Mobile Phone Maths

 Writing the numbers on my phone, and calling home to say 'Hi' to mum

Every morning we have a numeracy mat time and activity as part of our programme. I noticed that G had been bringing her toy mobile phone in to play with, and many of the children were interested in playing with it as well. For the rest of the week I used the idea of mobile phones for our numeracy activities.  As our programme is structured and follows themes that have been decided upon by teaching staff I look for every opportunity to extend children's interests. This makes teaching more effective because it allows children to learn through activities that are meaningful to them (Arthur, Beecher et al, 2005).
Having homeschooled my own children for ten years and been a remedial reading teacher aide, I am absolutely passionate about teaching children in meaningful contexts. My own personal experiences match those of Margaret Brennan (Brennan, 2000, p.177) who has based some research on the recognition of the place of cultural tools in achieving intersubjectivity in her work with children. This simply means recognising the importance of understanding or sharing children's perception of the cultural tools that they use, such as language and technical artifacts (Vygotsky, 1978; 1986 cited Brennan, 2001). Brennan's research was focused on representational play that developed out of children's television watching,  but is equally applicable to any technical media/communication tool.  She found that these types of tools provide home learning experiences that can be represented and recreated, extending their thinking in the same way that other representational play does. Rogoff ((1998) found that each generation modifies the tools of past generations, so the important finding of Brennan's research is that unless teachers are able to accept, value and appreciate the diverse ways children will appropriate cultural tools. If we don't we will fail to recognise the opportunities that today's tools offer children to create shared learning moments with their peers and with adults.