Dave is Head of the Mathematics and Statistics Learning Area (HOLA) at Lincoln High School, on the edge of Christchurch. He is also a part time lecturer in Post Grad Senior Secondary Mathematics and Statistics Education at the University of Canterbury, and the current President of NZAMT. 

In his 36 years working in education Dave has had 24 years as a Head of Department, 5 years as a curriculum advisor, and has filled various extra contracts in curriculum and assessment. Over that time, Dave’s passion for Statistics education has grown dramatically.

Probably, Possibly, Potentially – Refocusing our lens to block out some of the Noise!

We as Mathematics and Statistics teachers are battling a lot of “noise” – curriculum changes; MoE messages; media hype; PPTA union action; the changing nature of our akonga; … As statisticians we understand the influence of noise in data. The question is how we manage the noise we are seeing in education to refocus on getting the best for our ākonga?

Michael is a Statistics (and Calculus!) teacher at Mt Albert Grammar School in Auckland where he has been for the past twelve years. Hailing from Tauranga, he attended Dilworth School for eight years as a student before working as an Academic Tutor and in boarding for another 15! However, he first thought about a career as a teacher whilst at primary school. One school holidays his mother banned him for re-arranging his bedroom furniture due to the meltdown that eventuated from exhausting all possible combinations. On return to school he found his teacher had rearranged all the desks in his classroom and the seed was sewn! 

Fast forward several years and he is the Teacher in Charge of Scholarship Statistics, Calculus and Level 3 Statistics at MAGS, with approximately 300 Year 13 students taking at least two Statistics standards each year! He has been awarded two awards for Teaching Excellence, one being the prestigious Kalman Prize in 2020 and each year his students perform admirably in Scholarship. He loves opportunities like this to share his classroom experiences with his colleagues and the wider teaching community and wishes to see more teachers appreciate Statistics beyond the calculation of a mean, median and mode!

Incorporating technology in the Statistics classroom

In this keynote Michael will share some of his go-to websites and apps that he uses each year that support engagement and help students understand key statistical concepts. The session will be interactive so bringing a device is recommended!