Schola Europaea European School Brussels II

A REVIEW OF THE IMPLEMENTATION
OF THE MATHLETICS PROGRAMME IN
A YEAR 2 CLASSROOM
I am currently working as a Year 2 teacher
and am teaching my class for a second
year. As I reflected on the progress they
had made in Mathematics during the year
I realised that they, like many other children,
would benefit from more consolidation
and practice, particularly of addition and
subtraction number bonds to 20. The First
Year syllabus of the European Schools
lays great emphasis on the understanding
of numbers to 10 and numbers to 20 and
this knowledge lays the foundation for the
WHY I CHOSE MATHLETICS
I had heard about ‘intelligent’ maths
programmes which chose the activities for
the children by responding to the children’s
speed and accuracy and began to research
the possibilities on the internet. There
I discovered an internet based programme
called Mathletics, which was a mixture
of activities, designed to consolidate
classroom learning and a maths ‘racing’
game, from which the programme takes its
name. Here the children race live against
other children from all over the world. They
have to answer number facts questions
correctly, and the quicker they answer the
faster they go with the fastest winning the
race. As a teacher I would have access to
the Teacher’s Centre, which would allow
me to follow the children’s progress, as
they worked their way through the activities
and offered me the flexibility to tailor the
programme to the needs of my class. Since
it was internet based it could be accessed
from both home and school and I thought
that it could provide a useful link between
home and school. As well as consolidating
children’s learning in subsequent years.
A quick recall of these essential number
bonds is not a reflection of mathematical
ability but makes the subsequent learning
of more formal methods of calculation
much easier. Those children who have the
most difficulty mastering number bonds
are often the ones who would most benefit
from having those facts at their finger tips.
The question was how best to achieve this
instant recall, and I began to research the
possibilities.
work done in class here was another way
to practise those essential number bonds
in a fun and exciting way. The final point
in Mathletics favour was its price; a year's
subscription to Mathletics was quite
reasonable compared with other similar
programmes available.
I started to use the Mathletics programme
with my class in September and it has
been a great success. For the children
it has proved extremely motivating and
enjoyable and the sessions on Mathletics
have become something to look forward to.
The programme has lots of in-built factors
which help to keep the children engaged
and motivated. When they first log on
they are able to design and create their
own avatar or Mathletics character. This
character appears on the screen whenever
they are working or racing and the children
enjoy seeing the avatars of their opponents.
When they are on Mathletics they earn
points for correct answers and the number
of credits that they have earned is shown
PANORAMA
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