Revolutionising the textbook…
…a new way to learn maths at home or at school
What’s wrong with textbooks?
For self-motivated learners, textbooks or online learning platforms are great. But too many students reach my classroom with a learned experience of failure, frustration, apprehension and defeat. In the classroom, I counter this by creating a new set of experiences that teach them that they can learn.
Removing barriers: learning without fear
Students who don’t believe they can succeed will avoid:
- opening a textbook
- reading an example
- attempting homework
- using algorithms
- checking answers
- taking notes
- attempting to improve…
…a cycle of believing they can’t understand…and not understanding.
For these students, a textbook becomes a series of barriers to understanding. I’ve almost completely done away with textbooks for my students until they’ve learned to believe that they can understand and succeed in maths.
Not a textbook…not just a worksheet…not only a notebook…
One of my most powerful tools in turning things around for my students is a set of worksheets that take the place of their textbook and in part, replace their work book. I’ve removed every single barrier point that I can. No opening to a page, no ruling up a book… no writing down the question first. An easy scan or click and the video explanation is right there on their phone or laptop. The video is made by me, specifically for that lesson; teaching only the skills they’ll need to complete the questions on the page.
Repeated practice… of the right questions, the right skills, at the right time
No more…
- worksheets with questions at the wrong level
- textbooks with insufficient practice of core skills
- videos at the wrong level, with the wrong terminology, or the wrong notation
- computer generated videos that can’t teach written skills
- answer-only online worksheets
- student workbooks with no working, no examples, and no success
Help me change how Australian students learn Mathematics!
To digitise, upload and manage my worksheet resources, I’ll need a much more robust website than this one (made by me, after one afternoon’s lesson on WordPress!). I’d love for every student user to be able to upload and save their portfolio of worksheets. I want to create CD and print copies of the video and worksheet resources, to supply to students without adequate internet access…and most of all, I want to keep running ad-free videos on a cost-free, open access site. Click here for the crowdfunding campaign for more information, or donate here… And thank you!
