Book Information / Buy the book
Introduction
What if not?, ? – Turning a single activity into many
Part I of this book provides a rich set of activities from across the whole of the primary maths curriculum, including ideas for teaching and using maths in cross-curricular activities. Maths needs to be introduced into other curriculum areas, for example by applying statistical ideas to raw data found in geography, science or English. Maths also needs to be exemplified in activities by drawing on other curriculum areas. Music and some poetry for example have a mathematical basis.
Give a person a fish and they will eat for a day.
Teach a person to fish and they will eat for a lifetime.
Teachers who believe they have to fish for a new activity every time they teach a maths lesson are like those who only have sufficient fish to eat for a single day: enough to stay alive but not enough to sustain themselves. The pedagogical equivalent of learning how to fish is to learn to adapt, change, modify and re-use mathematical activities, making many activities from a single starting point. One book can only provide a small set of activities but the teacher who takes a single good idea can generate innumerable activities. We hope to provide enough exciting starting points for teachers to create an infinite variety of interesting mathematical activities. When trying to generate plenty from one, the teacher will need to adapt, change and expand the activities in Part 1 of this book. We describe below various ways to do this.
page 3
“Learning Score”, watch the videos to find out what it was like
There are lots of Teacher Planning Apps available such as “Lesson Planning” for iPhone
Bernice McCarthy “4MAT system”
What is 4MAT?
page 4
For a simple version go here
Google “Learning Cycle Approach” and look at the huge range of images
Steve Pratchett “A Curriculum Model to Underpin Education for Sustainable Development” Green Awareness?
page 6
Fritjof Capra“Speaking Nature's Language: Principles for Sustainability” [View T16]
Fritjof Capra“What would happen if we used the principles of living systems as tools for learning?” [View T15]
Waste as food.
Cradle to Cradle & the Circular Economy
The Ellen MacArthur Foundation is an independent charity with the purpose of inspiring people to re-think, re-design and build a positive future. Their key objectives are
- To provide a framework for change through inspirational content, education programmes and communication.
- To help seed the future economy with people with the knowledge and skills to build the sustainable future.
- To engage with industry and showcase what is already happening in this area and challenge the status quo.
The Circular Economy Wiki
Vitya the re-cycling man “There is No ‘Away’”
page 9
Henry Liebling on Gattegno “A profound and continuing personal influence”
“Gattegno’s Key Ideas” [View T5]
More ideas
Have a look at this Superb Learning Theories Info-graphic
“The Learning Process” [View T11]
Pedagogical Dimension? Are we really in the 21st Century? Sometimes it doesn't feel like it. However I sense a return to cross-curricular work, process alongside content, inclusion and participation, respect and integrity for the learner and their work, critical enquiry methods and new excitement in how the new ever-converging technologies such as MOOCs, VLEs, handheld devices, Smartphone and tablet apps, social networking, Google maps... can enhance our potential as teachers and learners. Can you improve the potential for raising awareness by using tools/methods such as role play, simulation, mind mapping, concept mapping, Enquiry-based learning (EBL), circle time, P4C Philosophy for Children, OSDE (Open Spaces for Dialogue and Enquiry), TOE project (Learning to Read the World Through Other Eyes), World Cafe, lateral thinking, Gardner’s 8 Intelligences .....?
p8 Maxbox see M1 p155
Zoombinis is still available for both PC and Mac, although you will need to check for Windows compatibility.
Sources of different kinds of paper to work on