This is an activity of the Australian Catholic University Mathematics Teaching and Learning Centre. All mathematics coordinators, school mathematics leaders, and classroom teachers are invited.

Our conference program aims to assist teachers in the development of professional knowledge, practice and engagement. Our sessions highlight the kinds of topics which are currently important, and of interest to teachers and leaders, such as engaging all students, number sense, ways of working mathematically, assessment, real life applications and a whole lot more.

10th Annual Primary Teachers’ Mathematics Conference“Looking back... moving forward”

Saturday 26th May 2018 9:00am – 3:30pm

We are delighted that Jill Brown will be presenting the keynote at our 10th Annual Primary Teachers’ Mathematics Conference. Jill Brown’s work on real world contexts, inquiry and active participation engages students in stimulating mathematical reasoning across all year levels. Jill is currently a lead researcher in several research projects in Victoria and Queensland.

Features of the day

» Our conference theme, “Looking back... moving forward”, ushers in a new era for the MTLC. We look back and revisit some of our popular sessions from past conferences, and move forward into the future motivated by the key messages from those workshops.

» High-quality presenters.

» Choose three sessions from a rich array of options.

» Practical ideas to take back to school, as well as insights from research and latest developments to assist in the development of professional goals.

» Handouts, certificate, lunch and afternoon tea provided.

» Handy location close to city, easy access by public transport (115 Victoria Parade, Fitzroy).

Wonderful presenters with lots of valuable information. Extremely motivating!

A wonderful mix of creative, intelligent minds. The best maths PD I have ever attended.

Great to have multilayered, rich accessible tasks to take back to my school.

ACU (Melbourne Campus) 115 Victoria Pde, Fitzroy

Cost $330 (incl. GST) – includes lunch, afternoon tea, certificate of participation and all session notes.

THE PROGRAM

Session Presenter Topic Yr Level

Keynote: 9:00am – 10:00am

Keynote Jill Brown

Looking back, looking forward: Development of students’ mathematical reasoning – Following the theme of this year’s conference, this presentation looks back at critical and emerging ideas for supporting the teaching and learning of maths in the past ten years. This will be illustrated with tasks and ideas emergent from the CTLM project (2008-2012) involving many primary schools and the current Teacher as Learner Research (TALR) project working with a single primary school. Specifically, Jill will share approaches and strategies that support, and encourage students to develop expectations of themselves as mathematical reasoners.

F – 6

Session A: 10:10am – 11:30am

A1 Leonie Anstey

Helping all learners thrive – This hands-on workshop will focus on the techniques of questioning and thinking maps within learning tasks. You will develop skills and knowledge that will allow the children in your classroom to become active learners. These ideas will be explored through classroom tasks related to the Victorian Curriculum.

F – 2

A2 Ann Downton

Place value and number sense – A great deal of emphasis is placed on place value in the early primary years. We need to give greater focus to developing number sense and a contextual approach. We will explore some of these ideas linking to the proficiency strands of the Victorian Curriculum through practical hands on tasks.

F – 3

A3 Pam Hammond

The maths interview that works! – Is the Mathematics Online Interview (formerly the Early Numeracy Interview) still relevant? Does it link to the Victorian/Australian Curriculum? Do tasks connect to the Mathematics Continuum – an on-line resource on the DEECD website available to all (Department, Catholic, Independent schools)? Yes! Yes! Yes! This workshop will show how these links can assist planning and explore effective activities to move students forward in their mathematical understanding.

F – 4

A4 Doug ClarkeAssessment tasks which inform teaching – A major purpose of assessment is to inform teaching. In this session, we will explore a range of assessment tasks, samples of student work, and discuss how these might inform teaching. Some tasks will be pen and paper, others will be interview tasks, but all with rich potential for classroom use.

F – 6

A5 Leicha Bragg

Fun with manipulatives – Many children enjoy engaging with manipulatives to develop and enhance their understanding of mathematical concepts. This session will explore multiple ways to employ well-known manipulatives as well as introduce manipulatives you may not have seen before. Come along and enjoy this hands-on, practical, and fun session.

3 – 6

A6 Donna Gronn

Scratch and other technologies in the mathematics classroom – Scratch is an exciting free tool to use, to challenge students’ thinking and engage their problem solving and reasoning skills in a creative way. We will explore Scratch and other simple apps on the iPad where students record and share their mathematical learning. We will link to the maths proficiencies and the Digital Technologies Curriculum.

3 – 6

A7 Charles Lovitt

Less rules without meaning – The Victorian Curriculum ‘Understanding’ proficiency strand has stimulated some really exciting approaches towards ‘healthier’ and more balanced mathematics programs. The session will explore practical classroom examples as well as how schools are blending the approaches into programs, including ‘triggers’ to assist us to create more genuine understanding type lessons.

3 – 6

A8 Anne Roche

Fractions: Practical strategies for the challenge of teaching this difficult topic – Fractions and their different constructs are difficult to teach and to learn. We’ll explore the big ideas of fractions, helpful assessment tasks, and important representations and models to help students give meaning to fractions. We will participate in some classroom activities that help build student understanding of the big ideas.

3 – 6

A9 Max Stephens

Developing and supporting algorithmic thinking in the primary years – Algorithmic thinking is now part of the Victorian Curriculum: Mathematics, but very different to teaching students the standard algorithms for the four operations. The goal is to teach students to think flexibly and logically to solve problems. Algorithmic thinking is the thinking behind coding, and breaks down a problem into several smaller steps to develop (test/revise) a structured approach. We will explore a variety of such algorithms, including examples such as sorting quadrilaterals.

5 – 6

Lunch: 11:30am – 12:10pm

Session B: 12:15pm – 1:35pm

B1 Linda Parish

Understanding quantity: The key to developing early number sense – Children with well-developed number sense are more likely to experience long-term success. This entails making connections between the quantity, the word that describes it, and the symbol that represents it. This practical session will explore activities that do exactly this – from part-whole number thinking, to simple fraction understandings, to early multiplicative concepts.

F – 2

B2 Sarah Ferguson

Once upon a time – This session will introduce the use of picture story books during mathematics lessons in the early years of primary school. It will describe various mathematical concepts that were introduced or developed at my school through the use of stories and how these stories became the basis for rich units of work in mathematics.

F – 3

B3 Ann Downton

Division in the early primary years - What might it look like? – Developing an understanding of the key ideas underpinning division in the early primary years provides the building blocks for more sophisticated mathematics in upper primary. This includes understanding that division is more than just sharing equally. We will explore these key ideas through a range of rich tasks that will engage and challenge students’ thinking and assist them to make connections.

F – 3

B4 Colleen Monaghan

Daily tasks to develop mental computation – Short sharp and regular practice with mental computation makes a difference. Many teachers struggle to find engaging ways to help students become more fluent with their basic facts. We will unpack a variety of activities to take away and use in classrooms with students on a regular basis. We will look at setting up routines for short, sharp and regular practice.

F – 4

B5 Leonie Anstey

Creating a culture of “effort” in the mathematics classroom/school – What does “effort” look like in your classroom/school? How do you develop staff and students to have the attitudes, skills and knowledge to persist in your challenging mathematics classrooms? If you are curious about these questions you may find this hands-on practical workshop will provoke ideas worth exploring in your context.

3 – 6

B6 Leicha Bragg

Reasoning in the primary mathematics classroom – Reasoning is the glue that ties mathematics together and is an essential part of the curriculum. We will explore avenues for including reasoning in our daily practice through an array of stimulating tasks and question prompts. The tasks we will work through encourage primary students to analyse, justify, and explain their thinking.

3 – 6

B7 Doug Clarke

Making challenging tasks a feature of our mathematics programs – We have been working alongside primary teachers as they introduced challenging tasks to their students. We will share examples of the tasks, the ways in which the tasks have been used, and insights on strategies for encouraging students to persist when working on these kinds of task.

3 – 6

B8 Phil Clarkson

Strategy games and mathematics: Exploring core aspects of mathematics – Doing mathematics and thinking about how you are doing it are different and neither is the easiest thing to do. It is a similar process in exploring what strategies you should use, and why, in playing certain games. We will explore why some strategies are better to use when playing Quarto, Tic Tac Toe and its 3D variation, and Othello, and the language we use to communicate why we are doing what we are doing.

4 – 6

B9 Stephanie Nitschke

Making geometry come alive in upper primary – Geometry can provide opportunities for students to shine, including sometimes those students who are not so strong in Number work or other parts of the maths curriculum. We will explore geometry activities which can engage and challenge all students, and I will share stories from my classroom where they have been used.

5 – 6

Afternoon Tea: 1:35pm – 1:55pm

Session C: 2:00pm – 3:20pm

C1 Danielle Armour

Aboriginal perspectives in mathematics – This workshop’s learning activities focus on key dimensions of learning mathematics, while being fun and easy to use. The activities will improve students’ understanding of mathematical language and representations and their ability to think mathematically. Aboriginal perspectives will be explored through some of the junior primary school activities that Danielle will share.

F – 2

C2 Matt Sexton

Getting very hungry for mathematics in the junior years – Participants will explore the use of Eric Carle’s “The Very Hungry Caterpillar”, as a springboard to teach mathematical ideas in the junior years. The classic story of the lifecycle of a butterfly acts as the context to learn mathematical ideas associated with place value, algebraic thinking, statistics, and measurement. These learning activities have potential to be revisited again and again to develop children’s fluency with the mathematics that underpins the tasks.

F –2

C3 Sarah Ferguson

Learning mathematics through real world problems – Mathematics happens all around us and concepts are embedded in real world problems. This is also true for young children. This session will explore the use of tasks inspired by real world contexts and discuss the learning that arose from using these types of tasks with younger children at our school.

F –3

C4 Colleen Monaghan

Engaging tasks for counting and place value – In this session we will unpack some of my favorite counting and place value activities. We will look at how they could be used in all levels and differentiated for all abilities within your classroom. These activities are easy to set up and require simple resources. This session will hopefully motivate you to use some fun, engaging, counting and place value tasks

F – 6

C5 Mun Yee Lai

Varying teaching for understanding the numerator and the denominator when learning fractions – Fractions is probably the most difficult topic to teach and to learn. Many primary students do not master the meaning of the denominator and numerator, and thus have great difficulties in learning further fraction ideas. In this workshop, we will explore a possible learning trajectory for primary children to understand the meaning of the denominator and numerator using practical tasks and activities for the classroom.

3 – 4

C6 Charles Lovitt

Happy healthy cheerful productive maths classrooms – Happy is self-evident; learning should be an enjoyable experience, for teacher and students. Healthy is the role of teachers in ensuring that of all the choices in planning we choose the healthier options. Cheerful-- because happy deserves to be in the title twice; Productive – the students are expected to learn and as a team we are all accountable. What do such classrooms look like and what is the role of teachers in building the pathways to get them?

3 – 6

C7 Annie Mitchell

Challenging tasks - What are challenging tasks and why are they good for low, medium and high performing students? – Annie will share examples of these tasks which she has used with her Year 4 students, with stories from the classroom, including the use of enabling and extending prompts to engage all students.

3 – 6

C8 Jill BrownAlgebraic thinking in the primary years – Many teachers are finding algebra hard to get their head around in the middle years. In this session, Jill will outline the key ideas, while involving participants in practical classroom activities which help to build these big ideas.

4 – 6

C9 Rose Knight

Seeing is believing – Spatial visualisation is an important aspect of everyday life, and a tool for success in maths and science. Experiences with geometrical figures and solids in the primary years may assist in developing this. We will explore a series of engaging activities aimed at improving students’ learning outcomes in the area of spatial visualisation, with stories and photos from the classroom.

4 – 6

Conference Concludes: 3:30pm

Participant’s name Email address Teacher’s Year level

SESSION PREFERENCES

Session A Session B Session C

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2nd 2nd 2nd

3rd 3rd 3rd

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3rd 3rd 3rd

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School

School Address Postcode

School Phone Number

Registration Fee: $330 per person (incl. GST) x _______________ Total Owing: $________________ (Please note fees are non refundable)

REGISTRATION FORM/TAX INVOICE

Australian Catholic University 115 Victoria Parade, Fitzroy VIC 3065 ABN 15 050 192 660 This Registration Form will form a TAX INVOICE upon payment for this conference

* Please note that some sessions that were popular in previous years have been repeated. Please take this into account when choosing your sessions.

Please fill in this registration form and send to: Michelle Fabris, Australian Catholic University, Locked Bag 4115, Fitzroy VIC 3065 OR scan and email to michelle.fabris@acu.edu.au

PAYMENT METHOD (please tick)

• It is essential that you receive confirmation of your enrolment by email prior to attending. If you have not received confirmation within one week of making payment please contact Michelle Fabris. DO NOT ATTEND WITHOUT CONFIRMATION.

• Registration is not confirmed until payment is received.

• Faxed registrations are not accepted.

• Please contact Michelle Fabris if there are any Medical Dietary Requirements.

• Places are strictly limited. The sooner you register and pay, the better your chances of receiving your preferred sessions.

Please call Michelle Fabris on (03)9230 8433 or email michelle.fabris@acu.edu.au for any queries.

Registrations will close when capacity is reached. Please refer to www.acu.edu.au/150845 for updated information.

Registration closes on Friday 18th May 2018 or when sessions are full

10th Annual Primary Teachers’ Mathematics ConferenceSaturday 26th May 2018

EFT

CREDIT CARD CHEQUE

Step 1:Direct transfer to our account: Name: ACU General Account / BSB: 082 451 Acc No: 506 966 793 / Ref: 901731MTLC “School Name”

Step 1:Please pay online at: www.acu.edu.au/mathsconference

Step 1:Make out a cheque made payable to “Australian Catholic University”

Step 2: Send registration form and a copy of the Remittance Advice to Michelle Fabris via post or email as above.

Step 2: Send registration form to Michelle Fabris via post or email as above.

Step 2: Send registration form and cheque to Michelle Fabris at the above address.