We are continually amazed as Illuminations reaches an international audience of teachers and students. Chelsea Cutting from Mount Gambier, South Australia, tells us about the real-world connections her students are able to make after using Illumination resources.

As a year 3 teacher at Tenison Woods College, she  incorporates Illuminations lessons throughout her curriculum, but her students enjoy the online activities the most. She was particularly surprised when a disinterested but particularly bright student approached her during the activity "Concentration."

"He said to me, 'I really like the way I can match the fraction with the picture and percentage. It makes me understand which ones go together—just like in 'real maths,'" said Cutting.

For Cutting, this demonstrated the student’s ability to connect the concepts to real-world contexts, and that an otherwise disinterested student could see a purpose and an enjoyment of mathematics.

Cutting also enjoys using the lesson, "What Comes Nex_?" She uses it as an introduction to a pattern and algebraic reasoning unit.
"I like this lesson because it really gives students' the opportunity to investigate patterns in a range of different contexts while developing students' skills in making conjectures, generalizations, and justifications," said Cutting.

Next year, Cutting will be stepping into a new role as Numeracy Key Teacher. In this position, she hopes to work with teachers to develop and incorporate more of the illuminations resources into the mathematics programs at their junior school.