Below are a series of helpful articles.
Assessment
Formative assessment, developmental stages and starting the year well
The goal of formative assessment should always be to find out what each student NEEDS next, rather than focusing on identifying what they already know. When we truly know
Assessment: getting everything done
By Tierney Kennedy How do we get everything done? Good assessment takes time. It is important to make sure that your grading decisions are not made on the basis of
Assessment samples to download
We have included here some assessment samples to download, with the aim of coming to a joint understanding of what the criteria mean and how to assign a grade. Remember
Classroom Tips
Classroom layout and organisation
Organising your classroom can be tricky, especially when behaviour is an issue. Here are two layouts that I find work, one for groups and one for rows. Personally, I prefer
Building risk taking and resilience
Setting the scene for risk-taking One of the most difficult problems to overcome when establishing a problem-based classroom is encouraging risk-taking behaviour on the part of the students. Unless students
Modelling tasks – simple ideas to get you started
The problem: Many teachers that I have met think that modelling means either: “showing kids how to solve a problem”, or sometimes “making something 3D”. As these everyday uses for
Content Teaching Tips
Playing with multiplicative patterns and algorithms
Developing algorithms is an important area in AC9, and one that is new to many teachers.But what does it mean for us and what tasks might be good for kids?
Finishing strong – making those last few weeks count
As term 4 is upon us many teachers are struggling with how to get everything done. Realistically, now is the time for prioritizing rather than frantic teaching. Think about what
Why kids don’t get fractions
You may have noticed that kids have a few issues with fractions… but it can be tricky to understand what is going on, particularly when the difficulties only tend to
Differentiation
Creating an extension box
Extension can be a tricky issue to deal with. While we can try to have extension questions for most in-class tasks, at some point we may find this hard or
Choosing the right intervention strategy for my school
The successfulness of any intervention is largely dependent on matching the strategies selected to the needs of the students and teachers involved. Your answers to some basic questions below will
Great ideas for enabling prompts or lifelines
Enabling prompts or life lines are a fantastic way of helping students who are stuck to get started. They do not reduce the complexity of the question, but they do help kids
Leaders
Finishing strong – making those last few weeks count
As term 4 is upon us many teachers are struggling with how to get everything done. Realistically, now is the time for prioritizing rather than frantic teaching. Think about what
Choosing the right intervention strategy for my school
The successfulness of any intervention is largely dependent on matching the strategies selected to the needs of the students and teachers involved. Your answers to some basic questions below will
27 homework tasks that help make maths part of everyday life
Parents often want to help their kids with maths, but aren’t sure how to help. Here are 27 ideas ranging from breakfast, to car trips, to grocery shopping, to afternoon tea,
Miscellaneous
Interventions series
Looking for the resources that go with this series? Click here It can be incredibly frustrating to us as teachers when we spend time teaching a concept only to find
My favourite maths teaching moment wasn’t in maths!
By Tierney Kennedy What is your favourite maths teaching moment? One where you know that you made a life-changing difference? My all-time favourite maths teaching moment was with a boy
DVDs showing Tierney teaching in real classrooms now available!
In our most exciting news yet, we now have a DVD set showing Tierney Kennedy teaching eight Back to Front Maths lessons in real classrooms! See how to use problem-based
Misconceptions
Finishing strong – making those last few weeks count
As term 4 is upon us many teachers are struggling with how to get everything done. Realistically, now is the time for prioritizing rather than frantic teaching. Think about what
Why kids don’t get fractions
You may have noticed that kids have a few issues with fractions… but it can be tricky to understand what is going on, particularly when the difficulties only tend to
Choosing the right intervention strategy for my school
The successfulness of any intervention is largely dependent on matching the strategies selected to the needs of the students and teachers involved. Your answers to some basic questions below will
Parents
27 homework tasks that help make maths part of everyday life
Parents often want to help their kids with maths, but aren’t sure how to help. Here are 27 ideas ranging from breakfast, to car trips, to grocery shopping, to afternoon tea,
How to teach Addition and Subtraction free flipbook
Addition and subtraction of small numbers is a very big part of lower-primary teaching, and one that kids can struggle with still in their teens. Download this FREE flip book
Awesomely cool maths ideas for parents
Would you like to be able to help your kids to understand maths better? Why not try implementing some of these really simple ideas to make maths part of your
Proficiency strands
Building retention and fluency with flexibility
While fluency is not the be all and end all of maths, having a bank of known facts and strategies that you can use efficiently, accurately, appropriate and flexibly is
Improving student reasoning
Kids who have a strong intuitive understanding of maths can sometimes have trouble slowing down their thinking to explain how they got the answer. Here are a few simple tips
Connecting and generalising questions
Great questioning is an art, but can be tricky to develop. Here is a simple video showing some connecting and generalising questions being used with a year 7 class.