Reflection

"Making mistakes is the most useful thing to be doing"  reaffirms to me the importance of the children showing their thinking when they are solving a problem and not just focusing on the answer.  Being able to describe the strategies that they are using confidently to their peers/teachers is an important skill for children to learn.  Being able to work through their strategy and see where they went wrong is also very important.  Continually encouraging the children to understand that getting a question wrong doesn't matter so long as they are confident with the strategy they are using and are able to see where they made the mistake.

It has made me think about the terminology that I use with the children. "Not quite yet" is an interesting term that can be used with the children to encourage them to keep trying and is very positive. The need for me to give children time to correct their work is very important.

Knowing that by developing children's ability to be confident and persistent problem solvers will really help then in later life.  These are skills that they will then go on and use to make them successful in their careers. 

Jo has really made me think about the type of problems and investigations that I should be doing with the children.  I think it is really important to teach them the skills they need for good problem solving: Team Work, Communication, Flexibility and Persistence.  Nrich is a great resource for investigations for the children to work on to develop their skills of problem solving.

Finally SLOW DOWN.

https://nrich.maths.org/

Feeling positive about changes that I am going to make to the way I teach maths in grade 4.