Number Agents

If you have been following me for a while, you will know I have a keen interest in the teaching of writing.  In fact in the teaching of literacy in general. My approach to the teaching of writing has changed significantly since I started my journey into play and I now prefer to look at writing as storytelling.  This is an old blog post...just in case you have not read it. http://numberagents.blogspot.co.nz/2017/07/exploring-greater-depth-in-writing.html If you have read my latest book you will know that I did stumble across some research that shows children become better, more engaged writers when they are allowed to engage with the storytelling process and journaling, rather than being pushed early into formal writing where the topic is prescribed by the teacher.  Regardless of research, I can, from my perspective clearly tell you that children become much more capable, engaged writers when they are allowed to see writing as storytelling.  I have taught...

Today we learned the space game.  The idea of this game is that children move into a space.  They are simply finding space.   This leads to them being aware of themselves and their movements.  When we get accustomed to finding space in our normal persona, we go into role.  Today we went into role as a snail finding space, a grumpy giant and a busy robot. It is always such fun to watch children grow in confidence as they realise that any effort they make in drama is appreciated and accepted.  The establishment of this culture of acceptance is vital to Number Agents working effectively. Because they did so well with this I took it a little further today.  They got into partners, one in role as the giant, one as the robot.  The idea was they were angry, someone was in their space and they had to get this across using the same message and their body language.  They also had to maintain eye contact.  Initially this was difficult,...

I have been giving a lot of though lately to maths anxiety.  Not in terms of children, but actually in terms of maths anxiety in teachers.  You don't have to go far to have a conversation with a teacher about their experiences in maths and how they now have quite extreme maths anxiety.  In fact some, like myself have quite a strong reaction to even the thought of being tested on their maths ability.  This level of anxiety has been caused largely by an approach to maths that was very much drill and skill.  You learned the rules, but you never learned the why.  Tests were timed and children had a very clear picture of their ability in maths, based on the group they were put in.  Sadly many of these practices still persist, and it has been many many years since I was in a maths classroom. What is more worrying is that now as teachers with a high level of maths anxiety we are given the huge responsibility of teaching maths to children.  While this...

We started back on the 7th.  Cohort entry means that we had 13 new little learners all at once, mixed in with our 13 learners that had been with us for several weeks or several months.  This year we pick up from where we left off, with practices based on developmental stages rather than age or length of time at school.  Without knowing the ages of the 13 in the cohort it was not clear who was still yet to turn five, what was quite clear from day one through observation and interaction was the developmental differences in the 26 children we are to work with this term.  This affirmed the absolute need to establish practices that are able to cater for each one of these individuals, not to establish a one size fits all approach.  I am looking forward to further developing my practice around this. It has only been three days, but what I have noticed already is the happiness.  This year rather than doing a sit down roll as we were last year, we are allowi...

I wanted to take the time in this blog post to share something personal with you.  Something very real and often completely misunderstood.   Maths anxiety.   I want us to all be aware of the role we play in making maths anxiety a real barrier for students, or the role we can play in removing this barrier for our students. Maths anxiety starts young and is a huge reason that I started my Number Agents approach, I want children to have positive experiences with mathematics that give them a sense of competence and success. Why is this personal? Because I myself suffer from maths anxiety, an anxiety that was created by an overwhelming focus on the endless retention of facts, measured by the speed that we could remember them at.  I will never forget sitting for lengths of time with headphones on being 'tested' on my basic facts.   The fact is that I'm just not that type of learner, still to this day, I am reflective and take my time,...