Mathematics Explained for Primary Teachers

I've only just begun reading this text and I have to say that I love what I am reading. To often as math practitioners we rely on the way we were taught and the math curriculum our districts use without the underlying understandings of the why and the how to help our students become better at math. We teach tricks and short cuts without helping students to truly understand the process, making transfer trickier. From what I have read so far, this is going to help me learn more about ways to help my students learn the why behind the process as I learn more about the how to teach the concepts better!

A worthy Tome

Purchased for my son who is studying a Primary & Early years teachings degree with QTS. During his first in school placement, as he was with yr 6 students, he found this an invaluable resource as he hadn’t studied any primary maths teaching in his first year of study at university.

This book covers a lot of ground. It will help you know how your maths knowledge is. There are some exercises for you at the end of each chapter to do and also some online stuff which I haven’t looked at yet.It has a lot of suggestions of how to introduce stuff to kids, how to use terms correctly, some suggestions of activities to do in class, and often specifies if something is suitable for high level upper primary. I think it will be helpful when I start my PGCE as I can look back and look for examples of how to teach/check my knowledge/check what vocab to use/stress.It doesn’t specify stuff like key stages or which year groups. It might be because it’s not just for the UK and they want to sell it internationally but it does sometimes make reference to the national curriculum.The book often tries to say why stuff is important and tells you how you can make stuff relevant for the kids. So that could be good if they ever ask you why they’re learning something.I haven’t read other maths books though and there could be books that cover similar things along with more info about how to do lesson plans as this book tells you how you can do some stuff but may only be part of a lesson, and other parts of the book just seem to recap your knowledge with a small box on the side suggesting how you could cover it in the classroom but it isn't in depth.So, I am glad I read it, however, I feel like I'd now like something a bit more geared towards helping me get QTS or more in depth on lesson planning and/or what is appropriate for each year group. Then again, that's what my training should help me with.

Beginning my teacher training in September and feel less confident with maths knowledge.While this book is pricey, I’m glad I purchased after lots of recommendations. So far it is really helping to brush up on my knowledge