NZL One - Two - Three

Here is the first  National Maths & Stats Newsletter  of the year with many useful links.  I particularly like the new you cubed site from Stanford University  http://youcubed.stanford.edu /, and Jo Boaler,  Professor of Mathematics Education and the driving force behind the very successful “How to Learn Maths” course.  She uses Carol Dweck’s work and this website is heavily informed by her interpretations of “Mindset”.  http://youcubed.stanford.edu/category/teaching-ideas/growing-mindset/  .  The positive class norms section contains a document worth sharing with her 7 favourite messages for students Stanford also released a news article last week on the need to teach maths without fear or speed.  You can find the article  here  The short paper the news article is based on is worth downloading and having a read through. While this paper is aimed at younger students, as secondary teachers having students coming into year 9 without a sound knowledge of

This post from the secondary literacy on line forum got me thinking about what we do in maths to start the year.  Great first lessons: Igniting the fire in your students. There is nothing like the first lesson to excite students about the learning both as an individual and as a class of learners who are hopefully going to take charge of their own learning. How do you want them to feel when they leave your classroom? What is the most important thing you want them to know? Are they going to feel a part of a class or feel like a separate individual? How are you going to establish  manaakitanga  (values of integrity, trust, sincerity and integrity)  What are you going to do to build  whanaungatanga  (relationships based on high expectations)? To build whanaungatanga: The string activity: In groups of 4, students are given two pieces of string and some post-its. They are to use the string to make the North and South Island. Individually students write on a post-it a pl