ABSTRACT
All of the activities that I have introduced you to in this book are activities I have used in my own teaching. I find that I learn most about how to teach mathe matics from teaching mathematics. And that there is always more to learn! For example I was working with a group of six-and seven-year-olds in a city school in Leeds using balance scales and exploring the relative mass of beans and pulses when I noticed one of the teaching assistants using her hand to measure out pulses. I talked to her later and she explained that when she was cooking she used her hand, cupped to a greater or lesser amount, as a measure which would compare to a teaspoon, or a tablespoon, or any measure in between. I realised that this was a ’unit’ of measurement that I hadn’t seen used before but which many of the children I worked with would be used to. It reminded me of the importance of learning from the cultural diversity within the classrooms that I work in.
