Warming Up for Maths

Stretching in Different Ways

It's a Saturday in March and instead of filling the day with housework, gardening or family, I attended the annual Auckland PMA (Primary Mathematics Association).  As always, I have come away with a mind full of brilliant ideas to explore and implement within my classroom.  One of my takeaways was the importance of 'Warm-Ups' prior to a maths session.

PMA

I will be the first to admit that my warm-ups have been getting a little stale. It's all too easy for me to revert to the 'same old, same old' when I'm 'time poor' and feeling swamped with assessment and other administrative items that need to be completed. My learners have appeared to be enthusiastic about the warm-up activities that I have been using, but I was beginning to wonder whether there were any alternatives.  The stretches that I do before a walk are different to those that I do before a run. Should I apply this thinking to the stretching that my learners do before maths?  Should they be doing a different stretch that would best match the learning and thinking that will follow?

Well today, Marie (specialaddition.co.nz) and Jo (mathsdevelopment.co.nz) were my PTs. They have opened my eyes to a range of possible warm-up activities, and as each one was explored I began to see the value in how each one could support new learning, or help to reinforce previous learning. Many of the activities included 'Number Talks' (I'll do a post on this another time), which enabled rich discussion about choices as often there was more than one answer.  These a just a few of the websites to support my new warm-up stretching routines:

Solve Me

Same But Different

Steve Wyborney's Esti Mystery

In addition to the above, there are also warm-up activities with popsicle sticks, venn diagrams and cards.  My biggest problem will be to limit the time for my warm-ups (ideally 10 snappy minutes) so that I allow time for the learners to get out and 'run'.

Number Talks

Using Numbers Flexibly

Tonight, while checking some of the videos that I have saved from Facebook, I came across Jo Boaler's videos on maths and 'Number Talks'.   Jo talks about encouraging students to see how problems can be solved in a variety of ways and to draw the various responses that are provided so that everyone can see the differences - and also see the differences between associative and differentiated solutions.

Jo mentions that many students (especially the more able ones) are not using numbers flexibly to solve problems.   Instead, they are relying on the one method that they feel safe with, but this one method may not be the best.   Students need to be flexible with numbers.  To manipulate numbers in a variety of ways.

While watching the following video, I began to reflect on my current Learners in LH2.  How and what am I doing to enable them to use numbers in a flexible and open way?   At the moment I am preparing for Term 3 so it's a prime opportunity to go back to the drawing board and rethink how I do my best to ensure that every Learner is able to achieve the best math experiences ever!

In her TEDx Talk, Jo describes that having a 'maths mind' is a myth and that your brain grows when making a mistake in maths.  If I think back to my days in college, then my brain must have been growing at an exponential rate!

So, if there is no such thing as a 'maths brain', then how to we change the current belief  to that of everyone having the potential to be a mathematical thinking?