How many ways can you teach number facts?

Anyone who teaches will know how important number facts are to success in mathematics. Gosh, all I can remember about my own primary school years is reciting my "tables" - and you know what? I think I am a pretty good mathematician as a result.

It's not really a game.

A thousand years ago (well it feels like that)  learning centres were all the rage in schools and then like all things education, the pendulum swung away from this classroom approach. We used various activities and kids rotated through them. They WEREN'T GAMES.

So I revisited this teaching approach the other day while relief teaching in a senior primary class and used just ONE activity to see how it would pan out.

WOW!

It was brilliant. Kids were focussed, engaged with each other AND the strategy of the activity. (I avoided calling it a game - because we don't play games in school) It actually blew me away how successful this activity was.

Why shouldn't they know?

I was relief teaching at a school today. Well it wasn't so much relief teaching, I was asked to help prepare a group of year students for their upcoming NAPLAN tests. It was like the old fashioned cramming that got me through university.

Relief Teaching and Popularity

from wikiHow - The How to Manual That You Can Edit

Don't you hate it when you get the feeling that your pupils hate you? Here are some tips to get on their good side.

5 Killer Tips for Peer Tutoring

I was relief teaching with a group of year 6 & 7 students and I had 2 hours to teach them how to find the discount price of an item on sale. Too easy I thought - but after 30 minutes I found my very straight forward lesson wasn't so straight forward. Some kids were struggling and some kids were flying through it.

As a relief teacher - Don't you HATE that!

Power Writing for Relief Teachers

Heads Down and Power Writing

Power Writing is a comprehensive teaching opportunity and a great strategy to keep in your relief teaching arsenal.

I like it because it takes the pressure off you and places it onto the kids. You are just the flag waver. I start my relief teaching day like a bull at a gate so I keep this for after lunch time when my energies are lower. (Hey, I miss my Poppy nap when I work!)

Bloom's for Relief Teachers (Part One)

There is nothing new about Bloom's Taxonomy. In fact, it is almost as old as me.

I'm sure you have seen this before but it is always worth revisiting - especially if you are relief teaching.

I like the simpler 3 level version - Factual - Inferential - Critical but Bloom's 6 levels is much more comprehensive.

How Relief Teachers get access to Learning Place

The Learning Place is available to employees of the Department of Education and Training (DET) but is not meant to provide services to the teaching profession in general.

Peer Tutoring - A powerful teaching tool

It never fails to amaze me how powerful peer tutoring can be in a classroom.

I was working in a classroom today, teaching a percentage concept to a group of year 6 & 7 students. Two kids were having trouble and try as I might I couldn't get the concept through. I had exhausted my repertoire.

Are you the worst behaved in the room?

9 TEACHER behaviours that contribute to discipline problems.

If all you have is a hammer ...

... everything looks like a nail.


Huh?

Let me put this in the perspective of the managing classroom behaviour.

Teaching is just like Golf...

Ahh! Golf. Just when you think you have it mastered, you slice one into the rough. Teaching can be JUST like that.

Using Positive Self-Talk to Conquer Any Goal

Do you feel like you are always talking yourself out of success?  I know some relief teachers who often fail before they start because they talk themselves down.

I know it's corny, but I think kids do smell fear!

How to teach an investigation - Step One

Measuring the drop height

I  am lucky enough to be working with a group of 11 and 12 year old students for a couple of hours per day over a couple of weeks. I have been tasked with extending their learning. The ultimate goal is to improving their performance on NAPLAN tests later in the year.

A Resource worth Checking.

I generally only do relief in the older classes but I am doing two x 3-day gigs in a small multi-age country school in a few weeks time. So I was looking for reading resource to use while there.

That's when I found this series called Tim the Tree Limb.

How do I stop a fight in the playground?

The truth of the matter is that sometimes you can't. A fight can still happen within metres of a teacher.