Living Maths

This morning at 3am, I got a chance to connect with the young students of Fo Gong Primary School in Taiwan.  The children seemed absolutely delighted with the opportunity to have a chat and were incredibly excited to answer some of the teasers that I presented.  The line connection was not perfect but enough for me to run a lesson and for them to shout back their answers enthuasistically.  I am looking forward to running some more sessions with the children.  Thank you to Ms Lin-Lin for arranging the lesson. Watch the video Clip here filmed from Taiwan! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DS8JGbg67eo&feature=player_embedded You can view their blog here http://workonlittledreams.blogspot.com/

Once again,  Mrs Carlene Andersen hooked me up with her older students and we spoke about careers after school.  We looked at the strategy of getting into the most fields of study after school and the greatest enabler was maths!  The more maths you study, the more options you have open to you.  Some photos of the future employees (and employers).

I taught some students of Pittsfield Middle-High School in New Hampshire, USA   on the 14 th of February.   The students were a lively bunch with interesting questions.   We spoke a little about South Africa and we also did some brainteasers.   They were very sharp and worked the teasers out in no time!   Thank you to Mrs Gardner for making it happen. (no photos included upon request from the school)

Today I had the fabulous task of working with 2 of Mrs Theresa Allen's grade 8 classes from Cathedral of St. Raymond School in Joliet, IL. in the USA.  They were vocal, outgoing and confident creative thinkers..... give or take the times they were stumped by yours truly.  Both classes got a chance to experience exponential growth in two very different ways!  Both groups learned how to make more money from their parents using simple mathematical techniques.  I can only hope that with the current Rand-Dollar exchange rate, they might want to consider sending some of their loot over to this part of the world ;-)  Thank you Mrs Allen for the connection and I look forward to teasing their brains some more ;-) Session 1 Session 2

Today I kicked off my international classes with Mr Rick Glass's students at Warsaw Community School in Indiana USA.  The grade 4 students were very enthuasistic and came up with quite a few excellent ideas and solutions to some of the problems that I threw at them.  I introduced the students to my YES,NO and MAYBE game and this is where I get a chance to show the students how sneaky I can be.  While some fell like flies...  others hung around and were pretty difficult to catch out.  Thanks to Mr Glass for arranging the session.  I love seeing the children smile!  I think the students were quite amazed that I lived in a hut and rode a lion to school! (only kidding!!!) I'm looking forward to working with them again!

This evening I worked with the energetic and excited grade 2 students of Sycamore Elementary in Texas.  Their cool teacher, Mrs Louise Morgan,was kind enough to set up the session.  While she is new to the Skype classes, I think she is hooked!  The students were eager to participate and I managed to get each student to try their luck against me in the YES, NO MAYBE game.  I throught I was too sneaky for them but 2 stars were too smart for me!  The connection on my side was great but from what I can gather my voice was a little crackly on their side.  Meet the superstars of Texas...

This morning at 330am, I was taken to the distant country of Indonesia and was greeted in the morning assembly  (8am for them) by over 100 smiling faces.  While the connection was a little shaky, we had a few moments of some conversation.  This was new for many of the students so we just did a little orientation and the students got to ask me some questions.  Thanks to Mrs Palupi for setting up the chat with the students.  I look forward to chatting with the students again.

This evening, I made a return visit to Mrs Andersen's grade 3 class where we played the YES,NO and MAYBE game.  This is a game that MY students know very well.  Mrs Andersen's students did very well and used all the tips that she had passed onto them to keep them in the game a little longer.  The students underestimated my "sneaky" ways and soon fell prey to my devious tricks.

This afternoon I taught a class of about 30 boys in Indiana in the USA.  Mr Kevin McMillen of Discovery Middle school was kind enough to allow me to mess with the minds of his students.  There was robust discussion, plenty team work and I think I saw a few smiles too!  The connection was awesome and I managed to take what might be...  the first panorama photo of a class - through Skype!

About two weeks ago, I had the privilege of teaching the awesome grade 1 class in Denmark, thanks to their very cool teacher Mr Stefan Nielsen.  While I taught in English, Mr Nielsen translated for me.  The children were exicited about taking part and had some very creative answers to some of the brainteasers.  I am looking forward to working with them again! Here is a video clip that the Class filmed of me teaching them the 9 times table using fingers. http://vimeo.com/35887715