Making Family Night Events Truly Engaging

In our latest episode, Brian welcomes MIND’s Lead Mathematician Brandon Smith back to the show, for a discussion on family engagement. Building on our previous discussions of student engagement and getting dynamically active in learning, we explore the challenges that schools face when trying to put together family night events that truly engage parents and students. Brandon explains four common missteps that can be avoided when designing family nights, and provides guidance on how to put families in the driver's seat to provide an experience that both parents and students will take back home with them. Brandon also outlines some of the resources we are developing for schools that will help make designing, organizing and implementing family nights easier and more impactful.

Topics Covered in the Podcast:

0:45 Intro
3:00 Reaching students' families and social networks
11:30 Changing the focus
15:00 Intrinsic vs.Extrinsic motivators
20:30 Who is driving the experience
25:30 Shortcoming of station rotation or "fair" model
30:45 The cell phone metric
33:30 Resources for engaging family nights

For more resources on student and family engagement, visit mindresearch.org and mathmindsgames.com.

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