Monash University Education: Primary Maths Professional Development - 2009 program

There is a bunch of downloads here that might be useful.

Monash Uni mathematics professional learning program workshops relating research and theory to the practice of teaching primary mathematics. Incorporate exploration of a range of mathematics ideas and teaching strategies, with a distinctive focus.

Problem solving skills

In the Week 16 Tute I passed around lesson plans for teaching social and emotional competencies. It relates to English literacy as well as maths by way of developing problem solving skills.

The lesson plans came from the REDI resources website, but this has recently been changed. The links to the PDF lesson plans is broken, but might be fixed soon.

A word about Teachers.tv and copyright

Noleine reminded us to keep in mind copyright regulations when posting to this notice board. Postings are usually links to other websites so it's not such a problem EXCEPT there is one thing I thought I should mention.

The truly wonderful www.teachers.tv is marred by their terms of use that says you can't watch their videos online if you are outside the UK (srlsy!?). Furthermore, according to their website, you are not supposed to download their videos outside the UK at, say, uni(so that you can save on your download usage at home) then take it on a USB stick home to watch . Of course, they can't stop you from doing that...

Now you can watch the Australian mirror of the site at www.teacherstv.com.au, but their version totally sucks because a) some bloody random video always automatically plays as soon as you go the website, thus sucking up your internet download usage if you are at home, b) their search functionality is crap, and c) you can't download a video (at, say, uni) then take it home to watch.

So I guess you follow any links posted to teachers.tv on this blog at you own risk...

Last minute practice!

Just found this website, I was looking for fraction practice and found this site, this particular link heads you towards fraction practice, I haven't explored the site further than that yet but I am sure there is a lot more on there too!

The Mathematics of Needle Felting- ratio practice.

Needle felting involves sticking a barbed needle in to wool over and over again to make it all mesh together and make beautiful things. This link shows the workings out of how long it takes to needle felt. It ties in nicely with our ratio and decimal work. Perhaps not all ratio questions have to be about cars driving- lets tap into our creativity!

Copacabana Public School (NSW) Interactive Activities

Get Smart: these pages contain a collection of links to suitable activities to support and enhance classroom teaching and learning.
Bonus: Set out by stages.
Link is here

Video: Ratio & proportion

Primary maths consultant Darren Ellsum introduces the idea of using ICT in numeracy teaching to illustrate abstract topics.

In the first of two lessons, advanced skills teacher Liz Walker uses presentation software in edit mode to illustrate ratio to her pupils in Bexley.

In the second lesson, Liz works with a smaller group, introducing proportion by looking at Leonado da Vinci's Vitruvian Man and by getting pupils to analyse photos of themselves.

ICT can be a really useful tool for helping pupils develop mental images of abstract topics in numeracy.

Click HERE