Making Sense Of Maths

Professional Development at  Calliope and Gladstone Central  State Schools

           Metric Conversions                            Making a cube with elastics                       Area and Perimeter                        

Focus on Maths -   This term our curriculum focus is on Maths.  Last week on the PFD, we joined with Calliope SS to bring Jan Cavanagh to Gladstone to present a full day’s professional development in Maths.  This was followed up on Wednesday with our teachers being released from class to observe Jan working with students from four of our classes - Yr 1 /2, Yr 2/3, Yr 4/5 and Yr 6/7.  She explored a number of different Number concepts and was impressed with the reasoning displayed and questions that the students asked.  In her lessons, Jan utilised a number of hands on resources – in particular, a 60 square, starting with 0, and using coloured elastics to depict plane and solid shapes which were designed to enhance students’ understanding of Number and Shape. Teachers then took part in a de-briefing session on Wednesday afternoon to share their reflections. This 2 day intensive training for our teachers will be followed up with teachers designing and implementing a number of Maths investigations in their classroom.

Rockhampton IESS Cluster

     Experimenting with the

     circumference of a circle                                Establishing the Tan Ratio

 A similar project is happening under the banner of Rockhampton IESS where several schools with a significant indigenous population have been taking part in a series of events – including workshops for teachers, and school visits with classroom modelling. The co-ordinators, Jo McCullock and Tracey Weeks are supporting the teachers with classroom visits and “make and take” sessions after school.

These are examples of very effective model of PD in Maths (in both primary and secondary schools).

The keys to success are in the support

1.       Meetings with teachers (SFD in this case) to see strategies, questioning techniques and hands on involvement

2.       Modelling/mentoring in classrooms where teachers see student responses and watch the learning with their own students in their classes.

3.       Follow up support within the school where admin visit classrooms and encourage the teachers to make gradual changes towards an agreed goal.