Number Agents

Now let me start this post by saying this, we are all different, we all teach differently and have different strengths.  I have no desire to make you like me, I absolutely do not believe that what I do is the only way to do things.  However there is one thing we have in common, and that is the children we teach. Although they may be different and unique in many ways, developmentally they all go through the same stages (however at various speeds) and they all have brains developing that need to be catered for in developmentally appropriate ways.  Wow, what a challenge that is, and a challenge I have decided to take on over the last couple of years.  What a journey so far! A closer look at development brings us back to Piaget's model for cognitive development.  I am absolutely sure anyone that has done child development is familiar with Vygotsky and Piaget.  Their research remains incredibly relevant for us today and is also backed up by research into br...

Something I have been contemplating lately is the aim of education.  What is it we are trying to achieve?  Many of the skills still being fostered in classrooms today, are not relevant to the workplaces they will find themselves in,  so what direction should we be taking? What is our aim?  You only have to read articles about workplaces like google to know that times have changed, test scores do not matter, intelligence has been redefined and somewhere along the way education has missed the memo.  We live in a world today, where the most successful are forging their own path, often despite the education they have had, not because of it.  So many people are self made now, they have created viable businesses out of their passions...not because of the success they had in school, but because for some reason they were strong enough to follow their passion, they had a strong sense of self. I think this could be the ultimate aim we should have in mind for ed...

This post has been brewing a while, but while I have been occupied writing my next play-based book it has taken a back seat.  That book is now finished, has been proofed and I am just in the middle of reading it through one last time.  The further I get into play-based learning, the further away I obviously get from who I was as a 'traditional' classroom teacher.  The more research I have read in the process of writing my book, the happier I become about my choice.  The flip side of this is the sense of frustration I now get when I look at some of the developmentally inappropriate things taking place in the classrooms of our youngest children. The practices that are causing our children great stress and slowly stripping away the strong sense of self that they often walk into our classrooms with.  I had no idea how I was making children feel, that I wasn't adding value by accelerating them into learning that they were not ready for.  I was kind and caring,...

The set up of Number Agency is absolutely crucial to its success. As with any Mantle the children need to believe in this world and be intrigued by it, that takes a little time. The more children buy into this imaginary world, the more effective Number Agents will be. With older children it can probably be done slightly faster, but with younger children I like to take our time. It is not like they are not doing maths during this time, as a lot of their maths comes out of their self-directed play. A lot of this initial process is guided by the children and where their wonderings take us, but this is my initial first step planning into agency. --------------------------------------------- A large amount of maths will come through play and will be encouraged through provocations, and reflected on through learning stories and class reflections. Number Agents - Week 1 - 3 (really only two weeks as we go back halfway through week one) Playing a variety of drama games, to develop con...