“Every primary school should have a maths specialist and parents should have a less negative attitude to the subject”

According to the BBC an interim report by Sir Peter Williams says the UK is one of the few developed nations where it is acceptable to say you are “useless at maths”.

Such attitudes will not help children see maths as an essential and rewarding part of their daily lives,

The study suggests the amount of in-service maths training primary teachers receive is inadequate. Although most (I’d assumed it would be all by now) teachers do have the basic requirement in maths for teacher training - GCSE maths at C or above.

All HLTAs and many TAs also have to have maths GCSE in order to even be considered for a job.
The report had a go at parents as well. It says they needed to have a “can-do” attitude to maths and to learn the modern techniques their children were using to help them and give them a love of maths.

So what do we get from this? More initiatives and funding for family learning perhaps? Parents expected to not only support the children whilst they do homework but also to make time themselves to learn the techniques schools are using to teach maths? I’ve been involved in family learning in school before and they are great for those who do get involved. The trouble is it’s never the parents you really need to reach who turn up to them.

One of the biggest contrast I’m seeing at the moment though is between these attitudes and those of some of my Teaching Assistant students. Mostly educated in non-European countries they express a deep love of Maths and a high level of confidence in their own abilities. They have exactly the ‘can- do’ attitude the report wants to promote, understand that maths is vital to children’s learning and actually look forward to numeracy lessons. As far as I can see the main thing they have in common is that they all did the International Baccalaureate.

Share This

Via Tom -Tryangulation

A 16 year old has made a wooden bike. It doesn’t sound that impressive until you realise that even the chain, gears and connectors are all made from wood. What an amazing achievement! Doesn’t he look proud?

This is an example of the kind of authentic assessment products the International Baccalaureate Middle Years Programme produces. Tom says often the students are brilliant anyway and the programme just allows them to shine.

Marco’s work seems to support that theory. You can read his own description of the process here in Lee Valley Tools Woodworking Newletter.

So not only has he built a wonderful product, he’s shared exactly how he did it with an expert audience. Shame they don’t have comments enabled on their site really. But that’s just me being picky

Tom says:

The International Baccalaureate Middle Years Programme culminates in each student completing a personal project which is “a significant piece of work that is the product of the student’s own initiative and creativity……

He says he just wanted to try something challenging.

I wonder what he’ll do next

Share This

I love global collaboration projects. They are such powerful stimuli for children’s learning. I’ve been keen on them ever since I first found Flat Stanley and I even initiated a small scale one as part of my degree.

You don’t have to be the class teacher to initiate this sort of thing. If a TA or a Learning Mentor is prepared to see it though the teacher is often delighted to let them. It would make a lovely action research project. Note the exchange is of “stories, photographs or podcasts” so not too tricky, even better if your class is doing something like “The Travels of Barnaby Bear”.
There’s a flyer to download and print on Sylia’s blog and more details on the Teddy Bears Around the World Blog

Share This

Classroom Displays » Environment Display - Antarctica

I’ve been blogging about the environment over at the Classroom Displays Blog because today is Blog Action Day

Today’s classroom display has an environmental theme in honour of Blog Action Day. I love this project which was done as part of the International Polar Year .

Dee, the teacher writes:

I began with a classroom standard, a KWL chart. On the KWL chart, students first listed what they knew (K) about Antarctica. Next, they listed questions they wanted (W) answered. Eventually, they would list what they learned (L) on the last part of the chart. The students asked some very good questions. Where do icebergs come from? What do blue whales eat in the waters surrounding Antarctica? How tall are emperor penguins? How did Shackleton and his men survive being trapped in ice? Why don’t fish freeze in the cold waters? What’s on the ocean floor? These were just a few of the questions they listed.

This was such a great project I’d been waiting for a good excuse to write about it and this seemed an ideal opportunity. If you are at all interested check out the post for more details of their classroom field trip and how it came to life for them because of an expedition blog.

Share This

Reinventing Project Based Learning pre-order from Amazon.com

Jane and Susie’s book will be out later this month in the US, the subtitle: “Your Field Guide to Real-World Projects in the Digital Age” really explains what it is all about. It should be excellent, not that I’m biased :-). The Classroom Displays Group and Classroom Displays Blog feature in one of the chapters and there are lots of other interesting examples covered. I’m really looking forward to reading it.

To get a taster have a look at the Usefulwiki Project Based Learning pages which were created during the NECC in Atlanta and check out the blog and the Flickr group.

Reinventing Project Based Learning at Amazon.com

Share This

Marcia McGowan’s first grade class used their self-portaits to create some online fun. She’s also involved in lots of internet exchange projects and I love her quote:

This is purposeful, authentic, engaging work that begins to prepare today’s learners for new literacies in the technological world of today and tomorrow.

Now I wonder if she blogs……and if she’s got any nice photos of classroom displays?

Share This

The dynamically produced Project Based Learning links page on usefulwiki is turning out to be a powerful tool for finding out how educators are actually using this method. Here’s Nick in Minnesota writing about the end of year assesment process in his school.

Nick’s Education Spot
Finalization represents the end of most projects. Students bring their completed project and supporting documentation to a proposal team meeting. There they must present their work to a group of staff members, and argue for the credit they think they deserve for the work they put into the final product. It’s an interesting process of give and take, with the staff weighing in on various aspects of the student’s project, including the documented time the student put into the project, and the overall quality of the project as compared to the expectations the staff and student have for their projects. It’s the student’s job to argue the merits of their project in an attempt to receive as much credit as they can. It’s a fair process that gauges the value of an education on a much grander scheme than “pass/fail” or a series of A’s, B’s, and C’s that can represented a variety of different standards.

Can’t help feeling that process would be a more appropriate way of ending Year 3 of the Ultraversity degree……..

Share This