Reflection of Jan Cavanagh’s Visit to Gracemere State School

Before Jan Cavanagh’s visit to our school she consulted extensively with The Curriculum Coordinator and Principal to define just what it was that we wanted from her consultancy.

Jan spent the day modelling for teachers hands-on activities that required our students to think, work and reason mathematically in line with the current maths syllabus.
After school our staff engaged in thought-provoking, practical and fun activities that challenged us to think deeper than the ‘obvious maths concepts’ within each task.
She used a variety of easily accessible, easy to make maths resources and helped us to develop further knowledge of pedagogical approaches from the syllabus to enhance our teaching of maths.
During each lesson, Jan took the children from the concrete through verbal/visual and on to the symbolic levels gradually and sequentially and most children were able to follow this sequence with ease. Topics covered with each class included a balance of the use of investigations, practical tasks and mental and written algorithms that catered for different learning styles and captured the children’s interest and enthusiasm.

Dorothy McKenzie, Gracemere State School