Mathematically Speaking

Is the Maths Learning Area (faculty, department, whatever you want to call it) at your school solely responsible for nurturing the numeracy capability in the Australian Curriculum? That would be like saying the English Learning Area is responsible for literacy. And Digital Technologies is responsible for Digital Literacy, Art is responsible for Critical and Creative Thinking, and Languages holds dominion over Intercultural Understanding.  If I proposed this model of implementing the Australian Curriculum you would tell me I am mad. I hope. I would like to open a conversation around the joint responsiblity Learning Areas have for developing numeracy in Australian students. It is hard to know where to start the conversation. As a starting point, how many staff in your school have accessed this page of the curriculum:  "Understanding this General Capability", specifically numeracy, and are aware of the document available on this page outlining the progression of the Numeracy Gen...

My favourite unit from last year with my Year 7 class was The Humanoid Project . This unit of work hits all the AC standards for Statistics and can be adapted for Year 7 or 9. It comes from the amazing resource that is YuMi Maths  which is worth checking out.  The basic idea is: I made a video of our class doing the project, which I have posted below. The orginal video was five minutes long and included footage of students talking about everything they had to measure and calculate, and what they did well and could have done better. In the director's cut I've posted here you can see: The opening page which is a poster a couple of students created. This features images depicting the categorical data we collected as a class of our favourite things like food, sport and drinks. You can see the students drawing, cutting and sticking up the body parts they had created. The dimensions were based on the mean measurements of the class's bodies. The students had to measure each others...

MAB blocks can be used in so many places in the maths classroom! Who would have thought they could be used for rounding and estimation? Thank you for MathsPathway for this little beauty of a lesson  using MAB blocks and playing cards or dice. The first step is to turn over two sets of two playing cards (or roll two ten-sided dice) to create a couple of 2 digit numbers to multiply together. In the first column of the downloadable template sheet students write the muliplication : The next step is to round the numbers to the nearest ten and write the rounded multiplication in the middle column. Students can use the downloadable rounding grid to help with this if needed: Finally, students complete the rounded multiplication The MAB blocks really help students to visualise the muliplication and find the answer, or at least check their answer: Here's another one with even larger numbers: Please comment below with where you think I could go from here in my next lesson!

 I started the topic of "Measurement" with my Stage 2 Community Connections class today.  Last night I was pondering on how to teach my students about area and perimeter without boring them (and myself) to tears. I decided to follow this procedure: First step: Google your street address and locate your property on Google Maps. Mine looked like this: Second Step: Right click and select "Measure distance" and trace around your property. We noticed that Google gave us the total distance (perimeter) and area. My question for the students was, how did Google figure this out? Or in Stage 2 Community Connections language: "What are the dimensions of the block of land?"  and "What operation will we use to find a) the perimeter and b) the area?" I don't know about you but I find that many students (particularly at the lower ability levels) get confused about the difference between perimeter and area. They struggle to recognise that perimeter requires ...

The Resilience Project If you've read the book this heading will stand out to you like a flash of light. You will be thinking... "Dis!" So "Dis" is where I am at as I begin the adventure of a lifetime with my very first blog. Welcome! There is no way I have time to write a blog. I told this to my brother yesterday and by the end of our conversation he had unknowingly convinced me to do it anyway without saying anything at all really. Thanks Tom! My work colleague suggested, "But have you got time  not  to write a blog?". I have no idea what that even means, but thanks Kathy! JK. She hates being called Kathy. It's definitely Kathryn. Thanks Kathryn. So what about "Dis!" Dis is about gratitude. I am so incredibly grateful for everything I have in my life. My family, my health, my job. I am grateful for rereading  The Resilience Project  which has reminded me to practice gratitude, empathy and mindfulness daily. If you haven't read it ye...