Mindsets and Mathematics

A great video from Jo Boalar, Stanford University, that explores both of these ideas.

Two More Great Maths Sites

Back from the lead teacher's maths meeting and just had to share two amazing maths sites with you all.

Jo Boalar hails from Stanford University and is a maths guru. Her work dovetails beautifully with what is being published her by Dr Bobbi Hunter and others. Her website is youcubed.org

Another great site that has fabulous resources for the teaching of rich mathematical tasks is nrich - enriching mathematics.

Maths Week

It's Maths Week this week and here are some links to some great sites that will provide extension opportunities for many budding mathematicians.

Huge thanks to those involved in putting the maths week site together.

TKI - Gifted and Talented Online > Maths and Statistics. This page provides links to resources to extend able mathematicians.

Interactive Sites for Education provides links for many subject areas, here is the link to the maths topics.

Minecraft is still an app that many children enjoy and there is no better way to engage than to do it with something that they love. Here are a few links to Minecraft resources, click on the images.

By following the link from Smart Apps for Kids you will be guided to a page providing more Minecraft Resources than you need, 67 free Minecraft resources.

Mathematics: Criticism and Clarity

Teachers are now wearing the brunt of the revelations in the report recently commented on by Hekia Parata and released by the NZ Initiative. Once again it is the teachers' practice that is in the spotlight. Having been involved in ALiM and currently working with the Maths team at UCPlus as a lead teacher in mathematics the comments of Kelvin Smythe ring true. You can read his report here.

Things that resonate with me from both the article and the report are these:

• The need to include rich mathematical tasks in our teaching on a regular basis so children can be actively involved in problem solving.
• These tasks need to be challenging and supported by a range of hands on materials.
• Groups working should be mixed so those involved can learn from each other.
• More credence should be given to basic facts when moving children through the maths stages as the knowledge is needed to work effectively at the next mathematical stage.
• Basic facts need to be taught with the stages so understanding forms the basis of the learning.
• When the knowledge is learned it needs to recalled quickly.
• Teachers trusting their ability to teach maths and not being fully reliant on a 'programme' that delivers a daily scripted dose of learning.

Maths and Gifted Education - get children talking

These are two topics that I am very passionate about. What I love about this article is it confirms the approach being used by Australasian schools. I have had the benefit of many hours of maths learning this year and key to this learning is teaching children about mathematical concepts through inquiry and talk.

Children who 'get maths' need to be challenged to think mathematically and rich mathematical tasks that are open ended and lead to a discussion of pure mathematics do this. We need to get our bright children talking and discovering mathematical ideas rather than keeping them busy with pages of problems or websites and games.

Sources for these activities include:
nzmaths.co.nz/problem-solving
blackdouglas.com.au
Otago Maths Problem Solving Resources
Think Boards
Andrew Jeffrey Resources www.andrewjeffrey.co.uk
Number Sense
Open Ended Maths Activities, SullivanP., & Lilburn, P. (2004)
Figure it Out Resources

Maths Talk Time

We recently held a Parent Talk Time on maths. This was talking about how number is taught in schools today. Here is a copy of the power point that was shared.

Parent Talk Time - Maths by cmrhowison

Back to Basics with Maths

Maths is at the forefront of my mind at the moment and there have been a few articles recently lamenting our children's skills in maths. Audrey Tan calls for a return to the basics with more emphasis on basic facts, times tables, adding in columns and not bombarding students with a multitude of strategies that leaves them paralyzed when faced with a problem.

Read the full article here...

Dyscalculia

I was reading 'The Press' on the weekend and came across an article about Dr Anna Wilson from University of Canterbury who is currently working on and researching dyscalculia. I am currently working with children who find maths hard and it is always fascinating finding out more about what might make these children tick. The diagnosis of dyslexia is increasingly common, I wonder if the same numbers of children with dyscalculia exist out there?

Here is the link to the article if you would like to read more...

In addition she promotes a website further discussing dyscalculia.


She also provides a link to a website where you can download a resource suitable for 4-8year olds and there is a link to an online resource for slightly older children.