News

Task Cameos are teachers' notes about each task. There is a Library of these cameos on the Task Cameos page. But just like books on a library shelf, you don't know what's in them until they are opened...

...UNTIL NOW

We have just added a Task Cameo Content Finder which allows you to:

• search the library by mathematical content to find tasks linked to the content you want to teach, or
• search by task name to discover the mathematical content within the task.

When you find what you want, you click the link and open the Cameo.

But that doesn't mean our Finder is set in concrete. Our tasks are rich with mathematics and more is sometimes exposed by teachers asking new questions. When you or your students find something new about a task please contact us with your story. That's how several tasks have received their From The Classroom section.

• So scroll down the Task Cameo Content Finder and be amazed by the wealth of mathematics that can be accessed through our collection. And there's more to come! Each time a new cameo is added to the library - and that's every month! - the Finder will be updated.

In conjunction with the Content Finder at Calculating Changes and, if you are a member, the Search Engine at Maths300, the world of alternatives to text-based learning just got richer.

See Link List below for the Task Cameo Content Finder link (you might like to bookmark it) and for the document Working with Mathematics Centre, which helps you navigate Mathematics Centre.

The Australian government has recently promised several million dollars towards improving literacy and numeracy learning. I wonder if they know that literacy and numeracy can be improved simultaneously and significantly by funding professional learning for mathematics teachers which helps them shift their focus towards mathematics as learning to work like a mathematician?

Research in the early 2000s during the Tasmanian project Improving Numeracy for Indigenous Secondary School Students (INISSS) proves it. Change the approach to mathematics teaching in this way and you change students' learning successes in both numeracy and literacy for the better.

Read a summary of this research in our Research & Stories section. See Link List below.

Last month we told you about Damian Howison linking this task to the 12 Days of Christmas. But we accidently left out some photos that make the idea much clearer. Sorry Damian. Please take another look at this cameo if you haven't seen the photos. See Link List below.