EMU – more than mathematical understanding

For the past two years I've had the privilege of working with 6 students to 'extend their mathematical understanding.' Previously I wrote a blog on relational understanding in comparison to instrumental understanding. You can read it here. As I come to the end half of the program, I've now reached an interesting point. Students are …

What’s your USP?

If you are in the business world, you may have heard of an USP. It's often described as your unique selling point. Something that makes you different from similar products on the market. Entrepreneur Asia Pacific describes it as 'the reason why one product or service is different to another.' This week in the media …

Bliss out on Learning

Blog time rolls around for term 1, 2022. Over my years at St Luke's, I've had to write a just a couple of blogs. In 2018 I published Into the Deep as my first blog where I reflected on the wild journey I was about to embark on. Over the 2019 break I had the …

#2021 the year that was.

As part of our blogging process for this year, we were asked to reflect on 5 questions based on the year that was. What is something you individually accomplished this year that you are proud of? This year I'm really proud of my team. We worked really hard to adapt, change and work together especially …

A letter from a teacher 2.0

This blog follows on from a 2020 blog you can read here. Dear World, You'd think us teachers would be used to it, right? Adapting on a day to day basis is how we go about our work, differentiating on the fly and making split second decisions. But here I am in NSW heading into …

Contemporary Literacy

This is the link to the presentation completed as part of our inquiry unit into an aspect of contemporary literacy. Through this work we have discovered needs within our students and this will continue to be a priority within our classroom.

Whose image is it anyway?

I wrote this reflection during our 2020 staff spirituality day and came across it again recently. _______________________ I was recently asked to reflect on my image of God causing this slightly different blog post. As I sat in a large room, people shared about how their image had been sculpted over time to form their …

Relational Understanding or Instrumental Understanding

This year I have commenced training to become a mathematics specialist teacher, specifically called an Extending Mathematical Understanding (EMU) teacher. Through this program there has been a requirement to engage in professional reading. One of the professional readings came from the Richard Skemp, Relational Understanding or Instrumental Understanding (1976). This reading struck me for a …

A new year, a new role.

Extending mathematical understanding (EMU) is a mathematical intervention program utilised in a number of dioceses around Australia. The aim of the program is to accelerate student growth while diagnosing students' mathematical difficulties Gervasoni (2012). In the past five weeks I have been getting to know my stage two students for the year but also getting …

Oh What a Year!

2020 blogs are wrapping up for the year and oh what a journey it has been. When I think back to writing 3's a charm at the start of the year it feels like an absolute lifetime ago. In March Covid-19 rolled around and I reflected by writing A Letter From a Teacher as our …