Prospect Sierra Institute
PSI – For YOU by US
We’re pleased to introduce the Prospect Sierra Institute (PSI), a workshop series designed to illuminate the everyday practices of the various ways we lead and learn, our commitment to equity in progressive education, and innovative approaches to lifelong learning. Prospect Sierra faculty and staff, and/or partners of Prospect Sierra, will share their knowledge and experience through interactive, collaborative workshop sessions. Plan to engage with us joyfully and check back for upcoming workshops!
A Structured Numeracy Professional Development Seminar Taught By Michael Curry, E.T.
Teaching Multiplication in a Structured, Multisensory Approach
Hosted by Prospect Sierra
Monday – Friday, August 3-7, 2026
9:00 am – 3:00 pm daily
What is m•sense?
m•sense© is a structured multisensory approach to teaching and learning numeracy skills. This program is specifically designed to benefit every learning style by giving students access to the abilities in math they need for both school and daily life. Michael Curry, E.T. is the Director of m•sense and Instructor of the structured numeracy professional development training program. He is a credentialed teacher, certified Educational Therapist, and former Associate Director of Making Math Real.
What is the Summer Intensive about?
The Summer Intensive professional development seminar hosted by Prospect Sierra is designed for all educators and will focus on understanding the fundamentals of teaching mathematics in a structured, multisensory, developmentally appropriate instructional approach. This one week summer intensive is a focus on teaching the underlying developmental tools necessary to have access to the multiplication and division facts (times tables). Instruction will also include the full multiplication unit which includes the four concepts of multiplication, the seven levels of multi-digit multiplication with single digit multipliers, and the full unit for 2×2 and 3×3 digit-multiplication.This one week seminar will include:
This introduction will kick off the seminar and provide participants with a basic understanding of the fundamentals of teaching math in a developmentally and structured way. Participants will also learn how a balanced approach to math instruction accommodates the full diversity of learning styles. This introduction is the mandatory prerequisite that prepares participants to continue on to the m•sense instructional content seminars.
Participants will learn the difference between the traditional “drill and kill” instructional models versus the “discovery/constructivist” instructional model, in order to demonstrate that a multisensory structured approach is essential when teaching both literacy and numeracy. Current brain science and research will be discussed that supports this instructional model.
Developing Symbol Imaging: Supporting Students’ Acquisition of the Multiplication Facts, Division Facts & More
This portion of the seminar will help participants understand how learning the multiplication and division facts with automaticity is the number one tool that all students need for success across all of math. When students learn their multiplication facts (times tables) and division facts, it lays the foundation for learning multi-digit multiplication, multi-digit division, fractions, decimals, percents and much more. Participants will learn the 9Lines mnemonic, a Making Math Real© strategy that develops symbol imaging. Symbol imaging is the “brain tool” that allows students to perceive, hold, store, and retrieve sequences of symbols efficiently. This is basically the process for recalling math facts easily. This part of the week-long seminar will teach the successful multisensory methods for developing students’ symbol imaging.
Fundamentals of Mathematics: The Multiplication Unit with Whole Numbers
(with a brief overview for 2 and 3-digit Place Value)
The final segment of this seminar equips educators to teach the full unit on Multiplication with Whole Numbers. The focus of m•sense is the integration of developmentally appropriate teaching that directly supports concept development and executive functioning skills. Students need a multisensory structured methodology that supports short-term memory, active working memory and long-term term memory to support retrieval of information more fluently than if they are merely memorizing procedures. Therefore, the focus is on the development of math comprehension through integrating concepts with their procedures every step of the way. The principal structure for integrating concepts and their procedures is through the concrete to the abstract developmental sequence.