Editorial.

Marshall, Linda ; Swan, Paul

In this issue we begin two new features. The first is called "Teaching with Technology". We noted that the Australian Curriculum: Mathematics is littered with references to the use of digital technologies so we have asked Catherine Attard from the University of Western Sydney and Dr Maria Seddon from Avondale College to write this feature. Sometimes they will write independently and sometimes together. We are sure you will enjoy this new feature.

The other new feature is a "Professor's Page". We are asking many of the professors in mathematics education throughout Australia to write a short opinion piece about what they feel would make a difference in the teaching of primary mathematics.

In a first for this journal and our sister journal The Australian Mathematics Teacher (AMT) two articles written by Natalie Brown, Jane Watson, Suzie Wright and Jane Skalickly about estimating the height of a tree are being published simultaneously in APMC and AMT. There are many different ways of estimating the height of a tree, some more appropriate for primary-aged students and others for secondary students. The authors have linked the estimation methods to the Australian Curriculum, particularly the content strand of Geometry and Measurement and the Reasoning proficiency strand.

Judith Mills from the University of Waikato suggests an approach to the teaching and learning of fractions linked to physical body poses. Mills' review of some of the current thinking in developing fraction knowledge makes for interesting reading. Just watch that you do not become tied up in knots trying some of the fraction body poses!

Jane Greenlees from Charles Sturt University makes reference to pop culture in using the analogy of the Fantastic Four (Mr Fantastic, The Invisible Woman, The Human Torch and Thing) as a lens through which to view test items. She argues that on their own, the Fantastic Four are not all that fantastic, but put them together and you have a formidable team. Read her article to find out what she considers to be the fantastic four of mathematics assessment items and how she applies the four to NAPLAN test items.

In the first of our new features, Catherine Attard introduces the feature linking ICT and the Australian Curriculum and then compares two different web-based resources. We are sure that teachers will find both very useful in their teaching.

We continue our feature, "Australian Curriculum Linked Lessons", this time linking the Measurement and Geometry content strand with three of the four proficiency strands. We are sure that the tasks will be familiar to most readers, but we have made explicit links to the new Australian Curriculum to show how you can recycle good tasks.

We hope you enjoy reading this issue as much as we enjoyed putting it together.