Maths Observation

Hi Stephen 

Thanks for the opportunity for a 'walk through' during maths teaching and learning.  

We know you are an exceptional teacher and it was clear that many elements of 'Effective Pedagogy in Maths' are in place.  

A particular element of your teaching that I admire is the collaborative nature in which you work with other teachers to enhance the learning of all students in your class.  You encourage your student teachers to 'get their hands dirty' from the onset and it appeared that you and Annabelle had a great relationship, working together for the good of every learner.  You had Marj working in your collaborative teaching environment, meeting the needs of one of our 'at risk' students.  I think it has been valuable our teacher aids being involved in our PD.  Maybe teaching in a MLE is something for you.  Do you agree and is it something you would consider?





An Ethic of Care - Instantly it was clear that you have created a caring and trusting classroom environment with positive 'I can' attitudes and children taking risks as they try the hard maths.  Your high expectations regarding behaviour, Independence and agency were also evident.  

Arranging for Learning - You provided opportunities for students to work independently as they made sense of maths in the real world.  Bright and colourful wall displays with real life maths challenges. There was independent thinking and learning time and they were all engrossed in solving the problems.  Some collaborative work was taking place too.  

Building on Students Thinking - The group you were working with made the materials before the real maths started.  This engaged them in the task right from the start with the aliens sparking interest.  










An opportunity for learners to do 'thinking maths' and also learn from their mistakes.  Also an opportunity to identify knowledge gaps.  I quite like teaching maths like this.  For me it's new as previously I would fill lots of knowledge gaps before teaching strategy.  Is this way of teaching maths different for you also?

Worthwhile Mathematical Tasks - You had the right hook, as mentioned earlier and you knew what maths you wanted to draw out.  Risk taking was evident from your learners!  You were creative with your open ended questions, giving learners many opportunities to do the thinking maths. 

Assessment for Learning - The visibility of the number framework in your room helps you and your learners to know the progressions.  

Thank you Stephen.  I think any teacher, who in the future may get to work alongside you in a collaborative teaching environment will be privileged, as you have so much knowledge and creativity in your teaching and it needs to be shared!  

Fiona