Maths Mistakes

Today we had a great discussion about mistakes and how we feel about them. Recent research by many neurologists and educationalists such as Jo Boaler from Yale University have found that every time you make a mistake, you brain actually learns. It even learns and develops when you don't know you've made a mistake. If you know you have made a mistake and work on correcting it, the synapses and connections in your brain really start firing and that's when real learning takes place.

In class we discussed how we feel about mistakes and why we don't like other people knowing when we make a mistake. I explained about the latest research and the students decided that perhaps we shouldn't call them mistakes but instead call them 'learning'.

If a child gets 10 out of 10 in a maths session and doesn't really struggle with the answers then they probably haven't learned much that day. Making errors and struggling to get the answer means you've done some learning and made progress. This message was important for the students and they really seemed to understand it.

In fact I had students asking if they could show their 'learning' to the class - which actually meant they wanted to show their mistakes.  Several students talked through their learning and the mistakes quite happily. I asked how they felt about sharing 'mistakes' and one student said "Before today I would have been scared and embarrassed, but now it feels good. "

 


The attitude towards mistakes had gone from embarrassment to excitement to show their learning. We also watched the short video below and discussed what sort of learning the people in it had to do.

Census Survey Fun

Today our Year 7 and 8 students took part in a nationwide survey through Census in Schools NZ. The survey is part of an international project where some questions are in common with other countries so as to provide comparisons between countries, while others reflect the interest of Kiwi kids. Other countries involved in the survey are Australia, Japan, South Africa, UK, Ireland, USA, Korea and Canada. The survey is completely anonymous.

Once the 'census' or survey is complete the international and national data will be supplied to us and will contribute to our statistics programme in maths. There is a wealth of information and data collected these days so it is important that students are statistically literate. Even filling in the survey provided lots of learning opportunities - questions involved adding up mls, working out how to write height in cm's only, and words such as circumference and arm span.

Kaleb seeing how long he could stand on one leg 

Using string to help measure circumference 

Measuring arm span

Working out the best way to measure arm span

More arm span measuring 

Engaged and learning 

Using technology to record results

Everyone fully involved in their learning 

Maths - Tiny House

Over the last couple of weeks students have been completing a challenging, problem solving maths task. The task was called Build a Tiny House, and that's exactly what they had to do while applying area, perimeter and geometry skills. The activity also focuses on using designing elements, multiple problem solving skills and collaboration.

Students had to create a 3D tiny house and allow space for 20 specified pieces of furniture, often using nets that they had to design themselves and then calculate the area and perimeter of each piece.

At times this task has been very challenging but everyone has persevered and as the houses near completion the effort is proving to be very worthwhile - as you can see from the following pictures.

Hopefully by the end of this week, students will have their own finished houses ready and will post them on their blogs.