Bonding through Blogging

Monday, May 23, 2016

On Saturday morning (14th May) I attended the Cape Town Maths Day at Grove Primary along with 50 other teachers. The focus was on exploring Maths digitally so we were asked to bring along a laptop. The program was great. We each received a wonderful goodie bag that included a Sharp calculator. The program
“By the end of the day, you will gain an excellent understanding of how to incorporate digital learning in your classroom, some fantastic practical tips and free Goody Bag to take home with you!

Matific: Incorporating Technology In The Classroom
Presented by Lynn Ross, Matific Country Manager

Sharp Calculators: Calculator Skills For Primary School Maths
Presented by Tal Moore, Calculator Support Specialist

Living Maths: Tech For Techno Peasants
Presented by Steve Sherman, Chief Imagination Officer

1. Matific: Incorporating Technology In The Classroom
Presented by Lynn Ross, Matific Country Manager

Lynn Ross opened the Matific presentation by enquiring about how teachers felt about using technology in the classroom. The majority felt very nervous about it. They felt their students knew more than they did. Mathific (https://www.matific.com/za/en-za) is a great online Maths program linked to the South African CAPS. There is a 30 day trial and a membership costs R120 per year. It caters for Grades R - 7. The terminology used for getting around the website is episodes, worksheets, playlists and lesson plans. Here is a screenshot from Grade 5:

This was a great presentation - very impressive. Below is a slideshow of some of my screenshots.

2. Sharp Calculators: Calculator Skills For Primary School Maths
Presented by Tal Moore, Calculator Support Specialist

This was also a great session presented by Tal Moore. We opened our wonderful calculator gift and played a lot of games one could do in the classroom - drill, tables etc.

Great dem plus a free calculator from Sharp calculators at the Maths Day pic.twitter.com/mJM7WNOPgP
— Fiona Beal (@fibeal) May 14, 2016

Great calculator fun on our free Sharp calculators at the Cape Town Maths Day pic.twitter.com/9Udc8fVbWO
— Fiona Beal (@fibeal) May 14, 2016

3. Living Maths: Tech For Techno Peasants
presented by Steve Sherman

Presented by Steve Sherman, Chief Imagination Officer This was an amazing presentation. Steve Sherman from Living Maths is a vigourating, entertaining presenter who really held everyone's attention. He spoke on gamifying maths and showed us what fun it could be. The Living Maths website has so many wonderful free resources to use under the Resources section on their website. Today's resources were shared via Symbaloo https://goo.gl/7kmcJr .

Plenty of fun and many great resources for gamifying Maths content presented by Steve Sherman of Living Maths pic.twitter.com/fGOx5akPir
— Fiona Beal (@fibeal) May 14, 2016

We played Jeopardy, Who wants to be a mionnaire, Kahoot and Plickers all adapted for Maths. Steve Sherman is also a great photographer and he took loads of photos which he has uploaded to an album on the Living Maths Facebook page https://goo.gl/vKv1qD.