Total Teaching Blog

Challenge yourself to a problem solving task! In this series one of our teachers works through a problem solving task showing you how they would solve it and common misconceptions students have when solving it. Try solving the problem on your own first before watching the solutions in the video. ___________________________________________________________________________________ This week's problem is  Triangular Numbers from NZ Maths Watch the full video of how we work through the Triangular Numbers problem. Watch at your own pace and pause when you need to. Did you use the same strategies or do something different? When attempting this task, many students make this common mistake. Another strategy is drawing out each triangular number until you get to number 10 and number 20. Try this strategy to challenge yourself. We hope you enjoyed challenging yourself with this week's problem solving task and finding out what teachers would expect from this task.  For more free education...

Recently I was able to attend the Teachers College Reading and Writing Project (TCRWP) virtual reunion. This is a full day of workshops geared towards reading, writing and phonics instruction. I walked away from this day with a handful of practical ideas that can be used in the classroom and at home to support children’s literacy development. Decodable Texts One of the workshops I attended was on using decodable texts to help reading instruction. These are types of texts used in early reading instruction that provide many opportunities to practise specific phonics principles. They are largely made up of words that are easy to sound out with consistent letter sound relationships. They are one resource that can be used to help develop early literacy. When readers encounter major sound patterns in reading that they have learned during phonics instruction this can help to consolidate their learning and provide extra practice. I love using FlyLeaf decodable texts to practise phonics skills ...

In this reflection I will discuss Lesson 3 in my learning journey on mathematical mindsets from Jo Boaler at Stanford University. Find my reflections from lesson 2 here.  In Lesson 3, Jo introduced the idea that our brains want to think visually about maths. Building students' mathematical understanding doesn't just mean strengthening one area of the brain involved with abstract numbers. It means strengthening connections between areas of the brain and the visual pathways. Visual Representation and The Brain Jo Boaler, Stanford University As children get older - between the ages of 8 and 14 - they develop the ventral visual pathway (shown in orange). The brain becomes more sensitive and specialized in representing visual number forms. This showed an important and increased interaction between the two visual pathways - VTOC/pFG and IPS/SPL. This indicates that the brain becomes more interactive as children learn and develop, connecting the visual processing of symbolic number f...

Here at Total Teaching we are currently building our knowledge of Mathematic education through the lens of a Growth Mindset. Within the New Zealand education system schools use various programs to deliver the New Zealand curriculum and we believe it is important to have a well-balanced view on programs being offered. We are excited to have a guest blogger sharing her experiences with PR1ME Mathematics.  Why choose PR1ME Mathematics? It’s mathematics as you remember it!  PR1ME Mathematics is a well structured programme that incorporates the best practices used by top performing countries in international studies such as Singapore, Hong Kong and South Korea. Research suggests that students in the primary years require a logical structure for learning that gives them the ability to do, understand and learn math with confidence. They need repeated practice to embed the learning of processes using consistent approaches and methods as well as gradually building on what they have pre...

In this blog I will discuss the professional development I am currently taking on mathematical mindsets from Jo Boaler at Stanford University. Lesson 1 gave us a brief introduction to the ideas of the course, we will begin this blog at Lesson 2. Follow along with this series to read about Lessons 3 and 4. Setting up a Mathematical Mindset Class The focus in Lesson 2 was on how we engage students to understand 4 key points: Maths is an open and visual subject Everyone’s brains can grow and change Maths is not about speed Struggle and mistakes are good, that's when brains are more active and strengthening pathways Why should we focus on these 4 points? Photo Credits: Jo Boaler, Mathematical Mindsets, Stanford University Jo focuses on how it is far easier for the mind to compress concepts rather than methods. She introduced the idea that big understandings fire the synapses in our brains and then convert it into compressible learning. Continuing the lesson, Jo worked us through a seri...