I was reminded of the early foundations in the teaching of mathematics when I attended a seminar on subitising for early years. At the seminar, the book Making Numbers: Using manipulatives to teach arithmetic, by Griffiths, Back & Gifford (2016) was recommended. While the book is aimed at EYFS and KS1, as I started to read it I realised the impact it could have on mathematics teachers at KS2 and KS3.
It will certainly have an impact on my own work.
This blog post is aimed at those who want to find out more about the Cambridge Maths Hub, either because they are new to teaching maths, are new to our region, or want an update as to what is going on in this strangest of years!
Geometry is one of the most beautiful and versatile areas of mathematics, which is why it is my favourite area to teach. Shape fills the world around us; just look around you now, how much geometry can you see? During the lockdown period, 30 of our Year 7 mathematicians have been on such a quest.
I’ve been on an IT journey. It’s been a rollercoaster ride, and I wasn’t expecting it.
I found myself using this expression “…from novice to expert”, which I had previously used for reasoning, based on an article by nrich: https://nrich.maths.org/11336
I recently discovered that typing ‘roll a dice’ into Google brings up a whole host of virtual dice to choose from. (‘Flip a coin’ and ‘spinner’ are also worth googling!)
It has taken me a while to realise that Zoom and Teams look different on a PC, on an iPad and on a Mac. For example, the Zoom toolbar might be in the middle of the bottom of the screen (PC), or in the top right-hand corner (iPad).
I was working with a year 7 class on developing meaning around algebra. We were scheduled to look at like terms, substitution and writing expressions. I wasn’t happy with the traditional way that I had taught it in the past as it seemed to lack opportunities for mathematical thinking. So I bought some ATM books about algebra activities to try to expand my repertoire.
One of the best websites for problem solving resources and rich tasks is median, which has resources written and collated by Don Steward, who died recently.
As my year 7 class have been experiencing a lot of mymaths and mathswatch recently, I thought we could try out having a go at a Don Steward problem, and we chose this one:
This year I have taken on a new role as a Teaching and Learning Lead. My main interest is Teaching for Mastery in secondary mathematics, and I have been very fortunate now to introduce a mastery approach into 4 different schools. In taking on the role I wanted to give serious consideration to staff wellbeing and workload. I think an enthusiasm for new teaching initiatives can cause an increase in workload for us teachers as we change our lessons and structures in order to meet new expectations.
I was fortunate (and I think brave) enough to attend the London maths event on problem solving. It was run on Zoom with the added twist that you could choose to have a blind date. I was paired with a lovely Scottish chap and we choose to use facetime to talk, and the collaborative whiteboard website bitpaper to share our work.