Writing scripts

Taken a day off from the scripts today. Today has been spent working on the puppets. We've got some new outfits for some of them and we have been customising some of the others. A particular problem we have had is in working the mouths of a couple of them. This proved hard because the puppeteer's fingers were slipping and couldn't gain traction to manipulate the mouths properly. We solved this by equiping the puppeteer with those rubber thimbles which bank tellers use when counting banknotes, only instead of using only one, the puppeteer had them on all of the fingers and also on their thumb.

We have been considering some interesting questions today... such as "How many numbers are there?" and "What does the symbol '=' actually mean?" These are the questions that pupils learning maths ask. They are surprisingly difficult to answer, simply because we adults are so used to using numbers that we take these things for granted. It's as if we have been asked to define the meaning of the word "the". We know what it means, and how to use it, but can we explain it?
Well Puppet Maths sets out to explain the answers to maths questions such as these. Why? Because children get hung up on these types of issues; it stops them from progressing in the subject; and it undermines their confidence with using numbers. So at Puppet Maths, we're going to explain away these awkward questions in a manner that is understandable and interesting to the child. This way we can build confidence, and remove the fear that so many children develop when they're faced with arithmatic.

After a break for the weekend, we're back at work again today editing the scripts for our new videos of puppet maths. We're still busy working our way through the Key Stage 3 (KS3) Maths specification (what we used to call a syllabus). We're drawing on the team's combined experience of teaching maths to pupils of all abilities. One of our central motivations is to introduce immagination to maths. For many pupils maths consists of nothing more than a series of numbers that have to be manipulated by a series of arbitrary and incomprehensible rules. Our aim is to go beyond this by putting meaning to these rules, and doing so in an entertaining manner. Our aim is not only to show that maths is easy, but also to try and make it fun, by appealing to children's immagination.

Well, we've looked at Equations, and rearranging equations, Fractions, and Algebra... and we're still pushing forward through the KS3 specification polishing our scripts. This is a really time consuming activity, but if the scripts aren't right, then the whole learning experience won't be right, so it's right that we take our time. So back to business...

More script reviews today. Myself and my team are slowly working our way through the KS3 specification discussing the best ways to present the Maths methodology using puppets to make for an entertaining and adsorbing learning experience.

Script review

I've spent the last day in reviewing the scripts. This is necessary as we transition from face to face use of puppets in teaching maths to the use of video on line. As we will lack the ability to read each individual situation as it occurs and adjust our teaching to accomodate any failure to grasp a point by the pupils, we must make sure that the video content contains all the explanations and caters for all the forseeable misunderstandings that pupils might exhibit.
Happilly, my extensive experience as a Maths teacher allows me to predict what the most likely misconceptions will be, but it is always necessary to be careful as children are adept at inventing new ones, if they're given half a chance.

Well a lot has been done since the last blog. We've acquired some new puppets that we're going to use teaching maths. We hope that these will allow us to make even more entertaining videos that will grip the immagination of young people and allow us to teach them maths without them realising that they're doing "hard" stuff, so as a consequence they will find maths EASY.