The Relevance of Maths

Whenever I have had to add fractions I have had to find a common denominator. At school finding the smallest one is considered to be a big deal. Personally, I haven’t cared about finding the lowest common multiple since in real life any common multiple will do. Therefore, this is a topic in mathematics that I have been unable to come to terms with. As a maths teacher, I know how to find them, I have remembered the rules for getting them and I can follow them, but I haven’t developed an intuitive feel for doing so. I have never been motivated to do so.
For some pupils, whose main motivation is to please, simply the fact that teacher is asking for these things to be calculated is sufficient justification for them to learn them; but other pupils require to understand the practical uses that a mathematical technique can be put to before they gain the motivation to apply themselves to learning. The relevance of a mathematical techniques is of prime importance.
I grew up when the “space race” was on, with the Americans and the Russians competing to be the first to put a man on the moon. The television stations covered the launches of each successive rocket and we watched the countdown to lift off. This made counting backwards to zero not only relevant but exciting. The upshot was that children learnt to count down from ten before they learn to count up to ten! They did it without having to be taught… they picked it up organically from their environment. At Puppet Maths we believe that if a teacher can capture the child’s imagination then the child will learn organically, without effort. This is our aim at Puppet Maths.