Maths and Me
I am delighted to announce the launch of Maths and Me, the latest maths publication from Edco (The Educational Company of Ireland) of which I am the lead author!
I am thrilled with what we have created in Maths and Me: a high quality, very child- and teacher-friendly maths program that I can say, hand-on-heart, is completely and utterly aligned with the 2023 PMC, where the messaging and details such as the recommended rich, engaging and playful learning experiences (eg from the PMC, from the NCCA draft support docs, and from the Oide site) permeate every aspect of the program and are provided for every lesson.
The backbone of our program is designed around our Maths and Me Routines. These are a collection of playful, engaging and inclusive interactions that promote mathematical talk, thinking and modeling among all children. These repeatable routines have been chosen as they are proven to activate prior knowledge, foster productive dispositions and provide valuable formative assessment opportunities for teachers. In addition to supporting the five key pedagogical practices, the routines also support formative assessment and inclusive practices (as demonstrated in the sample TRBs available here)
The digital resources are superb! These are all bespoke digital resources (ie not bought in from another program/country), designed specifically by the authors to help structure almost every lesson. Innovative, intuitive and easy to navigate, they have primarily been developed as teaching tools for the interactive whiteboard (IWB) and can be used in conjunction with the children’s mini-whiteboards (MWBs) where appropriate.
The planning is amazing! Yearly overviews, short-term unit overviews, and then a lesson-by-lesson breakdown, but with choice still built in i.e. ultra supportive but not prescriptive. And we specifically designed it with multi-class in mind, so as much as possible, JI and SI are doing the same topics at the same time, and the same with 1st and 2nd.
We have designed the program to be truly inclusive....with extra supports for learners with language difficulties (inc EAL); Let's Strengthen materials and suggestions to support those whose concepts are less secure; Let's Deepen materials and suggestions to promote deeper thinking among those who are ready; low threshold, high ceiling tasks (also called Cognitively Challenging tasks) are included in all aspects of the program, eg investigations, tasks, puzzles etc in the digital and print materials. (PS: Did you know that the word differentiation isn't even in the new PCF or PMC? Rather the focus is on developing inclusive practices....so beware any publisher who talks about differentiation....)
With Maths and Me, you are getting a whole maths program, of which the Pupil Book is only a component .... an important component, yes, but still only part of the whole package. This is why, if you compare the pupil book page counts for Maths and Me with other competitor's offerings, we will likely have less: as George Polya said "It is better to solve one problem five different ways, than to solve five problems one way." So less is more, and pages and pages of the same type of problem is something that you won't see in Maths and Me, but you will see a lot of encouraging multiple representations, considering other approaches etc
I know that I have left out loads of information but I don't want to overwhelm you with info!
Why don't you come along to one of the Maths and Me launches? https://mathsandme.ie/launches/
I'll be at the Cork one myself on the 11th March, Limerick on the 12th, Galway on the 13th and Athlone on the 14th.