News

Aaron and I had long talks on the roof of my house about the Maths300 lessons.

My name is Barbara Kerr and I am currently working as a Teacher Mentor in Arusha, Tanzania. Back in Australia I used the Maths300 lessons all the time and my students and I loved them. I also attended in-services conducted by you and Charles Lovitt which shaped my teaching.

It was amazing to see the looks on the students faces when we did the Circumference of a Circle lesson. They looked stunned that Maths didn't need a mass of calculation to work things out. When we predicted what a circumference might be and they found they could get very close just by making predictions based on 'times 6 plus a bit'. It was almost like they couldn't believe what was happening. So great, I love it.

We have done the human gear lessons, to link ratio and circumference, with the grade six classes and they went well. The students loved doing it. The students made the connections between ratio and circumference and were able to make their own gears in groups. It was great to see them problem solving and doing practical work. The smiles while they worked were just great.

Hi there,
I've been using the Task Centre site for over a year now, (and loving it) and have just noticed for the first time that I can subscribe to updates! I'm in Hobart, Tasmania, teaching at The Cottage School, a small independent school with about 70 students.

I took part in a two-day professional development early last year with Charles Lovitt, which completely changed the way I felt about maths. Previously I had always been rather nervous and uncomfortable, certainly never excited!

I love the fact that I always find something on your site that I hadn't previously seen. Today I discovered 'News' and 'Research and Stories'... and spent ages reading and being inspired by other teachers' experiences. As a result I'm planning a parents and students night where we can explore the tasks together... hopefully it will become a regular gig! Will keep you posted!

Thanks so much for this amazing resource. Now I have some tools to really help the students find those AHA! moments... love it.
Kath Windfeld-Petersen

Hi Doug,
My name is Mick Bradley and I am the Maths coordinator at St Thomas Aquinas in Canberra. I am providing professional learning to my staff re maths and have decided that the way forward is a problem based curriculum approach. We are SO CONTENT BASED like the game of soccer analogy have all the skills but never get to play soccer. The problem solving approach ticks all the boxes. Student engagement, intellectual quality, differentiation etc!

My Year 4 kids loved the problem about the triangles we made from newspaper in the PD session you did and the tablecloth folding exercise. They haven't sorted it just yet but we are coming back to it. Poly Plug lesson on number patterns worked a treat. Kids are really engaged and I was 'freed up' to observe/assist. Real constructivist learning!!