Passion and Commitment to make the complex simple, as well as applying math tools to daily life, were expressed as two main motivators, by a set of vibrant Primary School Mathematics teachers. It was my honour to facilitate a collaborative session on “Loving and Loving Mathematics as a Primary School Learner” with 52 teachers across thirteen Navy Children Schools. This was facilitated by Navy Children School (NCS) Mumbai as a day long Faculty Development Programme.
In a two hour interaction, participant inputs on the definition, critical role as well as roadblocks in the learning of Mathematics were shared to strategise a joyful methodology of learning the “game of numbers”. The vibrancy of teachers came alive in a childlike enthusiasm in addressing few nutty number based game like questions.
The larger view that emerged was that participants would strive to become a “Friendly Neighbourhood Mathemagician!”
Mutual encouragement and engagement enabled an application of the Who, What, Why and How of making the magic of Mathematics a real possibility. Daily life examples like a vegetable vendor cart, snake and ladder game and pizza slices were found to be tools to teach!
Almost forty years ago, I had the first opportunity to teach Mathematics to Grade IV, VII & VIII as a 16 year old part time teacher. Today was an extremely satisfying time spent with some of the best frontline scholar warriors of Indian education system, led by Navy Education Society’s cohort of Navy Children Schools. They have laboured much to learn many components of education in a digital framework in the past two years.
India has a bright future in all disciplines of primary education and learning if we give our maximum support to these teachers on the frontline of learning.
