Do you prefer teaching Numeracy or Literacy?

Every teacher I have ever met has a preference in their teaching… Literacy or Numeracy…

And that is completely fine… we all have different skills and interests…

But it is important to keep in mind that children are little barometers… they have an inbuilt mechanism to sniff out how we really feel about things...

They pick up on cues we don’t even know we are sending out…

Maybe we happily let our maths lessons run over time to allow our class to get something finished, but never do the same for literacy?

Maybe we always teach literacy in the morning when everyone is at their best, including us…

Maybe we always skip/shorten our maths session when we have an incursion/mass/assembly to fit in our weekly timetable?

Maybe our disposition changes when we teach literacy?

Maybe we go from facilitating easy going free flowing lessons in Literacy to structured, teacher as the holder of all knowledge lessons in Maths…🤷‍♀️

Whatever it is, it is important that we as teachers are aware of our preferences and are honest with the students.

It is ok that maths (or literacy) is your preference… just be honest…

Say things like:

✅We are learning together

✅I don’t always know the answer

✅Feel free to put your hand up if you think you can help your classmates understand…

These statements bring down the barriers… they help us overcome the feeling that we have to be “in control” and the “oracle” of answers in maths/literacy…

If we set it up so our learning is a journey we are all on… and feel confident to say...I don’t know I’m going to go home tonight to find out… that is completely fine

Take the pressure off yourself.. but do make sure you go and find out the answer… for yourself, and most importantly to show your students that you really do want to learn alongside them!

Believe me everyone will feel better when it comes to maths/literacy time!