News

Aaron and I had long talks on the roof of my house about the Maths300 lessons.

My name is Barbara Kerr and I am currently working as a Teacher Mentor in Arusha, Tanzania. Back in Australia I used the Maths300 lessons all the time and my students and I loved them. I also attended in-services conducted by you and Charles Lovitt which shaped my teaching.

At the moment I am trying to show teachers that the way to go in Maths is not teaching formulas and copying never ending maths equation from the board. I am doing demo lessons and the kids really enjoy them. I have attached a picture I took of the board in a Grade 6 classroom just last week. Thanks for the information about Aaron Peeters work. Aaron is a friend of mine. He lived with me for a short time in Eritrea. I had a 2 year stint there prior to coming to Tanzania. Aaron and I had long talks on the roof of my house about the Maths300 lessons. He worked in a school with an Eritrean friend of mine in Acria in Asmara. I am really excited to have a look at what he has done. I didn't know he had published the stories. (See Link List below.) I was chatting with Aaron a few weeks ago and hopefully he will come here on his way home (from Ghana). I am so excited about the challenge in Tanzania. We are doing a lesson this morning pulling together all the lessons we did on Circumference of a Circle, Area of a Circle and Ratio (all Maths300 lessons). We are making a 'human gear'. Not sure how it will go but we will try. If it goes ok I will let you know. If not then I will chalk it up to a learning experience.

It was amazing to see the looks on the students faces when we did the Circumference of a Circle lesson. They looked stunned that Maths didn't need a mass of calculation to work things out. When we predicted what a circumference might be and they found they could get very close just by making predictions based on 'times 6 plus a bit'. It was almost like they couldn't believe what was happening. So great, I love it.

We have done the human gear lessons, to link ratio and circumference, with the grade six classes and they went well. The students loved doing it. The students made the connections between ratio and circumference and were able to make their own gears in groups. It was great to see them problem solving and doing practical work. The smiles while they worked were just great.

Hi Doug,
My name is Mick Bradley and I am the Maths coordinator at St Thomas Aquinas in Canberra. I am providing professional learning to my staff re maths and have decided that the way forward is a problem based curriculum approach. We are SO CONTENT BASED like the game of soccer analogy have all the skills but never get to play soccer. The problem solving approach ticks all the boxes. Student engagement, intellectual quality, differentiation etc!

My Year 4 kids loved the problem about the triangles we made from newspaper in the PD session you did and the tablecloth folding exercise. They haven't sorted it just yet but we are coming back to it. Poly Plug lesson on number patterns worked a treat. Kids are really engaged and I was 'freed up' to observe/assist. Real constructivist learning!!