MissWoodsMaths

I think that’s enough of Twitter for me! Heading over to blue sky for fab teaching ideas and practices! Debate is important berating and belittling is not! Thanks guys!

@mathillustrated Thank you, your tweets are really appreciated!

@MathsWoods Particularly if you talk about memorizing your multiplication tables! But there are lots of friendly people here still

Sometimes teacher twitter can be a bit of an intense place can’t it!

@bamagal417 As stated in my previous tweet, I am referencing my students in my classroom, and for some of them memorising it is a struggle.

@MathsWoods My students barely want to do the steps needed to solve the problem in the first place. I can’t imagine them having to add in drawing an array or skip counting for each multiplication fact just to figure out something they could have memorized. They would have a stroke.

@madbutwright @oldandrewuk In my classroom I have just seen it knock students confidence a lot if they can’t remember the facts on the spot and I’ve found it builds them back up to remind them to go back to basics rather than memory, but again just my opinion!

@madbutwright @oldandrewuk Just my opinion!

@LeeDon1982 @oldandrewuk As my tweet stated I am not suggesting it’s not useful for to know,but it’s not essential for them to access a maths lesson!The narrative of “I can’t do maths”often stems from lack of confidence in times tables,in my opinion from my own classroom which is all I am referring too.

@C_Hendrick @MrTaylorMaths2 Fundamentally I was retweeting to agree with your tweet about the importance of breaking things down.

@MrTaylorMaths2 @MathsWoods In general I agree with Tricot/Sweller that the best indicator of performance in a given domain is the presence or absence of domain specific knowledge.

@oldandrewuk Also as a secondary maths teacher I am not questioning the place of substantive knowledge I was just highlighting the emphasis on memorising times tables can sometimes be damaging.

@MathsWoods Speaking as a secondary maths teacher, I can assure you that knowing basic facts will help later understanding.

@MrTaylorMaths2 @C_Hendrick Exactly my point!! A lot of students feel if they can’t reel these off immediately they have failed!

@MathsWoods @C_Hendrick I think the key here is that tinestables aren't isolated blocks of information they are highly connected to what has preceded it and what proceeds from it too. If they are taught in isolation of everything they are fairly useless other than answering timestables questions.

@C_Hendrick I mean I can’t speak for teachers as a whole, but I have certainly had students come to me who feel they are inherently “good” or “bad” at Maths based on their proficiency in reeling off times tables. I think there is a lot of pressure on primary school teachers to fit it all in

@MathsWoods Does any teacher focus on just memorising times tables without the larger goal of conceptual understanding?

@C_Hendrick No,which is in essence my point, if the focus is on memorising x tables facts rather than learning a core concept,the working memory will become overloaded,when taught as a concept of what does it mean to multiply they can draw this from their long term memory instead

@MathsWoods Could they understand "it" if the knowledge needed to do so wasn't in their long-term memory?

@C_Hendrick In the students long term memory from being giving the space to explore the basics, understanding that multiplying is just 3 lots or 6! Removing the anxiety of forgetting the fact they’ve memorised and allowing them to time to understand it instead!

@MathsWoods When you problem solve, what exactly are you using to solve the problems? Where are these skills stored?

Fab day with @TuringNW @MathsHubs looking at leadership skills and where are areas of focus are for the upcoming year, there is so much value in hearing the experience of others HODs and always good to catch up with people from my training year!🫶🏼

Today is a day to shed light on the topic, but everyday is a day to consider mental health, in every interaction you have remember that people, adults and children, are fighting private battles everyday. 🩷

Amazing to see so many Year 11s on my Thursday evening Maths revision LIVE! A reminder that this Thurs (19th Sept) is Week 2. I do this every week, completely free, on YouTube and TikTok. 7-7:45pm for Foundation and 7:45-8:30 for Higher. Download here: bit.ly/4boEWL7

To build a tower, lay your first brick:

Reminder to tell your students about this tomorrow.

For the first year I’ve taken my time and put lots of thought into my displays rather than rushing! I’m so proud with how they’re turning out 🥹

✨New GCSE revision resource✨ 7 weeks of maths mats for students studying Higher GCSE maths. The skills on these sheets focus solely on high frequency non-calculator topics, worth approximately 40 marks in total. bright-maths.co.uk/year11resources