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Maths4Life – Oonagh Gromley and Helen Jarvis
WASHING LINES AND WHITEBOARDS
After my minor epiphany during Malcolm Swan’s address in the morning, my conversion to the ‘new approach’ to teaching was further cemented at the Maths 4 Life session led by Helen Jarvis and Oonagh Gormley.
Encouraging their participants to take part in the manner to which they should be becoming accustomed, they highlighted the importance of Malcolm’s principles to teaching Numeracy and non-specialist maths. They quite rightly pointed out that practitioners in Skills for Life had probably been adopting these principles more than their ‘normal maths’ colleagues for many years, so the shift should not be as seismic for them.
The forthcoming ‘Thinking through Mathematics’ product will apply and illuminate these principles as they relate to Entry Level and Level 1 learners. Oonagh and Helen demonstrated questioning techniques involving floppy (and miraculously cheap) whiteboards, and followed these with an infinitely versatile washing line exercise.
The two key messages I took away were; ‘do less but do it more thoroughly’ and ‘hold your nerve, it WILL work’ – a challenge which will keep me thinking through those dark days of lesson planning!