and figuring out the problems and the games. For some of the time, we did some breakouts where they got to work as a team and then they got to come back. We also had -- there was one student that was like the cheerleader. You got this. You got this. I know you can do it. So it was really gun to see them cheering on and working together. One said I enjoyed what is the question most. I liked connecting, connecting with other people that I can relate to the most. And one said everything. Couldn't make up their mind. One said, I enjoy the fact that I learned a lot more Nemeth symbols while still having fun. And finally we have a comment that they liked the teachers and the games. And we had just as much fun creating them as they had playing them. >>Tina, you get to tell us what is coming. >>So in summer '21, the student feedback was very positive. We are continuing to analyze the data and I actually have just a little bit of data to share with you, so on the summer, for the pre-test, they scored actually a little bit lower than the group from the spring. They started with a 4.8 on their pre-test, and on the post-test, 11.06. And all three of the students that participated, we had a larger group actually --. Our at least 11 out of the 14 on the post-test so we Because not only did the students have a lot of fun along the way, they really did learn a lot about Nemeth code as well as really increase some of their mathematical understanding. One of them it was just so cool is that I think it was Susan that got the e-mail from one of the teachers saying that she didn't think one of her students was going to know a stipulate boll that was going to be introduced in! That day. And so she was going to talk to them about, it was approximately equal to, and he is said oh, no I learned that last week Nemeth in a box. And it was like really cool. Oh, no, I got that and proceeded to tell her all about it. >>And Tina, could you tell our participants a little bit about the difference between the spring of 2021 and the summer of 2021 can? I mean we did basically the same Nemeth in a box but could you tell them a little bit more about how often we met and so forth? >>Oh, sure N the spring we actually met on Saturday mornings. So we started in February and went through March. A and so we met with them, well, actually both groups we met for 90 minutes at a time. And then this summer, since we were trying to complete it all in June because some of them had different commitments for July, so to be able to do that, what we needed to do was to meet with them twice a week. And so that was the other Bart is we were interested to see is when we find better results with meeting them twice a week or meeting with them once a week and it is interesting that. Post-test they were very similar for both groups but we used many of the same activities. We did make a few slight adjustments like we noticed that some of the students seemed to not have a lot of understanding or maybe a lot of practice with using like words like origin or like knowing about which one is quadrant 1, the question one is quadrant 2, 3, and 4. So we added a couple of activities and I think it was lesson 4, so the part we are really happy with the exception of the pre-test and post-test we are planning to share every bit of this material with everybody. We are just going to have one more session so we are going to keep the pre-test and post-test now but we promise it will be coming eventually as well. And then the other part about it is that we are going to be working over the next couple of months to first of all talk to some folks that are teaching -- technical so we need to see if we need to make any adjustments so in the spring or the summer we will be able to offer one section for Nemeth and one for UEB technical. So when we post this, we know not everybody is going to have 90 minutes with your students. So what we think, though, it is very easy, though, to be able to like introduce and start some of the activities and then come back another time. So this is the nice part. Don't think you have to have 90 minutes to do this. Even if you have ten or 15 minutes you can get a really nice beginning to it. So we called this just in time, because what is so interesting we actually started planning for this just a couple of months before the pandemic and we didn't even know that the pandemic was going to happen. So we call this just in time, because of what we learned in a study that we had done with rose Blum and Justin Keyser that many students with visual impairments did not have -- the materials during COVID-19 in order to fully participate in the general education curriculum. A However with Nemeth in the box, students had high quality, accessible materials to all, so everything was in Braille and then I don't know if you noticed how we had the print in Braille but that went along and we actually paper clipped it to the Braille. So like we had a couple, the parents would be right there along with them, so the parents could participate and actually I think we had one mom that learned as much Nemeth as her son did along with us. And so we wanted the whole family to be able to participate. Expert teachers, I don't know. Especially when we are talking Susan Osterhaus and Sara Larkin, true experts. Opportunities to socialize with their peers, which they so much enjoyed, and then there was a lot of learning with the core curriculum, not only was there technology but even like the social skills of like not talking over one another and kind of waiting your turn. And also being you know, just like interacting with others. So really thought there was a lot of learning that took place, not just the math and the Nemeth but a lot of the other skills in the ECC area. >>I think this is your time, Sara. >>So we thought we would share a little bit about what is coming up. You know, we are not done yet. We decided to host a stem bowl, which will be coming in the spring and summer of 2022. Or in the spring and summer of 2022 we are going to do that Nemeth in a box that she mentioned for the middle school students. UEB technical in a box. But the symbol is called mission inspire. And it is going to be focused around rockets and the science of rockets and the math: That is involved in evaluating the rockets. So this will be another virtual event where they will do things between the sessions and then come back and share what they have done. And then early 2020 see when we are going to have Nemeth in a box for high school students. >>For all of you teachers and paraprofessionals and maybe even parents if you are thinking, well, what about us? All of these kids are having so much fun. What about us? Okay. So it is okay. Do we have something, although as Tina mentioned I think that personally we teachers have so much fun with the Nemeth in a box I think everybody, the students, the teachers, the parents, everybody will have fun with Nemeth in a box. But for you teachers and. Paraprofessionals in particular and parents who would like to right now, it is not too late. We have two courses that just opened up for the fall of 2021 and one of those is geometry and type graphics for students in grades 3 through eight and this is a repeat from the summer of 2021. We have been offered offering two courses and one ask a repeat from previously just in case you policed that one we have it again. It is the same one we did in the summer of 2021. But we also have a few one called Nemeth code symbols used in the middle grades and strategies for supporting math learning. And this one is brand-new. And stair, if you will put the link in there for this, I am also going to give you the link in just a moment in the PowerPoint too. But what we want you to know is when you go out and you basically want to sign up for this course you are going to read it is supposedly too late for you to actually register but, no. This is just for you guys, for you guys here we are telling you to ignore the deadline there and just go ahead and jump right in. It is not too late. We would love to have you. And I don't think Tina gave you these statistics, but we thought when we first opened up the first course for this, we thought, well, we will probably get about 30 teachers you know, to sign up and that will be great, 30 teachers, okay. Well as she did mention, we came out with this right as we were going into COVID and we had 300 plus teachers signed up. So we add -- we went like, oh, okay, well I guess we can add all 300. That's a little more than 30, just ten times as much but anyway we will just have ten times as much fun. So these really have caught on and it is kind of spread by word of mouth you know, among other ways we have been advertising. The word of mouth seems to be best way. But anyway, so we have two courses now that just started. It is not too late. If you want to join us we will ask you not to try to fake both of them at the same time. Pick one, if you to want both of them, I would probably suggest that you do the geometry and type graphics one now and wait for the Nemeth code symbols because guess what? In the spring, summer of 2022 we will then repeat the Nemeth code symbols used in the middle grades and strategies for sporting app learning. That will be the repeat from the fall, just brand-new no 4 If you haven't noticed we are going along with the kids. Like we had the kids, the Nemeth in a box was for a middle school and then with Gore doing go into the high school. So we are -- we teachers are advancing in our mathematics as well as the students. And just too let you know about these courses as I said, people are really, really I think enjoyed them. And that is usually the first question is can I sign up for both. >>And we say sign up for one at a time. If for some reason you are a speed demon and you you do get through one in half a time and want to go back and try do the second one, that's fine. But we are not expecting that. We are expecting for you to be able to just get through one course at a time. And I will talk about, this happens to be, I think these are courses number 4 and 5 in the fall and in the spring and summer we will be courses 5 and 6. And in just a momently talk about well, what happened to the courses 1 through 3 in case somebody, some of these inquiring minds are asking. So Susan, before you do, can I add two things? >>Sure. >>So some of the December we sometimes get well how much does it cost? It is absolutely free, just like this seminar so we will be able to share this, so there is absolutely no cost thanks to the U.S. Department of Education for funding these courses. And then the second part is, what happens when you earn anything once you the,. >>And that is absolutely. So individuals who complete a post fest and earn 75 percent or above are a professional development certificate 12 hours. And we have been approved through AC -- to offer CEUs. >>Thank you, Tina, I got so excited I didn't read my notes to remind myself to do it. We are a great team. Okay. And then sharing together, one of the good things about the participating in these courses are what we call our weekly happy hours. We couldn't call a it coffee hour because .TSBVI has coffee hours so we have happy hour sessions. And this is where in all of the participants are invited to these particular sessions and they can ask more questions that maybe weren't answered as they were taking the courses and so forthwith all of our videos and all of our various lessons and so forth. And also we have a little extra learning that if they run out of questions we have -- we have -- we just can't help ourselves. We will show you a few more things that might be the new and latest and the great nest terms of Ne Nemeth during happy hour. Here is your link to sign up for those fall courses and like I said when you click on that limping and go there it is going to tell you, I forget the exact date but you should already have signed up for the course and registered, but we are extending that deadline. Tina, do we have a new deadline or what do you -- what do you recommend? >>We are going to leave it open until Friday afternoon. >>Okay. Thank you. >>And then so as I mentioned we wanted to let you know because I am sure somebody, you said that was courses four and five, and five and six you were talking about, what happened to courses 1 through 3? Okay. What happens is as we introduce these new courses we are trying to make sure that you know, any little, you know -- believe it or not we occasionally make a mistake, guys. [Laughter]. Anyway we are human so we like to introduce these and then we ask our participants to please tell us anything they find wrong and so forth. So we kind of like take this time to correct anything and then we hope we have got it all. And then we post identity link, which is, as we are saying posting a free self paced courses at. And this very long link here will get you to the website on path to literacy and show you where you can go and do them totally on your own. They are still free, self paced, the first three courses that we have offered. And again if you are wondering well why don't I just wait for the free self paced courses. >>We really highly recommend if you can to take the courses where the deepers are, where we are at all available to answer your questions and you come to happy hour if you want to and so forth and you get to meet some of the other participants and kind of like that same thing with the kids, with the Nemeth in a box that you get that, you get that support and so forth. But we understand, so if you want, we do have a the free self paced courses. At the moment it is courses 1, 2 and 3 are out there right now. And if you are interested in learning more about what we are doing, we even have an e-mail list and there is another nice long link there to learn about upcoming opportunities so we ask that you please take the time and avail yourself of that if you interested. And we want to thank you for your kind attention and we are going to look back at that chat again to see if there are any new questions there. >>Yeah. >>And even let you ask a few more questions, although I am just looking we are probably, Kay see is probably going to take it away in just a moment here but here is all -- we are even giving you our e-mail addresses up front. We have Tina and Susan and Sara's e-mails there for you. Okay. Do we have any more questions? >>We do have one. Will there be anybody for younger students? I do know like our symbol is going to be like fifth grade and up and go to high school. So in this grant we did not write any programming for the younger kids, but what I can promise you is that when the next grant cycle rolls and I think that is a great idea. So stay tuned and fingers crossed here already. What a good idea. >>And Tina, I mean, can we brag a little bit about our -- we do have -- we do have -- >>We do. >>--it is not associated this, but why don't you tell them a little bit about Pre-K through second grade curriculum they might be interested in? >>Yes. So Susan, stair and I have also worked with Pearson to create a Nemeth curriculum, and it is truly designed for Pre-K to second grade students, and there are lessons and games and activities, I will tell you we love coming up with games. And all of the different ones than the ones we talked about today:if you have youngest students of interest you are definitely welcome to go visit. We will put the link in the chat, all of the documents are already on line and you downl We will give you all of the detailed information you need to get this to your students. >>Anything else in the chat? Because I am not looking at the chat. >>Well, I think both stair and -- because we have been working with .TSBVI and the -- they are just awesome collaborators, and so, yes, everything that we have talked about today is on the path to literacy website so all of our courses, all of the materials for Nemeth in a box. We have a landing page for Nemeth in a box and right now getting them finalized so we can get them posted hopefully in the next few days for everybody. I would say to give us probably until next woke but everything will be there and we hope you download and enjoy using them and if you think of other fun things to go along with it, if you let us know and give us permission we would be glad to share it with others and post it as well and give you credit for it. Because that's what we are all are is a learning community and we want the very best for our students. >>Thank you. >>And Tina, do we have a link yet for them or not? >>Yes. For the Nemeth in the box, yes. Let's see. Yes. It has been put in the chat. >>Great.