MORE than 50 educators in the South East learnt techniques to engage students in mathematics from maths genius Andrew Lorimer-Derham last week.
Founder of Think Square, maths teacher Mr Lorimer-Derham delivers student workshops, teacher training sessions, hands on games and digital resources to demonstrate, in his own words, “how enjoyable maths can be”.
He delivered two student workshops and a professional development session for teachers at Mount Gambier High School on Thursday.
“Through my teaching I noticed that people hate maths – kids don’t like engaging with it and have a low opinion of it,” he explained.
“As someone who loves maths, I wanted to help change that perception, so I started Think Square.
“The tagline is intentional fun because all the games I have designed are intentional – they are linked to mathematical concepts and curriculum and best teaching practice.
“I want to demonstrate to kids and teachers that you can have fun, but still be intentional at the same time.”
Year six and seven students from Kongorong, Glencoe, Mulga Street and Mount Gambier North primary schools joined Year 8 students from Mount Gambier High School at workshops on Thursday, while teachers from across the region attended a training session on Wednesday night.
Mount Gambier High School junior secondary assistant principal Sam Leane said the sessions had been invaluable.
“We were lucky enough to hear about Andrew through his trip to Naracoorte recently and wanted to get on board – maths should be seen as one of the fun subjects,” Mr Leane said.
“We have had a number of primary schools from the South East join us for combined sessions and it has been a good chance for those younger students to meet some of the teachers and future classmates they will be interacting with at high school in the next few years.
“The training session for teachers was fantastic and more than 50 educators in the region have walked away thinking about new ways to engage kids and make maths fun.”
Mr Lorimer-Derham, who is based in Victoria, has delivered workshops to schools across Western Australia, South Australia and in his home state.
He also promotes his clothing brand – Mirrogram – with mirror reflective slogans challenging people to think differently.
“The clothing all started with maths – I was teaching my year eights about symmetry and ambigrams – words that you can rotate 180 degrees and will read the same way from both angles,” Mr Lorimer-Derham said.
“I designed a font that reads two ways and the slogans on the clothes encourage people to challenge assumptions and look beyond what they first see.”
Visit www.thinksquare.com.au for more information.
