We’ve made it to the home stretch, the final term for 2022! Everyone is ready for a break – students, parents and especially teachers. So while this term brings a taste of the summer holidays ahead, it can also feel like a slog at times.

To help you get through Term 4 and everything that comes with it, we’ve put together some activities, tips and tricks with some help from the amazing teachers in our Maths Pathway Community. 

The best classroom activities for Term 4

Statistics and Probability projects

It’s Term 4, so it’s that time again – statistics and probability time. The great news is that we’ve got your back on this one. We have projects that you can use with students from years 5-10. Check them out below!

Rich tasks
Rich tasks are an engaging experience for the whole class, where mathematical concepts are explored using open-ended activities with multiple entry and exit points. This type of learning focuses on developing critical thinking and reasoning skills and encourages students to think like mathematicians without the pressure of being ‘wrong’. Term 4 is a great time to incorporate rich learning as it will give students a chance to have some fun with maths. Check out our range of free rich learning lessons here.

Tips from the Maths Pathway community: 

Problem Posers is a fun website to help students see that maths is everywhere and to foster mathematical discourse in the classroom.
Liam

Sleeping lions on repeat.
Tegan*

For fun activities head to Mathematics Shed

Teach the students to play battleships on grid paper – very handy for offline time filling at end of term.
Andy*

Report writing hacks

Start a comment bank
Lots of teachers suggested starting a comment bank. It’s as easy as saving comments from your current reports and referring to them when writing reports down the track. They’re invaluable when you know what you want to say but can’t quite think of the words, because chances are you’ve written it before or even reading old comments back will get your brain firing. 

Automate where you can

When writing reports the line between personalisation and automation is a fine one. Creating efficiencies where possible can save us so much valuable time and stress. But we don’t want to automate to the point where we lose personalisation. Luckily, you can strike a balance. In the videos below, Maths Pathway co-founder, Justin, shows us two things you can automate in reports to make life easier.

Create a proofreading checklist
Proofreading is an essential part of report writing. Especially if you’re using things like comment banks. But before you start the proofing process, make sure you write yourself a quick checklist of what to look out for. It might seem obvious, but you’d be surprised how often you miss things when you don’t physically check them off a list. 

Tips from the Maths Pathway community: 

Keep your old comments to use as sentence starters in the future
Andy*

Tips for Parent/Teacher Interviews 

Make sure parents understand metrics
The way we measure student progress and learning can be tricky for parents to understand. Some parents might feel that the grades their child has received in their reports aren’t accurate, or perhaps they have completely misinterpreted their meaning. Parent teacher interviews can be a great time to clear this up. You have the opportunity to explain how progress is measured (for example, if a child maintains the same grade have they made progress?) and what different levels mean with examples. 

Address concerns quickly
Some parents will come to interviews prepared with questions or concerns. It’s a great idea to address these straight off that bat, to ensure the rest of the interview can stay on track and on time. 

Tips from the Maths Pathway Community:

At the beginning of the interview, break the ice by asking ”what’s the number one thing you’d like to share with me today?” to ensure that questions are answered within time constraints.
Claire* 

Set a timer that’s visible for everyone.
Andy*

Surviving Term 4

Look after you

Term 4 can really be a tough one. Especially after the challenges of this year. The build up of the holiday season paired with reports, interviews and restless students means it’s going to be a marathon, not a sprint and you need to make sure you protect your wellbeing as the weeks pass by. We spoke to Dr Tim Sharp, AKA Dr Happy from the Happiness Institute about the different ways teachers can look after themselves outside of the classroom to make things better in class in Term 4. Read it here

Stick with your routine

Term 4 isn’t a great time to completely shake up your classroom routine. Adjustments to things that haven’t been working are fine, but complete transformations might be hard to get across the line with the lower energy levels and higher demands of Term 4. Keep it simple where you can.

Tips from the Maths Pathway Community:

Coffee and a little red wine
Andy*

Start cleaning out your room earlier in the term rather than leaving it to the end – and get students to help 😉
Tegan*

*Name changes for anonymity