Back in September I was lucky enough to be able to go to the MANSW 2013 conference with 3 of the teachers from the school I work at. I am not traditionally what would be called a 'maths' person so I was in part worried that a lot of it would be over my head and also excited to be learning new things that would help me teach maths.
The conference was at Terrigal and the above photo was the view from our shared apartment. As a regional Australian it was nice to wake up and see the water each morning.
We went for a walk and saw some wonderful views of the surrounding headlands too.
There was so many good sessions over 2.5 days that it would be hard to mention them all. I had fun folding paper and investigating shapes although I did have trouble assembling my cube shown above so I am not sure many of my primary school children would be giving that a go under my watch!
I loved the idea of using bendy straws fitted together to investigate angles and 2D shapes. This will get used for my upper primary children but I think lower primary would lack the gross motor skills to assemble them and would be easily distracted and wanting to play (and blow) in the straws.
I enjoyed snipping strips of paper into different trapeziums and then sorting them in relation to size and angles. This would be a great way to demonstrate that shapes can come in all shapes and sizes but still share common properties.
The food was great too.
I am lucky that I was given the chance to go to this conference even though I am not yet a qualified teacher. I know when I enter my own classroom for the first time with a full class of students that I am responsible for teaching that I will be a better teacher because of the opportunities I have been granted so far as I finish my degree and move closer to my teaching number.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Thank you for your comments.