"Maths Doesn't Have to Hurt"
What’s Happening in Maths Professional Development in 2024
Well hello everyone. So much for my well intentioned promise of keeping the website totally up to date – bad fail! However, better late than ever with half-of-the-year still to go.
The LME 2024 WEBINAR SERIES based on Peter Liljedahl’s best selling and ground breaking book is alive and well and we have delivered 5 webinars up to this point with Web 6 for Years 3 to 6 happening on August 12.
The webinars will feature the next 3 practices (of the 14):
- USING HINTS AND EXTENSIONS TO MAINTAIN THE FLOW
- CONSOLIDATING A LESSON IN A THINKING
- HOW STUDENTS TAKE NOTES IN A THINKING CLASSROOM
The webinars will highlight and provide anecdotes, advice and tasks tailored to Liljedahl’s practices but they will also be specific to F to 2 and Years 3 to 6 audiences.
Mike and myself hope we see you on August 12 for middle and upper primary teachers and leaders.
Email me at rvec@bigpond.com and I can invoice the school directly or use the link below to book tickets through Eventbrite.
The final pair of webinars will be on Oct 22 (F to 2) and October 28 (3 to 6) and focus on the last three of Liljedahl’s effective practices:
- Evaluate what you value
- Helping students where they are and where they are going
- Assess students on data – not points
On a related matter, we have had a lot of feedback from teachers and schools who have missed some or all of the webinars but really want to come to understand and relate to what the Building Thinking Classrooms in Mathematics book has to offer (and it is a lot) and so we have decided to offer recordings of the first 6 webinars – or less if you/the school have attended some and missed others. The recordings will be available until October 28.
To start this process email either Michael (michael.lovemaths@gmail.com) or Rob
(rvec@bigpond.com) and we can work out what recording/s you require and at what cost we can offer those to you.
The highlighted practices are those that the first series of webinars have addressed.
Webinars 7 (Foundation to Year 2) and 8 (Years 3 to 6) will be in October.
BUILDING THINKING CLASSROOMS in MATHEMATICS.
The book focuses directly on 14 practices that enhance mathematical learning:
1. What type of tasks we use
2. How we form collaborative groups
3. Where students work
4. How we arrange the furniture
5. How we answer questions
6. When, where and how tasks are given
7. What homework looks like
8. How we foster student autonomy
9. How we use hints and extensions
10. How we consolidate a lesson
11. How students take notes
12. How we choose to evaluate
13. How we use formative assessment
14. how we grade
If anyone would like tickets for the Years 3 to 6 webinar on August 12 (using hints and extensions; consolidating a lesson; students taking notes) then go to the Eventbrite link above or email me direct at rvec@bigpond.com and I can arrange a direct invoice for your school if that is more convenient. Just include names and email addresses of those participating and cc Mike into the email ( Michael Minas <michael.lovemaths@gmail.com )
Each webinar will feature tasks (activities/games/problems), tips/advice and anecdotes that are relevant and appropriate to
specific Year levels.
As usual, our clear intention is to make every webinar practical, useful, worthwhile and engaging – a lot like every maths lesson should look and feel like!
I hope the now 6 months old ‘new’ layout for the website has made it even easier to navigate and access resources and information that can help. Upper Primary and Lower Secondary teachers – check out the Years 5 to 8 booklet that I’ve added to the Resources section – 100, yep, 100 activities! They are a mix of warm-up activities to full blown student activities and, like the Mental Computation booklet – all yours to download and start using.’’
I was sincerely determined to do better with new articles/opinion pieces and more resources to be completed and added this year. I will get to thast – it’s beena busier year than anticipated – but aren’t they all.
I would love to an article on explicit teaching and what it really means so look out for that.
CLUE: it doesn’t mean a teacher standing up the front and telling kids what they know while presuming, clearly and almost always incorrectly , that they know nothing.
I also intend to keep you up to date with webinars and pd days and other things you, as classroom teachers and leaders in schools, may be interested in.
Here are the dates for all LME webinars for 2024.
Mike Minas and myself have finalised (finally!) our focus for the 2024 webinar series and we’re pretty happy about it. We believe it will be practical, useful, engaging and very worthwhile. Below the dates listed here you’ll find a description of what the webinars will be about this year.
Term 1:
Feb 13 (F-2) & March 6 (3-6) done and dusted
Term 2:
May 8 (F-2) & 21 (3-6) done and dusted
Term 3:
July 22 (F-2) done and dusted & August 12 (3-6)
Term 4:
October 22 (F-2) & October 28 (3-6)
LME 2024 WEBINAR SERIES
Michael and myself are basing our webinars for this year on Peter Liljedahl’s best selling and ground
breaking book –
BUILDING THINKING CLASSROOMS in MATHEMATICS.
The book focuses directly on 14 practices that enhance mathematical learning:
1. What type of tasks we use
2. How we form collaborative groups
3. Where students work
4. How we arrange the furniture
5. How we answer questions
6. When, where and how tasks are given
7. What homework looks like
8. How we foster student autonomy
9. How we use hints and extensions
10. How we consolidate a lesson
11. How students take notes
12. How we choose to evaluate
13. How we use formative assessment
14. 14 how we grade
Webinar 5 (for Foundation to Year 2) and Webinar 6 (Years 3 to 6) will address the next three of the practices:
– Use hints and extensions to maintain flow
– Consolidating from the bottom
– Taking meaningful notes
Webinar 7 (for Foundation to Year 2) and Webinar 8 (Years 3 to 6) will address the final three practices:
– Evaluating what you value
– Helping students see where they are and where they are going
– Grading/assessing based on data
Not only will each webinar be tailored to Liljedahl’s practices but they will also be specific to
Foundation to Year 2 and Years 3 to 6 audiences. Each webinar will feature tasks
(activities/games/problems), tips/advice and anecdotes that are relevant and appropriate to those
specific Year levels.
As usual, our clear intention is to make every webinar practical, useful, worthwhile and engaging – a lot like every maths lesson should look and feel like!
[ Book spots for the webinars on Eventbrite or email directly on rvec@bigpond.com: ]
Dates:
Webinar 6: Aug 12 {3 – 6]
Webinar 7: Oct 22 [F -2]
Webinar 8: Oct 28 [3 – 6]
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Other Announcements
Rob Vingerhoets Educational Consultancy now has a facebook page!
There is a page where you can find Rob’s recent articles and learn about his maths ‘philosophy’ and approaches to teaching maths in the classroom. The page is available via Resources, or click here!
