I have managed to post an example task for a streak of 107 days this academic year. However, at this point I’m going to redirect my efforts as I have decided to focus on writing Deconstructing Word Questions Y2-Y5. I see this as being my greatest possible contribution. It’s hard to properly communicate the vision for these resource using photos – it’s better done using short videos. I will spend the Spring term focusing on writing the resources and trialling them in lots of different classrooms. Then, in the summer term, I will post a video a week explaining how, I believe, we can transform the teaching of word questions. I will also send out lots of free resources to trial to the people on my mailing list. I am so excited about what is to come!
The resources will be released some time between September 2024 and January 2025, depending on the outcomes from the classroom trials.
Below is my original blog post:
Day 1: The Mountain Pass Logic Puzzle and The Mountain Pass Answers
I’m passionate that all children get to experience the true richness of mathematics and for maths to be an intellectually and emotionally rich pursuit. To this end, over the last 10 years I’ve strived to create maths tasks that generate conversations, give space for curiosity and provide opportunities for extended exploration. I hope that my resources are inspirational and simple to integrate with your maths curriculum.
I have so many plans for new resources! I See Reasoning – Y1 and I See Reasoning – Y2 are being written: they will be comprehensive resources for building number sense and embedding reasoning in daily lessons. Deconstructing Word Questions will be written for Y1-Y5 after the successful launch of the Y6 eBook. Then I will go back to my roots: writing a range of logic puzzles and problem-solving ‘task families’, so problem-solving skills can be built coherently.
To get into the routine of writing new resources every day, I have set myself a challenge: to post a new task every school day on social media for the whole of the 2023-2024 academic year. Images or videos will be posted at 7:30pm every day on Twitter, Facebook and on my NEW INSTAGRAM FEED. At the time of writing, I have exactly 0 Instagram followers!
I am actively seeking your feedback on all my posts. Specifically, what would you change about each task? Or if you use any of the tasks in the classroom, what age of children did you use the task with and what happened? I won’t always respond immediately – I can struggle with insomnia so I’m usually off social media after 8pm – but I will read every comment. Feedback can be emailed to iseemaths@hotmail.com
I have taken so much from the feedback given by teachers about my work – it helps me to reject my bad ideas and improve my half-baked ones! I love to receive any suggested improvements or comments.
The first post will be on 4th September. Until then, have a great summer – Gareth
Gareth Metcalfe Primary Maths 