I remember my Maths teacher drumming into me the method for laying out long-division and it would be fair to say that he did a very good job, so much so that I offered to demonstrate my ingrained skills to a room full of Maths teachers in my first year of training. When the tutor asked why I was doing what I was doing (and it was a very long and laborious process!) I couldn’t answer apart from to say that if I didn’t do it this way, I would be sent to repeat the process a dozen times until I got it right!
Joining Yr3 today, Mr Donohoe was teaching the same lesson using ‘number lines’…WOW…I learned a great deal! There are far more effective, speedy and easily understood methods of solving these problems. I thoroughly enjoyed joining Yr3 and came away wondering whether I could have achieved more in my Maths learning if I were eight years old again! It also reminded me how far the teaching of this subject has come and why we need teachers to deliver it in such an engaging way rather than tutoring a veneer thin layer of understanding that will not bear the weight of future more complex layers to be added…just a thought!
Thank you Yr3…I loved it and you clearly get it!
Tim Calvey