Great session today, I love getting into the nuts and bolts of maths (and content knowledge is what I actually need in terms of my practice). I especially appreciate having everything broken down conceptually (eg percentages are another way of writing hundredths), as it helps my own understanding. I know that I definitely need practise myself in some areas before I even try to teach the children. Decimal place value in particular is a difficult concept for me to grasp and I do end up reteaching myself over and over, however some of the rauemi today did make that a little bit clearer.
I notice too that apart from a few pieces of equipment that we received recently, my kura doesn't seem to have a lot of manipulatives for fractions/decimals/percentages. This could mean that I need to make as much as I can from nzmaths material masters, or be creative with whatever rauemi I can find. However, I realise also that they can't just sit on the shelf and get forgotten about either (which is a nasty habit of mine) so I need to be purposeful and thoughtful about any rauemi I acquire, and make a plan to use it.
HI Lynda, I love how reflective you have been in your post about the MPI content that is going to help you as a teacher, and what is going to help your learners as well. Using manipulatives is a great way to get the concepts across to students, so I would really encourage you to rummage around in classrooms and resource spaces to see what you have at hand before rushing to print and laminate. I found a whole maths trolley once when I went looking! Good luck! Kiri
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