2021 – Hopes and aspirations and doing something about it
The school year has started with excitement and anticipation, moving out of the shadows and impacts of last year.
“If they just knew their times tables”
Last year I wrote a blog about Mental maths in action in response to a statement I often hear by both educators and parents: “If they just knew their times tables”. In my support to primary schools, I am regularly asked the question: What about times tables? or, How do I teach times tables? or,…
Mathematising the holiday recount
It’s back to school for Term 4 in NSW and for the first time probably all year, students may have some interesting holiday activities to share. Whether they stayed at home, played with cousins, went camping, visited the zoo, grandma’s, or a friend’s house, first day back often involves writing a recount. Well I thought…
TeachMeet reflections
MANSW’s (@MathsNSW) Primary and Middle years (PAM) committee hosted its first Teach Meet during September. The focus was on Successful ideas from online learning: What are you continuing? A number of teachers shared what they are doing in their classrooms and reflected on what new or different teaching strategies came from online learning. My blog…
What’s your favourite maths game?
Last week during one of my webinars a teacher asked “what maths games do you recommend”? What a great question! My first response was anything with cards, dice or dominoes and I went straight to recommending Paul Swan’s work. His books have always been a staple in my mathematics classroom and his website is fantastic…
Maths at the Zoo
This weekend I visited Taronga Zoo in Sydney with my ten year old daughter. It was a lovely sunny day and was a great opportunity to go on an excursion, something that I know won’t be possible through school for a while. Apart from just enjoying wondering around and seeing all the animals, the zoo…
Building houses and buying pets: The maths of Roblox
What are you kids doing these holidays? If they are anything like mine, they are often playing games on the computer. My two daughters love playing online games while Facetiming friends as they play at the same time. At first this seemed weird to this Generation Xer. I didn’t think it counted as ‘being social’…
Where to from here?
“Children are always learning.” Rebecca Brooks, The myth of ‘catching up’ after Covid-19 As restrictions continue to ease in NSW, I have resumed some of my support and professional learning with primary schools via Zoom. One of the first things I have been reiterating to teachers is, don’t feel the pressure to ‘catch up’. My…
The turtle tweet: Teacher collaboration at its best!
I love checking Twitter daily to read about what’s happening in classrooms both locally and internationally regarding mathematics education. I find great new articles about mathematics research, see amazing tasks and engaged students, observe innovation in action, and collect ideas that I can use with young students as well as with in-service teachers and pre-service…
Visualising big numbers
This week my blog is inspired by a lovely Twitter post by @johnqgoh (principal at Merrylands East PS) and the discussion that followed regarding mathematics-focused picture books. John shared images from a book called A Million Dots by Sven Völker. A beautifully illustrated picture book that explores the growing pattern of doubling. Michelle Tregoning (@TregoningMich)…