Dr Ange's Blog

On the radio this week I heard a fact that really shocked me. It mentioned that it can take on average 17 years to turn research into practice.

I decided to have a little dig into where this research came from, and it appears to have been completed in the health field. So this means it takes a long...

Have you ever been to an athletics sports and seen a student slow down and walk as they approach the finish line? It rarely happens, most of them are busting to ‘finish strong’. Each year in teaching is a little like a race, we start full of enthusiasm, but sometimes by the time we reach December, w...

When I was a teenager, my Christmas job was in a cake factory. I would count 10 shortbread biscuits (I now consider myself 'elite' at counting to ten😂- perhaps this is what led me to my research in place value🤷‍♀️!). I would put the 10 shortbread in a plastic cello bag and seal the bag with a heat s...

LEGO is an amazing resource. Did you know that 2022 marks the 90th Anniversary of the LEGO group? LEGO are huge champions for play, and as teachers, we all know the critical role play plays in learning. LEGO is timeless resource, which can be used not just at home, but also has many applications in ...

I always prefer summer over winter, so I do find myself getting excited about the upcoming 6 week summer holiday break. Summer holidays are a great time to engage in some ‘slower’ activities with my children, like reading and playing board and card games. When we play games I always think of my bolo...

In 1990 Arthur Baroody (1990) wrote an excellent article titled “How and when should place value concepts and skills be taught?”. In this research Arthur presents four increasingly abstract models of place value. 

1.Grouping ten ones into a ten

2 Trading in Ten ones for a pre-grouped ten

3 Tradin...

I often begin a PD by asking teachers to share an object or teaching resource that pops into their mind when they think of ‘place value’. Nearly always the first answer is base ten blocks (sometimes known as Multi-Attribute Blocks MAB, or Dienes blocks).

Now don’t get me wrong, I love base ten bloc...

In this blog I share a little more about the PVAT tool I developed in my four years of PhD research!

What is the PVAT?

The PVAT is a paper and pen assessment of Year 3-6 student’s whole number place value knowledge. The assessment was trailed with over 900 students through my PhD research, and usi...

Last week I looked at developing your yearly overview in Years 1-6. I mentioned that there were several things I consider when developing these plans with my teams. Many of these considerations also relate to the Foundation year, but I think that the first year of school is a ‘special case’ (in many...

Money is a critical part of our maths curriculum and the lessons we teach literally will stay with our students for life!

As Van de Walle et al (2012) point out, recognising coins is not a mathematical skill but a social convention.  As such, we must explicitly teach our students to recognise the c...

I wanted to talk about yearly planning because as we begin Term 4- we naturally start focussing on the year ahead. Sometimes yearly planning can be a challenge, but it is a really important first step in making sure that everyone at your school is on the same page. 

Often I'm asked about creating ‘...

In this blog I wanted to share a story about when I was learning to drive, as I think it illustrates nicely the importance of scaffolding student learning through our knowledge of developmental progressions. 

My mum and dad are both teachers, mum is primary trained and dad secondary. So growing up ...