The Maths Behind Hurricane Abigail

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After all this hype about a potentially menacing storm that has hit the shores of Scotland, I thought to myself that it couldn’t actually be that bad. I was, however, mistaken to this notion. After walking along Dundee City high street a few moments ago, I was soaked within an inch of my life. It was calm one minute, then BOOM chaos! The storm has now come to Dundee and as I look out my window now, Dundee has been disrupted with small amounts of damage to public billboards and bus shelters. This got me thinking about the intensity of a storm and how vast they can be. It also got me thinking about how the maths come in to part with storms. As I sit with a blanket over my lap and a cup of tea by my side, I am going to attempt to discover the fundamental maths behind a hurricane and why they can be incredibly frustrating for everyone.

In my last few blog posts, I have been concerned with talking about maths as an active subject through many things like tessellation and maths with stories and play. This blog post will be somewhat different to these, but the principles and the fundamental mathematics still apply. Firstly, a hurricane is a mass storm with a violent wind and reaches above a speed of 75 mph!! 75 miles per hour… I don’t know what is scarier, the damage that it causes or the notion that it can travel faster than the speed limit of a car on the motorway. According to NASA (undated), Hurricanes are like giant engines that use warm, moist air as fuel. That is why they form only over warm ocean waters near the equator. The warm, moist air over the ocean rises upward from near the surface. Because this air moves up and away from the surface, there is less air left near the surface. Another way to say the same thing is that the warm air rises, causing an area of lower air pressure below. NASA continue by suggesting that air from surrounding areas with higher air pressure pushes in to the low pressure area. Then that “new” air becomes warm and moist and rises, too. As the warm air continues to rise, the surrounding air swirls in to take its place. As the warmed, moist air rises and cools off, the water in the air forms clouds. The whole system of clouds and wind spins and grows, fed by the ocean’s heat and water evaporating from the surface. In addition, a hurricane has an abundance of cumulonimbus clouds that form circular bands. The fundamental mathematics of a hurricane is its circular formation. Not only this, it is astonishing the way that hurricanes actually rotate. Do they rotate clockwise, or anticlockwise? storms from the north of the equator spin anti-clockwise and storms below the equator spin clockwise. This is because the Earth rotates on its axis. I find that so absolutely fascinating to say the least. It ultimately highlights that Mathematics is incorporated into absolutely everything that we see in this world and I agree with Will Berry on that one after his lecture on maths in the outdoors.

So why does this leave me feeling fascinated? Well probably because I am thinking about the mathematical activities that you could do within the context of the classroom. Firstly, you could investigate and display the different levels a hurricane is classified as. See diagram below:

Category Wind Speed (mph) Damage at Landfall Storm Surge (feet)
1 74-95 Minimal 4-5
2 96-110 Moderate 6-8
3 111-130 Extensive 9-12
4 131-155 Extreme 13-18
5 Over 155 Catastrophic 19+

The children can ultimately collect the data to classify different (old or new storms) from around the world, especially in the case of hurricane Abigail. In addition, the children could also find the speed of the hurricane and predict how far it will travel and in what time by using the speed, distance, time formula. This is just naming a few, but please feel free to comment with any other activities that you can think of as I would like to read them.

Fundamentally, the basic maths behind an activity to do with a hurricane is research skills. Being able to tally, collect data and the general notion of handling and organising information. Not only this, this is good for children deepen their understanding of probability and likelihood of a storm like this happening again. The activities can be in abundance if you put your mind to it.

Finally, I will leave you with this satellite image of hurricane Abigail (picture taken by the University of Dundee):

Storm Abigail

This is a picture of hurricane Abigail just off the coast of North West Scotland. You can see the spiral motion and you can almost imagine the wind swishing and swaying around. What I find to be completely fascinating about this picture is that you can see Fibonacci’s sequence spiralling around and around (see image below):

Untitled 2Mathematics… You have amazed me again.

 

 

Maths, Play and Stories

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During the Discovering Mathematics elective, I have been amazed by some of the maths that I have encountered, particularly when linking maths to play and stories. I, beforehand, had a very narrow-minded view of what maths was as my school experience was not a good or successful one. I remember mostly being stuck and it made me think of myself as a failure. In addition, I vaguely remember my teacher(s) writing mathematical equations for on the board for us to copy and learn. Was it interesting? Most definitely not. I was disengaged most of the time which probably lead to me having bad memories about mathematics. However, this elective (along with my college experience) has opened my eyes to mathematics on a wide scale – especially through play and stories.

Lets go back in time to my second year of college. This is where my mind-set began to change on the whole concept of maths. As part of our early years placement, we had to make our own story sack which had to include many subjects from the CFE – one of them being maths. To say the least, I was pretty petrified. All that was going through my head was ‘how can I incorporate mathematics from a story?” And yes, the maths anxiety began to set in. However, after researching many different books to use for my story sack, I began to see the links between maths and stories. I chose the Wizard of Oz as my book and managed to include maths from ideologies like character order to the shape of the yellow brick road. Ultimately it opened my eyes and laid a basis for my love of maths to grow from.

Today in the primary school, children still have this maths anxiety. I thoroughly believe that it stems down from older generations. This is because learning and teaching has transformed in the modern day classroom from the mid 20th century. Older generations of people may see maths as copying down sums off the board in a kind of rote learning manner. This left these people with maths anxiety to have very bad memories of mathematics and generations of adults who don’t see the need to learn mathematical theories. Ultimately, our responsibility is to teach young learners that mathematics is relevant to every day life like money, time, fractions and so on. Ultimately, because our older generations do not have the greatest view of mathematics, it gets passed on to our children and they become “scared” of maths (Furner and Duffy, 2002). I believe this statement is true because our attitudes need to convey a love of maths in order for it to pass on to our children. Not only must we as teachers be enthusiastic and encouraging, we also need to introduce maths in fun and interactive ways so it will be memorable for our children (see my last blog post on active learning in mathematics for further information).

Parents as Teachers
I found this concept to be rather interesting and intriguing because parent are children’s first point of contact in education. Parents are the child’s pioneer of education and it could be argued that parents are children’s first teachers. Within the context of maths, this should be no different. However, when it comes to children needing help with their maths homework, parents might try to avoid the matter. According to Pound (2003), parents of young children have a narrow minded view of mathematics and may not prioritise it within the home. I am not suggesting that this is the case for every child, but maths is a hard and abstract concept for children to understand and they probably will need help with their homework. This is why it is important for parents to get involved and convey a love for mathematics so their children can have a love for mathematics.

With regards to cognitive development, mathematical concepts allow children to think, reason, understand and learn. According to Piaget’s 4 staged theory, he believed that schemas are the way in which we organise information and for children to understand mathematics the should repeat their actions (sums and questions) in order to learn. In addition to this, Margaret Donaldson agreed with Piaget on some aspect but believed that if children think of abstract situations then they will fail. I do not believe that children will fail due to abstract concepts. I understand that maths is an abstract concept but with the right help and support, children will thrive. Maths is so beneficial for a child’s cognitive development due to the problem solving aspect of it and, without the children realising it, maths allows them to think articulately.

Fundamentally, we should see children as independent learners and should give them the space to work on an individual basis, This can be achieved through immersing the children in mathematical events before school (for example, ‘how many cows can you see in the field?’). As time progresses, children’s skills will develop, but it is important for parents to not give them direct instructions. Children naturally absorb the patterns and regularities that exist in the day to day natural and cultural world (Ginsburg, Cannon, Eisband, and Pappas, 2006). Effectively, routines are mathematical concepts and children pick up the patters very quickly. Of course, we as teachers need to be able to explain the maths correctly to the children in order for them to learn it (Henlock, 2003). In addition, this can be done through a number of strategies:

  • Open ended questions
  • Using mathematical language
  • Written communication through mark making

Effectively, these strategies should be used by teacher in order to develop their ideas and understanding of mathematical concepts. A good way to achieve this is through play. Play is important because it allows children to be a team players, communicate effectively, learn through interaction and ultimately allows children to express themselves in different ways. Furthermore, play is innate and allows children to make connections, be creative and use flexible thinking. Moreover, it refines and rehearses their skills and encourages perseverance. So where does this link into mathematics? Well mathematics allow children to make decisions through imagination, reasoning, predicting, planning, experimenting with strategies and learning through rhymes and songs.

In conclusion, I never realised that maths and play go hand in hand with one another. It is a fascinating thought that has allowed me to realise that there is more to maths than copying sums off the blackboard. Maths should be fun and inviting and I will definitely try to incorporate this into my lessons while on future placements and when I am a qualified teacher. However, parent play a huge role within mathematics. Parents should encourage a love for mathematics and view maths as a positive thing in order for our children to absorb a love for mathematics – lead our children forward!!

 

Life in Poetry

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Poetry is a word that can bring someone a sense of fear depending on the poem. I, for example, are one of those many people that remember dissecting and analysing poems in high school for months on end to then find out that that specific poem didn’t appear in the final exam. Pointless and time consuming? Perhaps. However, after thinking about poetry on a vast scale, outwith the environment of the high school classroom, it is apparent that poetry is a fun and memorable thing to do within the context of a language lesson. So why poetry and why incorporate it into a language lesson. It could be suggested that poetry breaths life into language, and I hope to convey this within the context of this blog post.

Firstly, it could be argued that people’s love for poetry dies when they reach high school level. This is down to the fact that poems are over analysed and deciphered to a point that it becomes a tedious task. This feeling was always at the forefront of my mind in high school and it completely sucked the life out of the poetry that I was trying to learn. However, I loved poetry in primary school, especially Robert Burns. Every January my school had a recital competition which required everyone to learn a Robert Burns poem. The person who won received a certificate and an immense sense of pride in memorising Burn’s tricky poems in Scots tongue. Competitions like this have stood the test of time and are still apparent in schools all over Scotland. This, along with this afternoons poetry lecture, allowed me to see a different side to the ‘frightening’ concept of poetry that I learned to loath.

So what is poetry? Carter (2012) describes his interpretation of what poetry is:

 

  • it is a box of spoken words
  • a spoken song
  • a fresh way of looking at something
  • language at its most playful
  • music and meaning
  • repetition
  • the most fun you can have with language

I found Carter’s interpretation of Poetry to be quite intriguing. I never knew that poetry could be related to music. However, after thinking about it, poetry could actually be made into a song, or it is music without the melody or instruments. It does have rhythm, however, and you could almost imagine the beat and the rhythm in your head. This is good for children because it can help them grasp the concept of rhythm and beat and this could be an activity to do with the children (clapping and singing to the poem). In addition, poetry is much more achievable to perform and write than writing an actual story. The children can play with the language and delve into it and this, to me, seems much more enjoyable than writing a descriptive and detailed story. The fact that poems come in many shapes and forms allows the children to be more creative and structure their own poems in their own ways. The only thing, however, is that the children need to have a good idea of language to convey emotions and meanings because the space in a poem is very short. However, poems do not have to be complicated pieces of text. For children, poems need to be short, chunks of text in order for the children to understand and comprehend the meaning of the poem. However, some style of poems like sonnets may require a bit more work (especially Shakespeare). This is because the language is very complex and this could be difficult for children.

Poetry should display a number of key characteristics (Cremin, 2009):

 

  • Sound Effects – including repetition, alliteration, onomatopoeia, rhythm and rhyme
  • Visual Effects – including similes, personification and metaphors
  • Powerful vocabulary in order to convey emotion and passion
  • surprising word combinations in order to encourage discussion
  • repetition

This is very beneficial for the language development of children because they are learning new skills and this will convey their understanding of the poem and make it exciting and fun. Effectively, poetry should demonstrate the playfulness and musicality of language so children can enjoy and find poetry fun. In addition, poems encourage children to explore feelings which allow them to develop empathy and self-awareness. Ultimately, children can explore the emotions within the context of a certain poem and they can feel attached and sad towards a specific character in the poem. In addition, the children are picking up key terminology like stanza and metre which is good for their understanding of poetry because they become more aware of structure and can contribute well to discussions about certain poems.

In conclusion, poetry needs to be playful. In early to middle years, poetry must be enjoyable and the children should have the opportunity to play with the language and the nonsense of poems. In the upper years, the children can delve into why specific language has been used in certain poems and they should experiment using their own language in their own poems. Secondary school pupils should be able to deconstruct and analyse poems. However, I have rekindled my love for poetry within the primary school context. It all links back to active learning and the children having fun and enjoying learning about poems.

here is my favourite poem from my childhood – enjoy!!!!!

 

Crocodile

by J.K. Annand

 

When doukin in the River Nile
I met a muckle crocodile. He flicked his tail, he blinked his ee,
Syne bared his ugsome teeth at me.

Says I, “I never saw the like.
Cleaning your teeth maun be a fyke!
What sort of besom do ye hae
To brush a set o teeth like thae?”

The crocodile said, “Nane ava.
I never brush my teeth at aa!
A wee bird redds them up, ye see,
And saves me monie a dentist’s fee.”

 

 

Co-operative Learning: why is it different to group work?

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In this mornings lecture, a discussion about co-operative learning cropped up and it make me think about the importance of it in the primary classroom. Co-operative learning is a method of teaching and learning in which students team together to explore a significant question or create a meaningful project. It is a specific kind of collaborative learning in which students work together through discussions and pupils are individually accountable for their own work. However, is it just the same as group work? Or does revolutionise group work by allowing children to be more independent and appreciate working as part of a team? This blog post aims to delve into the concept of co-operative learning.

If we look back in time to 20th century education, co-operative learning would have never existed due to the way that pupils were taught by rote. Children were there to be seen and not heard and this would have made the classroom a very quite and eerie place to learn. When we think of classrooms in this day and age, they are not quiet places. However, this is not necessarily a bad thing. Learning is most effective when learners have the opportunity to think and talk together, to discuss ideas, question, analyse and solve problems, without the constant mediation of the teacher (Education Scotland, undated). This is why co-operative learning is fundamental within the context of the primary classroom. It stems from the work of Lev Vygosky and his view that learning is a social process. I do agree with this because in my experience you can learn more through interactions and discussions with your peers. Vygotsky’s ideas have been reflected in a number of teaching processes including critical skills and dialogic teaching. Both of these involve discussion and promote the idea that young peoples learning is best served when they have the opportunity to learn from each other.

I first experienced co-operative learning during my first year placement. It was an abstract concept to me as I had never observed it being put into practice. To begin, the teacher would organise the children into their home groups (every group had a specific name and emblem) and the teacher instructed the children to perform their team greet. I was specifically interested in this part because each team had a different greeting and I think it allowed each child to feel part of the team – a lovely touch!! The children were left to number themselves 1-4 and each number had a specific task. I cant remember off the top of my head, but I think this was the structure:

1-resource manager
2- time keeper
3- motivator
4- collector of resources

What fascinated me the ‘motivator’ position because this person had be enthusiastic and push his or hers team on. It was refreshing to see that the children were motivated by this and praise from the motivator allowed the children to feel good about their work. The task itself was to make a badge that displayed their hobbies and interests. Each hobby or interest were to be drawn at the corners of the badge (the badge was a small A5 rectangle) with their name in the middle. In addition, the teacher would ask the children 4 questions like, “which is your favourite cartoon?” after each question, the teacher would put a digital clock on the whiteboard in so the time keepers can say ‘we have 10 seconds left’ and this allowed the team to know when their time was up. It was really refreshing and exciting to see the children work together in such a way. They were all actively involved in their own learning as each badge was personal to each individual. The children took responsibility for their own learning and it was enjoyable to observe (I even made my own badge and joined one of the groups).

This was a very good experience for me, but I began to think that it is a bit like group work. After discussing this point with my teacher after the lesson, she identified a number of key points that makes it a whole lot different from group work. She suggested that group work is more focussed with learning partner work, in which you can complete your work with your learning, but no meaningful discussion is being produced. She suggested that an activity allows children to take control of their own learning through discussion and learning off one another. She identified that each individual part of the home teams contribute effectively to each others learning through interactions and ‘motivating’ one another. Fundamentally, these skills need to be taught to the children before co-operative learning can take place. The children need to learn to organise themselves and once this happens, they are effectively taking part in their own learning.

Effectively, co-operative learning is a fantastic way of allowing children to take part in their education through means of discussion and learning from each other. It is a tried and tested method of collaborative learning and it is different from just normal group work in the sense that the children have more freedom and control over their learning. I will definitely be promoting this in future placements and I am eager to see it in practice again.

 

The Curriculum for Excellence: A comparison between our own curriculum and the Scandinavian Approach

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The Curriculum for Excellence was introduced by the Scottish Government in 2010 – 2011 and was meant to revolutionise education in Scotland by providing children and young people between the ages of 3-18 a coherent, more flexible and enriched curriculum (Education Scotland, undated). In addition, the curriculum includes the totality of experiences which are planned for children and young people through their education, wherever they are being educated. The CFE is meant to be a holistic and child centred curriculum very much like the Scandinavian education systems. However, why might this not be the case? This blog aims to investigate the CFE in a critical manner and this will be used as a comparison to Scandinavian approaches in countries such as Sweden.

Lets travel back to the 1990’s where the 5-14 curriculum was implemented in Scottish schools. I very much remember being in lessons such as maths and English and completing my end of unit level C test. This was a very anxious time as testing was a fairly new concept to me but it now apparent to me that testing was done in order to raise attainment in schools. I distinctly remember some of my friends and classmates would deliberately take  a sick day in order not to do the tests which, to me, felt wrong and, in the end, they would need to sit the tests when they came back. It made us feel anxious. As practitioners, it is important that our children are comfortable and feel safe in the school environment. Testing did not make me feel safe and comfortable because I did not want to fail. So why did it change? why was there a big push for a more holistic and child centred curriculum? The Scottish Government wanted to make guidelines more fit for their purpose by providing the right level of detail for teachers so they could maintain the current level of specificity where that makes sense. In addition, the CFE proposed to remove unnecessary detail from existing 5-14 guidelines in curriculum areas such as Expressive Arts and Environmental Studies to allow teachers more flexibility and scope to provide rich and varied experiences, and reduce the time spent on assessment. In addition, the Scottish Government wanted to bring the 3 to 5 and 5-14 curriculum guidelines together to ensure a smooth transition in what children have learned and also in how they learn. This will mean extending the approaches which are used in pre-school into the early years of primary, emphasising the importance of opportunities for children to learn through purposeful, well-planned play. This to me sounds fantastic as children can broaden their horizons through meaningful activities that incorporates play into their every day learning. However, how did the Scottish government come up with the idea to introduce this into the CFE? We need to look over to Scandinavian countries such as Sweden.

In preparation for the CFE for to be implemented into Scottish schools, momentous research had to be carried out and the Scottish government looked towards Scandinavian countries to gain some influence because these countries top the leader boards in an educational sense. With regards to Early years education in these countries, there is a strong financial support for families with young children, and this is fully funded by the state so all young children can have a formal early education. In Sweden, children are guaranteed a place in pre-school for working or studying parents within a few months of applying. There is an emphasis for outdoor learning all year round and the children in these countries are generally more happier and confident from and early age. With regards to Primary Education, the children start at around age 6 or 7 as this is the perfect age to start. In Scotland, there could be children as young as 4 in a Primary 1 class. This is because in Scotland there is a work force interest which is aimed at parents getting back into work sooner in order to contribute back to the economy. As a result, more funding is needed (especially in early years). If a small independent countries can do this, then why can’t we?

In Sweden, children address teachers by their first names unlike here where we say “Mr”, “MRS” or “Miss”.  I think it allows the teacher to be seen as a real person instead of a hierarchical figure and this would ultimately allow the children to feel more comfortable. Teachers are trusted and highly respected and in Scotland it could be argued that this is not the case. This point is also emphasised because no inspectors come into Swedish schools. In addition to this, the Swedish school resembles a family home in the sense that the staff and children take their shoes off and the fact that there is a kitchen in every room. This, again, allows the children to ‘feel at home’ and  allows the children to feel more comfortable in their education. In pre-school education, the children have meals around the table with the teachers and again emphasises the notion that their schools are like family homes.

In Sweden, there is no testing and the children have unfinished work trays where they can pick and choose to finish work when they want. The work is very much set at the children’s pace and the children can, as a result, take control of their own education. In Scotland, there is a massive incentive for children to finish work as quickly as they can which, I feel, is necessary in some cases for short tasks, but we have to remember that children move at different paces to one another and we need to take differentiation into account. In comparison, Scotland does not have a form of national testing. However, the Scottish Government are trying to re-introduce standardised testing into Scottish Schools in order to raise attainment. However, I think this poses a very big problem. As we know, in every subject area of the CFE there are different levels. For example, children within the first level can range from Primary 1 all the way to Primary 4 – my point being is that how can you give a primary 1 pupil the same test as a standardised test as a primary 4? To me it seems completely unrealistic and I doubt that attainment will raise with in Scottish schools. I believe that the Scottish government is too focussed on statistics and aren’t focussed enough on the children. It seems extremely ironic because the CFE is considered as a ‘child centred’ curriculum and I do not believe that the children are being into account.

Testing out the way, lets get down to the facts. Swedish children feel secure within their education. The less informal approach incorporated by the teachers allows the children to feel relaxed and, as mentioned before, it almost feels like a family home. The children have large amounts of unrestricted floor space to play, build and be creative. This encourages the children to plan their own play and this is not the case in Scottish nurseries where play could be very much structured and the children might not be able to explore freely. The Swedish curriculum is grounded and play and is influenced by the theory of Froebel (the founder of kindergarten). The teachers, who are experts in their field, are there to communicate and understand and respond to the children’s needs. I am convinced this happens in Scottish schools as inclusion is an important matter within the Scottish school setting along with GIRFEC and, naturally, teachers should be empathetic and understanding. However, I feel that there is a hierarchy between teachers and pupil and this could make children feel uncomfortable at times.

According to the Swedish Ministry of Education (1998), ” learning should be based not only on interactions between adults and children, but also what they learn from each other”. This comes back to the idea that communication is key and that collaborative learning is a very useful tool for children and teachers alike. Teachers should constantly be looking for opportunities to learn with the children because knowledge is not found in the child or the adult, its found within the world around them and the beauty of education is finding things out together. Collaborative learning is a huge aspect of the CFE and this is something that works. Its all about experiencing new things everyday and this is why outdoor learning is extremely important in any class in any country. The significant thing about the Swedish curriculum is that it is based on a division of responsibilities where each individual state determines the overall goals and guidelines for the schools within each state. What is alarming is that there is no national curriculum and they are still above Scotland in the ranks.

Therefore, why are Scandinavian countries above us in the rankings and miles ahead of us? Well for starters, the CFE has cherry picked certain aspects from these countries to create the ‘perfect curriculum’ but this cannot be the case unless every aspect has been taken from these Scandinavian approaches. That is why the CFE has been criticised on a national scale for being hollow and unrealistic. Our teachers are anxious about how ‘vague’ the CFE is where as Scandinavian teachers are happy in their work. Fundamentally, it is the children that we should all be thinking about and maybe one day the CFE will be completely child centred and holistic. Well, that is goal and the end of the day.

If you would like to find out more about Swedish education, refer to the video below.

Attachment: Why is it important?

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Attachment is the emotional bond between the child and the primary caregiver and begins while the child is in the womb and throughout the life of the child. Attachment creates a sense of security for the child and provides a “safe base” for the child to build effective and lasting relationships. However, what are the implications of broken attachment bonds between a child and the primary caregiver, and how important is this in the development of the child? This essay will focus on explaining the attachment theory through affectional bonds with parents, attachment behaviours and the internal working models of attachment. This will allow me to conclude why it is important to secure attachments in later life.

In terms of affectional bonds and attachments, Bowlby and Ainsworth (1989) wrote that the mutual pattern of responding is key to the development of these bonds. So by interacting with the child, pre and post birth, by talking and playing will ultimately begin this attachment process. Not only this, a parent picking up a child when he or she is upset creates a sense of security for the child that will make the attachment bond stronger. Moreover, there is a certain kind od security that an adult draws from being in such a relationship where they can rely on a partner for support and this models the safe base function that comes with a child’s attachment bond.

According to Bowlby, Once an attachment to another person is established, the child begins to construct mental representations of the relationship that becomes a set of expectations that the child has for future interactions. The term was coined the internal working model to describe this mental representation. The working model is formed in late in the first year of a child’s life and increases over the first four of fiver years (Schermerhorn, Cumming, Davies, 2008). This model does affect the child’s behaviour because the child tends to recreate, in each new relationship, the pattern in which its familiar.

So why is it important to secure attachments later on in life? In a study conducted by Rutter et al (1989) in the Romanian orphanages to find whether it was separation from the mother or the severe circumstances in the orphanages that was responsible for negative effects. These children has never been picked up, interacted with and had little opportunity to develop attachments. It was concluded that an intervention should take place within six months and that any longer could delay the child’s development.

Therefore, I can conclude that attachment is a bond between a child and a primary caregiver and this provides a child with a sense of security and trust. The more parents interact with their child, the stronger the bond will get . However, it is important to secure an attachment for the child in later life because their development could be delayed and cause maternal deprivation.

Moving from the old to the new

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As my university career began in 2014, a fundamental aspect of the course was to keep and maintain an E-portfolio. At first, the E-portfolio was on blackboard and this posed a number of problems (the main one being access). As a reflective practitioner, I feel that it is fundamental for people to be able to view your posts and provide feedback in order to develop your understanding and broaden your horizons. With the old E-portfolio, only you were able to see the contents as well as your advisor of studies. I am pleased to say that everyone can see your blog posts via the ‘edushare’ category. I hope that I can allows influence and be influenced by others. Finally, the whole design is much easier to understand and it gives me a greater incentive to post blogs

Active Learning In Mathematics

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In my experience as a practitioner, and from my MA1 placement, I tried to teach as many maths lessons as I could in order to increase my confidence. I had no previous experience teaching maths and it was a daunting experience to say the least. However, after taking numerous lessons with different, my confidence grew and grew and here is what I have done in order to incorporate active learning into my maths lessons.

I tried to incorporate active learning into my lessons as much as I could. However, this was a difficult task with certain groups because some mathematical concepts were very much board and textbook work, and there is nothing that could be done about that. However, this all changed when I was teaching position, I found this to be extremely engaging.

The Birth of Frank the Frog 

Whilst introducing the concept of position to the group, it was apparent that they were struggling with the positional language. The children found it hard to retain the positional language needed in order to understand the concept of position in maths. After discussions with my class teacher, I decided to re-jig my approach to the lesson and, subsequently, I created a fictional character called Frank the frog (he was a plush, frog toy). Frank would write the children letters to engage them in the topic. I also created my own games, one of which was ‘where’s Frank the frog’, and the children had to use positional language to find Frank the Frog. As a result, the children were able to gain a knowledge of positional language and were able to use it effectively to find Frank. I think this was because there was so much stimuli within the lessons and this kept there attention and made the lesson fun and memorable.

I felt that it is extremely relevant and fundamental to incorporate active learning within mathematics in order for the children to understand and enjoy the intended learning and so they do not become disengaged. For me, it was a revelation because the children responded so well and I really feel that ‘Frank the frog’ made a significant difference to their education.

Active learning in maths can occur in so many different ways, shapes or forms.  This was only one way of incorporating active learning into mathematics. However, it can also be achieved through art and design in the form of tessellation, symmetry and proportion in order to create artistic masterpieces. In particular, the word of M.C. Escher highlights the beauty and creative nature of maths within art and design and it can be seen through the video below. This could be done effectively with children and the could have fun whilst learning at the same time.

 

Introduction to Discovering Mathematics

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I chose this for my MA2 elective because I wanted to improve my knowledge of mathematical concepts and I wanted to increase my confidence when teaching mathematics in my future placements. In MA1, I was very nervous at the idea of teaching maths in my placement as it was something that I had never taught before. However, I found it very intriguing as I managed to develop strategies to explain mathematical concepts and, ultimately, this boosted my confidence. I am very looking forward to this elective and to see how my confidence develops as a practitioner.