FirstMaths.com

Free Professional Development courses

I want teachers to have free online training on ways to become a better teacher. These training courses are all coming from highly respected teaching institutions. I want there to be both a free and paid-for option. I've personally used Coursera for years and I have really enjoy and professionally grown by using these teaching resources.

Positive Emotional Intelligence In The Classroom

Posted on December 18, 2019December 23, 2019 by Peter Fogarty

How are your Emotional Intelligence skills in the classroom? Leave a comment below about your successful strategies. You are in full control of your classroom. Your personality will be reflected in your children and their work. If you are a calm, organised person, your whole class will reflect this. If

Anger Control In The Classroom – How can you help?

Posted on December 18, 2019December 23, 2019 by Peter Fogarty

Today we are looking at anger control in the classroom. Please leave a comment about your ways of resolving it. Children can feel anger in the classroom and teachers need to find ways of reducing and removing anger in their class. The first is the classroom itself. Is the room

Different Teaching Styles – what works for you?

Posted on December 17, 2019December 17, 2019 by Peter Fogarty

Every teacher has their own teaching style. This is why I don’t like to do lesson observations, you are judging others on what you think is good teaching, compared to how you teach. As a book once said, no-one starts in teaching with the desire to be a poor teacher.

Rising Stars Maths is perfect for your kids.

Rising Stars Maths outdoes other Maths Schemes.

Posted on December 16, 2019December 18, 2019 by Peter Fogarty

Let me explain to how I ended up using Rising Stars Maths as my main primary Maths curriculum. I have learnt a lot about teaching maths over the year. I want to share what I know with you. In my earliest days worked with CIMT. This scheme is great for

Preparing School Holiday Activities

Posted on December 15, 2019December 15, 2019 by Peter Fogarty

What school holiday activities do your children do? I was puzzling over this question when I discovered this site .. https://www.mathsthroughstories.org/recommendations.html and had a wonderful idea. Children could actively read books and still complete tasks around Maths. My son comes home from his Romanian state school with a ton of

Preparing Your Christmas Show As A Teaching Tool.

Posted on December 14, 2019December 14, 2019 by Peter Fogarty

How do you go about preparing for your Christmas show? My show was yesterday and it wasn’t my finest moment. In the classroom my kids were awesome, totally amazing and I felt on top of the world. I followed on from a great Year 1 show and of course the

Big Maths – My Mathematical Advances This Year

Posted on December 13, 2019December 14, 2019 by Peter Fogarty

I love teaching with Big Maths. I have been busy changing the way we teach maths in the classroom at my school. We have tried all sorts of curriculum and finally found a total winner! We are making the changes to become more inline with COBIS expectations and can already

How can you identify a giver in your school?

Posted on December 12, 2019December 23, 2019 by Peter Fogarty

Recently I listened to an interesting talk Are you a giver or a taker? and it was amazing. I then looked at my school. The vast majority of my school are givers. You can spot a giver just by asking one question at their interview. You ask, “Tell me one

Awesome people – Appreciate them today!

Posted on December 11, 2019December 23, 2019 by Peter Fogarty

Every day I am surrounded by awesome people I have trained my class to believe that on the school entry form is box their parents need to tick… Is your kid awesome? Yes / no I explain I only accept awesome kids – and for me all my students are

Unexpected Twists In Life – Go with the flow.

Posted on December 10, 2019December 23, 2019 by Peter Fogarty

Unexpected Twists in life lead you to places you need to go but never knew it! Life is full of surprises. Many great, many not so happy. However the key is to be prepared for as many as you can, while going with the flow with the rest. How can