Why My Medium-Term Planning Made My Job Teaching Maths MUCH Harder

My planning changed enormously over the years; mainly because I found that what I had been given to use, didn't work (and frankly, did my head in 🤯)

This month in my 'Essentials' membership we're focusing upon 'Planning'; specifically 'Long' and 'Medium-Term'.

Each year I'd experience the same problems with my 'Long-Term Planning' (I've taught 4-11 year olds and it happened in every year group):

• I'd get 'left behind' in my long-term plans as the terms were all different lengths and events like Christmas and Sports Day in the summer meant that my timetable changed
• I was aiming to make sure my children were secure before moving on, so I spent longer on things than I was supposed to
• I'd expected/hoped they would remember what they'd learned last time and invariably they didn't, so, instead of moving on, we had to revisit most of it all over again...

My Medium-Term wasn't any more successful:

Most approaches I was given to medium-term planning over the years were just the long-term statements split up into a million 'mini-statements' (especially when I taught older children). It made my eyes hurt just looking at it and induced panic as to how on earth I was going to teach it all.

They also didn't actually tell me 'how to teach'. Just 'what to teach'. (not helpful). This meant I was reliant on what I'd been taught at school myself and what others around me did and told me. In areas such as fractions I knew this was very dangerous territory, as I'd not only didn't understand it myself but was, particularly in the case of fractions, genuinely scared of the Maths. 

Each week, the areas of Maths I was due to teach 'snuck up on me'. I'd sit down to do my Maths planning (typically the Sunday before I began teaching it on the Monday) and I'd think 'How on earth do I make this interesting and meet the very wide needs of my children?' How will I make sure I'm building upon secure foundations and not just trying to get them to 'memorise stuff' so I can at least know 'I've taught it to them?' (and then someone else can do a better job further down the line and make up for my inadequacies).

I don't need to ask if any of this sounds familiar. Every self-aware teacher I've ever met has felt/feels like this.

Add in the fact that I failed at Maths at school and not only hated it, but 100% knew that I didn't have the 'Maths' gene', and you end up with someone who doesn't seek to change or even believe it's possible.

How could I change? I was rubbish at Maths. They'd get great teaching from me in other subjects and someone else could be the children's 'Maths saviour' later on.

Fortunately, for me and every child I subsequently taught, and for you, if you decide to listen and take action, I DID decide that this wasn't acceptable and knew I had to do something about it.

I Needed to Create Something New (that DID work)

I couldn't cope with the Sunday night fear any more and blagging my way through lessons using textbooks and ideas I'd found to prop me up. I was better than this and my children certainly deserved better than this. (I was passionate about not recreating mini-versions of me).

I began to think about what was missing:

• I didn't understand the Maths myself (so where could I learn this?)
• I was not confident that I was using vocabulary and terminology correctly (so what was a source of reliable facts here?)
• I knew my children were confused abut concepts and that these were known as 'misconceptions' and 'over generalisation's but I didn't know what to do with them when they keep popping up (and it scared me)
• I wanted to make it engaging and meaningful and I couldn't think of any ideas ('Real-Life' Maths that wasn't just problems about sweets and footballs?)
• I knew there were some great activities 'out there' but didn't know which were any good and could never find them again when I actually needed them (I spent hours looking for that 'fabulous' idea I'd seen when I wasn't teaching this area of Maths)
• I knew that 'Concrete- Pictorial- Abstract' was a 'thing' and I understood that 'children needed to hold the Maths in their hands before they could hold it in their head' but didn't really know what it was and what it looked like in practice (How would I learn this and from who?)
• And finally, I knew that teaching every area of Maths separately made teaching and learning it SO much harder and regularly actually resulted in what I'd taught being destroyed or dismantled - nightmare! (There must be a way of teaching it as far more connected?)

I had so many questions!

• Where should I start?
• How would I find the time to do this? (That was actually a smaller worry as I knew 100% that any improvement in my knowledge would make my daily life teaching Maths better and easier)
• Who on earth was there to help me and was what they were saying 'right'?

The answer was to create 'Medium-Term Planning Maps'

• I wanted to see the journey in front of me, have a clear destination and know the steps I could take along the way
• I wanted to be able to see what I needed to know (subject knowledge wise - the important 'Maths stuff')
• I wanted to be able to re-use my planning throughout the year and every year and pass it on to the next teacher so they could see how my children had learned a concept and also 'meet them where they were'
• I wanted to be able to easily add to it when I found new resources and ideas over the years
• I wanted links (preferably clickable so I could go straight to the resources and ideas I'd found
• I wanted to get rid of that 'Sunday panic' and instead be able to open a 'cupboard' full of information, resources and ideas so I felt excited, confident and skilled.
• I wanted to feel excited and passionate about teaching Maths and for this to be apparent to my children

And that's what I'll be showing my Essentials members how to do in March (and long-term planning approaches too!)

'Essentials' (my entry-level membership) is currently closed to new members BUT the good news it re-opens in April. (Doors open just three times a year). If you're on my VIP waiting list I may have something very special for you so make sure you don't miss out by signing up to it here if you haven't already.

So far this year, my Essentials members have unlimited access to:

• January 'Teaching Number Sense' Essentials
• February 'Teaching Shape' Essentials
• And March is, of course, 'Planning'

To get your name on my VIP Essentials waiting list visit https://www.eymaths.co.uk/waiting-list-April25  

I can't wait to show you how it all works and make your life MUCH easier!

P.S. Individual IMPACT members and Silver and Gold level Team IMPACT members also receive full access to the 'Essentials' materials