NZL One - Two - Three

When students are curious they are more likely to be engaged. But why? What, is curiosity and how does it work? A study published in the journal Neuron suggests that the brain's chemistry changes when we become curious, helping us better learn and retain information .  In their study  Grubner and Ranganath(2014)  explored how curiosity influences memory. They found that  states of high curiosity enhance both the learning of interesting information, and also the more boring stuff.   Applying this to the classroom maybe we could interpret this as  "students will learn more about topics they are curious about" The authors of the study also discussed how   much of what a person experiences in a day is forgotten.  This made me wonder, how much of what happens during an average school day do our students remember?  How do we get students excited and curious about mathematics? Do we uncover the magic? Eddie Woo, Mathematics tea...

My first making connections post was about making the connections between strands of the maths &  stats curriculum. This post is about making connections between people. He aha te mea nui o te ao. He tāngata, he tāngata, he tāngata What is the most important thing in the world? It is people, it is people, it is people. Thinking about this whakatauki and our our first two Team days of 2018 I decided that this year that I would be more explicit about the place of whakawhanaungatanga in my practice. Whanaungatanga :  (noun) relationship, kinship, sense of family connection - a relationship through shared experiences and working together which provides people with a sense of belonging. It develops as a result of kinship rights and obligations, which also serve to strengthen each member of the kin group. It also extends to others to whom one develops a close familial, friendship or reciprocal relationship. As we worked together in our teams of three, lear...

Today  Ormiston Senior College opened their doors to mathematics teachers to share how they are personalising learning utilising technology. Teachers came from Albany in the north to Onewhero is the south. I was definitely the kid with a new toy as I learned to drive a sphero. With a bit of trial and error however the sphero was off. I think the best day of school just got better. Many thanks to Ormiston Senior College, Subash and his department for hosting us - A great morning - lots of learning - and lots of ideas shared. Next stop Auckland Maths Association   AGM & Quiz Night Get a team (of 4) together  or join a team on the night Wednesday February 28th  Mt Eden Bowling Club, Epsom Ave, Epsom. Happy Hour 6-7pm AGM followed by quiz night, 

With the  census  looming on March 6th 2018 we have an authentic context for our stats teaching and for meeting the intent  of The New Zealand Curriculum. advertising the 2013 census TKI  notes Students can: demonstrate the curriculum vision of being connected, actively involved, lifelong learners explore the future focused issues of sustainability, citizenship, and globalisation consider the NZC values of diversity, respect, community, and participation make use of key competencies, especially using language, symbols, and texts, relating to others, thinking, and participating and contributing In Maths & stats students may meet acheivement objectives by designing and conducting their own census investigations using the statistical enquiry cycle evaluating their findings analysing the findings of the 2018 census and those of previous years evaluating the effectiveness of different data displays. TKI  has  links  to a numb...

Term 4 is the time when we pull everything together and students prepare for end of year exams. Exams can cause anxiety. Maths anxiety simply compounds this. Its time to stop the clock on maths anxiety - read the latest research on Youcubed https://www.youcubed.org/resources/time-stop-clock-math-anxiety-heres-latest-research/ Is Maths Anxiety Real?   adapted from http://study.com/academy/lesson/causes-effects-of-math-anxiety.html  Does just hearing the word 'maths' make your heart race and your palms sweaty?  Does  maths anxiety  exists.  Many scientists believe maths anxiety is a very real condition. It can be defined as emotion including stress and tension that interfere with a student's ability to solve maths problem http://mathematicsanxiety.blogspot.co.nz/2011/04/where-does-math-anxiety-in-preservice.html Causes of Maths Anxiety Test anxiety is the impending feeling that you will or are failing an exam, and often leads to poor res...

If  algebra is about seeing patterns and making connections, how can we connect number, geometry & algebra? One approach... think about the number 180; 180 degrees on a straight line 180 degrees is the sum of the interior angles in a triangle 180 degrees in a semicircle 180 is an even number and a multiple of 10 180 in standard form looks like this 1.8 x 10 ^2 Is 180 a happy or an unhappy number? What pairs of numbers add up to 180? How many different pairs can you find? What patterns can you see? How do you know if you have found all the pairs? A spreadsheet is one way for students to experiment : Use the View> Show Formula option to introduce students to the algebraic logic behind spreadsheet formulae How could we draw this? How else could we draw this? How could this be written using symbols? 120 + 60 or 120 + 60 = 180 Target 180 Two numbers add to 180. If I know one number what could the other number be? Use a tabl...

As we embed the changes to 91027 and prepare for a changed format in  91028 I wondered how things used to be... From the 1996 School Certificate chief markers report. In the first paragraph it was noted  that there was a " continued requirement for candidates to interpret information,  to explain, describe and justify their mathematics clearly and concisely" I discovered investigation tasks in exams are not new - In 1996 candidates had to  carry out an investigation to discover what length and width of a box would give the greatest base area. To find a solution they could chose their method and were offered a table or grid as a guide. School Certificate 1996 These investigative type questions first appeared in 1995 and these was one in each paper up to the introduction of NCEA. I have scanned the questions and put them in the shared 91028 folder   You will see there is a folder called GIVE ONE GET ONE that all teachers can add a questio...