Learning Mathematics through Maths Games

Learning Mathematics through Maths Games

by Brent Hughes, Primary school teacher, Matific Teacher Educator, Full time Maths Nerd


 

brentI love teaching, I love everything about it. Impacting the lives of children gave me a true sense of pride that I didn’t perceive any career would ever be able to match. My name is Brent Hughes and I am a 26-year-old primary school teacher that after only three-and-a-half short years of classroom teaching has already moved on to another career. Why did I move on so quickly? It is a fair question and one that I myself battled with for a while. The short answer is “numbers”. I calculated that working in a classroom for 40 years with an average of 30 children in my class each year I would impact the lives of 1200 children. I now work as a teacher educator and presenter for an amazing company called Matific. I travel around Australia and New Zealand working with teachers and with schools on how to make the most of classroom technology and how to ensure that their children are both educationally engaged and enjoying maths. In four months of working for Matific I have already impacted the mathematical lives of more children that I would have in a career of classroom teaching. This knowledge allows me to still achieve that drive, that sense of pride knowing that I am still making a difference.

matific1Matific is the brainchild of a few educators who are far more intelligent than I. With the amount of children disengaging in maths at an early age growing rapidly; coupled with a huge gaping hole in the market for quality online Mathematical teaching tools, Matific was born.

Matific is a product that is truly like nothing else.

In short it is a K-6 online maths teaching tool. There are a lot of products out there that are also online maths resources and they too claim to be “engaging” and “beneficial”. However, for the children in my class, none of them came close to being as engaging for my students or as beneficial for my teaching. Matific encourages a deep understanding of mathematical concepts where the children are learning through inquiry. Something that I say to teachers consistently is: “Matific creates opportunities for you as the teacher to take your class towards a deeper understanding”. These opportunities are absolute gold in the classroom and with Matific I was just amazed at how often they were arising for my class. The following are actual quotes from children I have worked with:

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“When are we doing Maths?”

“Can we do that fractions thing again?”

“Can I do this at home?”

“I hate Maths… but I LOVE this!”

“Do they have a game on here for area cause I don’t get that stuff”

“Mr Hughes told my Mum he’d get me to love Maths, that’s why we’re playing this”

matific3The thing that makes Matific so successful is a combination of two very important elements. The first being that the content is designed by educators. This is very apparent to me as a teacher when you look at Matific “gamified” content. You can clearly see the strong mathematical focus for each activity. In a lot of other programs finding the “maths” within a game can be really challenging. This just means when a child is engaging with that product they aren’t really learning anything. The second factor that makes Matific an amazing product is the pedagogical base that everything on there is underpinned by.

Matific promotes deep understanding through the children discovering concepts themselves. Something that we can all thank Mr Piaget for. Matific is now in over 30 Countries and 16 Languages. Hundreds of thousands of people across the world have begun to implement Matific into their classroom practice a few times a week and they are beginning to reap the benefits of the heightened engagement. Matific offers so much more than what I have discussed here. Things like instant reporting, differentiated tasks across the grade, homework activities, teacher lesson plans etc.

To check out everything log on to www.matific.com.au or send me an email brent@matific.com

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