Date:  Friday 27th June 2025

Venue:  Moonee Valley Racing Club (Melbourne)

Target Audience:  Classroom teachers, learning specialists, leading teachers, assistant principals and principals working in school settings that cater to students from Foundation to Year 8

Cost: $299 per person (excl GST)

Enquiries: Email Carla at carla.lovemaths@gmail.com

 
 

Presenters

 

Graham Fletcher is based in Atlanta, Georgia and this will be his first time presenting in Australia. He has dedicated his career to supporting teachers and students in building a deep, conceptual understanding of elementary mathematics. With experience as a classroom teacher, math coach, and now math specialist, Graham continues to seek innovative ways to make math meaningful and accessible. Passionate about empowering educators and fostering curiosity in students, he strives to create tools and strategies that inspire learning. As the co-author of Building Fact Fluency, Graham equips teachers with practical approaches to deepen mathematical understanding. His resources are freely available at gfletchy.com.

 

Michael Minas has worked in education for over 25 years and his areas of interest include problem solving and student engagement. Michael’s YouTube channel features 100 videos of engaging maths games and has attracted over a million views from educators from across the globe.  In 2018, Michael’s ability to shape learning was recognised when he won a CHOOSEMATHS Teaching Excellence Award. He presents at conferences around Australia and provides consultancy services to a range of organisations, including the Mathematical Association of Victoria and the Victorian Academy of Teaching and Leadership.  Michael was the editor of Prime Number and is a contributing author for the Open Middle and Maths300 websites.  He is also the author of Understanding and Teaching Primary Mathematics in Australia.

 

Margarita Breed is a numeracy consultant to schools across Victoria and South Australia. Her teaching career includes experience in primary classrooms, secondary mathematics, and teacher education at RMIT University. Her doctoral research focused on the development of multiplicative thinking, aiming to empower at-risk Middle Years students in numeracy. This research was part of the Scaffolding Numeracy in the Middle Years (SNMY) Research Project, an ARC Linkage collaboration with the Victorian and Tasmanian Departments of Education. Margarita has also contributed to the field as a co-author of the teacher text, Teaching Mathematics: Foundations to Middle Years. She is motivated by a love of problem-solving and a commitment to deep and meaningful student learning. Margarita is passionate about collaborating with teachers in schools and having deep conversations about effective practice to enhance student learning.

 
 

Session Descriptions

 

Empowering Student Thinking Through Mathematical Modelling (Graham Fletcher)

Mathematical modelling is often misunderstood as a static process of applying equations, but it’s truly a dynamic way for students to make sense of real-world problems. In this session, we’ll clarify what mathematical modelling is (and isn’t) while addressing common misconceptions. We’ll explore how problem-based tasks can guide students through a progression of learning—from initial exploration and sense-making to refining and applying their models. Learn how intentional task design and facilitation can move student thinking forward, deepen conceptual understanding, and connect mathematical ideas to meaningful contexts. Leave with strategies to empower your students as thinkers, problem solvers, and modelers.

 

Ensuring your Explicit Teaching is Effective and Engaging (Michael Minas)

There is currently a push for greater emphasis on explicit teaching in maths classrooms both in Australia and across the globe.  Rather than tackling the vexed question of what is the best way to teach maths, this session aims to help teachers and school leaders with practical ideas to make explicit instruction both effective and engaging.  The effectiveness of any practice in a maths classroom is measured by how well we build conceptual understanding with our students.  We will outline four key questions that any educator can use to help improve their capacity to build conceptual understanding, bringing these to life with work samples and anecdotes from classrooms across Australia.

 

Activating Metacognition Through Student Journaling (Margarita Breed)

Metacognition, a person’s capacity to ‘think about their own thinking’, is widely acknowledged to be intrinsic to deep, meaningful life-long learning. The phrase ‘life-long learning’ is often coupled with the goals of local and global education systems, with a view to developing confident, proficient problem solvers. Drawing inspiration from Jo Boaler’s new book “Math-ish”, this session will explore metacognition from the perspective of learners, learning to learn. We will spotlight student journaling as a way to enact metacognitive strategies. Participants will engage in working on mathematical problems that invite these strategies, as well as the opportunity to inspect student work samples.

 

Finding the Through Line - Intentionally Building Meaningful Connections through Task Sequence (Graham Fletcher)

In a world of fragmented information and disconnected concepts, mathematics educators face the critical challenge of helping students build a deep and cohesive understanding of mathematical concepts. This session offers a fresh perspective on teaching mathematics by constructing meaningful connections within the curriculum. We'll delve into the concept of a through line, exploring what it is and why it matters in mathematics education. Identifying and creating a through line is essential for promoting a cohesive mathematical learning experience.