Author: VictoriaC

As a kid in Primary school I loved maths. I loved the equipment, maths investigations and the joy of finally solving the problem! What great astute and creative teachers I had!
I never thought I would feel the joy of maths again after I commenced high-school! JOY and MATHS were antonyms for me! I hated maths with a passion as it stopped making sense. Nothing related to the real world anymore and apart from the simple elegance of algebra and geometry- the rest seemed like such a chore!

And then I started teaching and you just HAVE to think in terms of patterns, “hands on”, practical strategies and fun ways to engage young children if you are to teach effectively.Teaching maths awoke curiosity in me about order, patterns of nature, properties of numbers and I found maths IS relevant-it is EVERYWHERE and helps us to feel the order and harmony of our universe.

I recently read an amazing book by Daniel Tammet Called THINKING IN NUMBERS- how maths illuminates our lives. With chapter titles such as POETRY OF THE PRIMES, SHAKESPEARE’S ZERO, ARE WE ALONE?, ETERNITY IN AN HOUR and the CATARACT OF TIME it re-awoke my longing to help children love this subject and revitalised our teaching approach to mathematics.

I want kids to discover the fascinating life and character of Pythagoras. Can you believe he expounded his philosophy and ideas to huge crowds? Secondary pupils would be totally amazed at this! I want to teach about the history and power of numbers and ways different cultural groups approach this area.

We have recently been doing more origami at ICE to help the kids understand geometrical concepts and they LOVE it! We have discovered the great power of the NUMICON system and how this really helps children to understand number and how the equipment can be used from Pre School throughout Primary school.

This maths journey is never ending and we are now sharing it with our ALL KIDS CAN LOVE MATHS workshop for teachers. Tomorrow we will be offering this to educators in Singapore and I can’t wait! Finally the pure fun of maths is back!

If we don’t kill it by only offering boring worksheets ALL kids can love maths and it will open up huge vistas of thinking in their lives.

Just watching Malala address the United Nations tonight. She was the courageous young girl shot at close range by the Taliban- but they lost and she survived. Now she has united the whole world and a 16 year old girl is addressing the United Nations- it is her birthday! What a special privilege to witness this!

Watching this well spoken and passionate, intelligent young woman- it is so apparent she is going to be a strong leader for her people and especially for women and girls.

She wants all children to be able to attend school and power to her!
Ban Ki-moon, secretary of UN pointed out Malala was targeted because she was determined to learn! Half of the world population are under 25- this world is young! They MUST have access to education.

These girls are not alone- let’s fight this good fight and win! 57 million of children are not in school. Most of these children are from conflict ridden areas and most are girls. The UN have undertaken a huge project -by the end of 2015 to have every child at school.

No child should fear to learn and no teacher fear to teach.
The Taliban are right to be frightened of this young woman. She is spelling out their demise.

In Malala’s own words: The pen is mightier than the sword!

Just gave a seminar to some parents and teachers about maths – how to make it relevant and exciting so kids will love it. As I was talking I realised how much I love this subject and always have.

Maths provides the order and harmony we so badly need and really it is at the heart of all our lives. There is literally NOTHING that lacks a mathematical component! Even the computer keys I type as I write this are placed in perfect symmetry on my laptop-the p is always on the top right and the q on the left! There are a certain number of characters that fit on this line and not one more!
It is such a shame that many children grow up hating maths and not seeing the wonderful mathematical patterns in nature, the mathematical rhythms we live our lives by and the patterns and order of our days. We crave this order and at times (eg. holidays)-we crave DIS order!. And yet-we so often as teachers teach just the bare bones-the sums, the tables, the mental arithmetic. Of course these are really important- BUT we have to stimulate children’s curiosity and wonder about maths-it is everywhere and everything about us-right down to the timing of our blood flow around our circulatory systems, heart beats and breathing patterns is part of this wonderful system.

Let’s give children a glimpse into the void-the grandeur and the beauty of this discipline. We owe it to them!

I sat for a while this morning under my Christmas tree. Tomorrow is Twelth Night and tradition tells me to take down the decorations tomorrow. This will be especially hard this year because Martin and I started a new tradition this year. We prayed over every ornament, bauble, angel etc and dedicated 1 to each person in our lives. We asked God for health, prosperity and success for each and the tree has seemed very special this year! As we take them down tomorrow, it will be in silence and in prayer and more prayers will be added-the children at Sandy Hook, the firemen who were gunned down recently and the terrified people of Syria.
This year we have purchased a new tree in the sales and so this little one will be given away but it has served us well and brought much joy!
All the children of ICE-both here and overseas, are represented on the tree and I have decided to make a new Tree of Love and leave it up all year. All the children will be added and prayed for regularly as well as family, friends, colleagues and clients. I want our organisation to be surrounded in a huge ball of positivity and love this year and this will be a beginning! I have no idea how I will make this but no doubt as I sit on the beach this morning the ideas will flow in! Within this huge ball of love, we need to practise self nurture and love -so the beach is the first place for me today before the cares of the day crowd in for notice!

The presents are unwrapped, the turkey in the oven I have watched some schmaltzy TV, napped and had a swim-what an ideal Christmas day-and yet something dark is threatening to intrude. The Sandy Hook slaughter of the innocent children will not leave me.

Something is not right. Martin just read the news to me-a car driver in China drove deliberately into a group of school children and injured 17 children! As Martin just commented, “The two most powerful nations on earth, Chinese and Americans, do not seem to be able to protect their children.” Come to think of it Australia has far too many children who are physically and sexually abused each year- seems to me that kids bear the brunt of the rage and frustration of adults who lack the resources to deal with their anger.

My wish for the world this Christmas is one where all children live in a safe environment, surrounded by love, nurturing, free education and protected from the truly crazy adults who want to attack and injure them.

This will be our prayer at ICE this year- Dear God please keep your beautiful children safe from those who wish them harm.

Amen