Exploding numbers.

This is my second blog, and it made sense to write it on the CPD that has mainly come from using twitter (as well as any other resources). These ideas are CPD that I have introduced into my lessons myself, there are obviously other ideas that have come from school CPD sessions. Not Enquiry Based Learning: The first module on my MA course was Learning Through Enquiry Using ICT at the University of Hertfordshire. I have taken the following definition for Enquiry based learning (EBL): “ EBL  describes an environment in which learning is driven by a process of enquiry owned by the student. ” (1)   I immediately did not like the idea that a student learns best through the enquiry, and I still do not. My biggest misgiving was that just because a student finally works something out for themselves does not mean they have learnt anything, they might quickly forget how they reached the end point, especially if they took many routes to get there. Second, I do not...

I am a maths teacher based in Devon, England. One of my classes is a Year 7 and 8 nuture group, a collection of around 7 students with various SEN needs from the Year 7 and Year 8 cohort. They are working to P-standards, or possibly (the old) level 3. The first thing to say about them is that they are lovely. I have seen a lot of posts and read articles that insinuate that there is a link between behaviour and SEN. These students debunk this link totally. Most of my lessons with this group are focused on life skills; basic numeracy, using money, measurements. Recently I read on twitter about a teaching idea that I had not come across before exploding dots/ touch decimals: https://twitter.com/macajo/status/1002070280909488128 It might be that my implementation of this is not correct, so apologies in advanced to https://twitter.com/macajo et al, if this is not the correct method. I wanted to start by getting the students to add some numbers, and using Craig Barton's Minimal Variat...