Task Centre News July 2007

1,244 tasks placed in schools during July. 292,589 placed since the project began in July 1992. If you would like to be on an email list to receive updates about this site send an email to doug@blackdouglas.com.au In the subject line write Subscribe TC. In the body of message write your name and preferred email address. If you would also like eNews from Maths300 and Calculating Changes write Subscribe All in the subject line. Please feel free to distribute this information.

In this month's News you will find: Happy Birthday TC Tasks of the Month Task 44, Latin Squares Task 45, Eric The Sheep Ongoing PD

• Happy Birthday TC
  On July 1st the Mathematics Task Centre Project celebrated its 15th birthday. The first official workshop of the project was July 1st 1992. That was our first attempt to gather the wisdom of practice which began with the first task centre in 1977. So this year also celebrates the 30th anniversary of Neville de Mestre and Bea Duncan's first Task Centre.

  My how the baby has grown!

  To celebrate these anniversaries we have refreshed the site. Our project is now the centre for a world of alternatives to text-based mathematics learning.

  • Easier on the eyes - because we want you to spend a lot of time here.
  • Easier to navigate - because there is so much to find, including upgraded links to professional development and support resources.
  • Easier to believe that maths can be more than skill practice - because there are so many stories from so many teachers who have shown other ways.
  • Almost seamless connection between the three projects from which we draw our stories - Mathematics Task Centre Project, Maths300, Calculating Changes
  Please let us know what you think.

  Navigation Hints

  • Did you know that wherever you are on a page you can press the Home button on the keyboard to return to the top of the page? On almost all of our new pages this will return you to the Navigation Panel.
  • Did you know that the small triangle beside the Back button in Internet Explorer displays a linear list of pages previously visited. You can go several pages back with one click.

  From the Link List below access the new Home Page, Task Centre History, More on Neville de Mestre.

• Tasks of the Month
  Two new cameos this month.
  • Latin Squares brings pattern and order into contact with shape and space. Arrange the tiles so that no row or column has a colour repeated. Easy to state, easy to start and a world of What if...? questions. Applications in design which link maths and art.
  • Eric The Sheep has become a classic and belongs in every primary and secondary curriculum. Each time the shearer takes one sheep from the head of the line, Eric, who starts at the tail of the line, sneaks past two sheep. How many sheep will be shorn before Eric gets to the front?
      

  From the Link List below access Task Cameos, or click on a photo to go straight to printable information about the task.
  Add the printed files to your Cameo Collection. There is a cover page for your collection in Task Cameos.

• Ongoing Professional Development
  

  I often think of the INISSS project and how radically it changed our practice.
  John Bradbury, Education Officer Numeracy, NT

  We believe that the work being done so far has been beyond our expectations.
  Brian Featherston, District Director, Riverland Region, SA

  These emails arrived on the same day. Both refer to long term professional learning programs for the one group of teachers. The Tasmanian Aboriginal Education Unit ran INISSS (Improving Numeracy for Indigenous Secondary School Students) with two cohorts of teachers from 1998 to 2000, then 2000 to 2002. It showed:
  1. Indigenous students can be supported to do at least as well as non-Indigenous students in secondary school mathematics.
  2. By building a Working Mathematically curriculum teachers develop students who are better problem solvers with better maths skills and better literacy than a control group.
  Brian is referring to the work currently being done by a group of his teachers after only 4 days of the six day Maths on the Move program Engineering aha' Moments K-8. There are already teachers among this group willing to lead their colleagues into alternatives to text-based mathematics learning.

  Teachers are our best resource. More education money used to buy teachers more learning time ... over time ... would make more far reaching changes to student learning and teacher job satisfaction.

  We are available to support anyone from any level - school, cluster, district, state, country - to improve maths outcomes for students through ongoing professional development proven to improve the quality of mathematics teaching.

  From the Link List below access INISSS, Engineering 'aha' Moments K-8.

• Link List
  
  • Home Base
  • Task Centre History
  • More on Neville de Mestre
  • Task Cameos
  • INISSS
  • Engineering 'aha' Moments K-8

• Did you miss the June News?
  If so you missed information about:
  1. Iceberg Information about two Tasks of the Month (Tasks 42 & 43).
  2. Sphinx & Algebra 1 from Winnisquam Regional High School USA.
  3. Workshop BBQ.
  4. ... and more.

Keep smiling,
Doug.

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