Teacher Profile - Alexander

This month, I would like to introduce you to our featured teacher, Alexander.

Alexander is a career maths tutor from the UK with over 12,000 hours of teaching experience. He specialises in accelerating numeracy and transforming the results of children who struggle in maths. Alex is also the founder of an amazing numeracy product called Numberella.

Numberella was developed in a live teaching environment, in response to challenges faced when working with children who were dismissive of traditional pedagogies. The ideas contained within the game were all trialled by children, and anything they didn’t like, wasn’t included. This is why kids love playing Numberella – in a way, they designed it! You can purchase this great product from Amazon here.

You can follow all the links to find Alex online on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, and Pinterest.

1. Why did you become a teacher?

I discovered I loved teaching in my mid-twenties when I did some music workshops. In my late twenties, I was drawn to the idea of tutoring as I really enjoy the one on one connection with a student.

2. Tell us your favourite; year to teach, subject to teach and platform for resources

My favourites…

Year to teach: Year 4 

Subject to teach: Maths

Platform for resources: I use the Numberella platform/resources

 3. What is one of your favourite teaching memories?

I was teaching a boy of ten, who liked to clown around in class. One time, he put his waste paper bin on his head and pretended to be a knight. He wandered around his room waving his imaginary sword and laughing. Trouble was, he had left some Lego on his carpet. I shouted "Watch Out!" but it was too late, and he trod on the Lego. Not being able to see, he took an ill judged pace onto another piece, before collapsing on the floor yelling in agony. He saw the funny side after a few minutes.

4. What is the most important thing you have learnt while teaching?

Things which are obvious to me are not necessarily obvious to a student. Being patient with someone who is trying (but failing) to understand is vital. It's also important to have different explanation strategies - brains work in different ways and some methods don't work for some students. Also - everyone responds to brain training and it is the single most important ingredient in accelerating maths skills.

5. If you could invite one guest speaker into the classroom who would it be?

Toto Wolff - an Austrian investor and former racing driver.

6. What is your best teaching tip for beginning teachers?

Prepare well enough that you don't think about lesson content and can be natural with your student/s. They need to feel your personality and like it, then they'll cooperate.

7. Teaching can be very demanding. How do you achieve a work/life balance?

Accept that working hard is part of the job and have a long term view about where I want it to take me.

8. What is one thing you like to do every day with your students?

We almost always play Numberella - I can't get away with not playing it, students don't let me.

9. How do you minimise your environmental footprint in the classroom?

I encourage students to do work on iPads and have a zero paper resource system based on Dropbox. All electricity comes from renewables.

10. Plan a perfect teaching day for us

Look over my student’s recent lesson notes so I am on top of what they need to learn in the next class. Get my resources ready - Numberella decks shuffled, worksheets prepared, Hot Streak 500 decks shuffled. Get my energy up to maximum so I can begin with a bang and get the class off onto a strong start. Remember to take an interest in what they've been doing and connect with them before beginning subject specifics. Stay hydrated during sessions. Chat with parents towards the end of the class to keep them in the loop and make sure they're equipped to support any outside work. Sign off optimistically.

Thank you so much Alexander for sharing your experiences and the fantastic product that Numberella is. I am a huge fan of anything that makes maths learning fun for our students. Can’t wait to try one of the Escape Rooms with my class.

To read past teacher profiles; click here.

If you are a teacher and are interested in featuring next month, we would love to hear from you. Send an email to laurathexplaura@gmail.com