Resources, musings & lesson ideas for teaching, learning & enjoying maths.
Blogs ‘Practice Math Like a Baby’ from @benorlin – this has to be one of the best examinations of repeated practice I’ve read recently. ‘A Strange Step-by-Step Solution’ from @DrBennison, featuring this slightly suspect resource. Resources A lovely interactive resource for writing and understanding formulae, which I’m looking forward to using with my other Year 10 class later this week …
Pick of Twitter 11/10/15 Read More »
This picture completely mystified my Year 10 class this week… To put things into context, we were working on a standard set of simple rearrangement (for them) of formulae, with absolutely no real-life context (contrived or otherwise) mentioned in the questions. The textbook authors appeared to have just plonked an image of a scary-looking skeleton (reminds …
Design matters (a #mathsconf5 blog) Read More »
Blogs #mathsconf5 blogs from @MathsPadJames, @mathsjem, @PhilMcBride73, @WorkEdgeChaos and @EmathsUK. ‘Is Sh****ai Still a Dirty Word’ from @Craigos87. ‘Maths Mindsets: My Year 10s’ from @headguruteacher. Resources Fluency, reasoning and problem-solving assessments from @HelenHindle1. Prime number pictures from one of my #mathsconf5 speed-dates, @TheNerdLP. Other awesome stuff
Pick of Twitter 04/10/15 Read More »
As I mentioned in my blog about #mathsconf5, I’ve recently acquired a Microsoft LifeCam for my classroom and I’ve been playing with it rather a lot this past week. I need to take some photos of the setup in my classroom, but it’s basically a small portable plug-and-play webcam with accompanying software to take pictures, videos and …
Tripping the Life-Cam-tastic Read More »
This is likely to be a short-ish blog, with more detailed posts about the really good bits later this week. I don’t know if it’s just me, but spending seven hours in a hot leisure centre has given me the worst headache, and I really want to be curling up on the sofa with a …
Blogs “Stretching Practice” from @mathsjem ~ Jo linked this last week in response to a #mathsTLP question about practice problems for high attainers – there’s lots of great stuff here I’ll be checking out to stretch my Y10 group this year. “An apology from the DfE” from @MichaelT1979 via @Sue_Cowley ~ This really made me appreciate just how tough …
Pick of Twitter 20/09/15 Read More »
Last year, I solemnly vowed that I wasn’t going to use textbooks in my maths lessons. I started the year with a variety of card sorts and problem-solving activities. I even arranged my tables in groups rather than rows from the word go to encourage collaboration. The first few weeks went well, but by half …
The ‘war’ on textbooks Read More »
We’ve moved to mixed ability with some sets across the board this year, which I’m sure will get lots of blog space as the year goes on. We’re also having a dedicated once-per-week slot for problem-solving, and I had such fun with the session I did today with Year 8 that I decided it needed …
Doing some proper problem-solving Read More »
Blogs “New GCSE (9-1) topics by grade” (@Just_Maths) ~ Why trying to sort new GCSE topics by grade is a pointless endeavour; a must-read for the new year. “My Classroom” (@solvemymaths) ~ Great ideas to start the year; I’m going to have a play with the ideas for extension activities and have a think about creating my …
Pick of Twitter 13/09/15 Read More »
I’ve been super-lucky this year to get a top-set Year 10 group on my timetable – I’m feeling dead happy about this because: I taught them in Year 7, and they’re a great group – very enthusiastic about maths, a bright bunch and some fantastic personalities; I haven’t ever taught a top set at GCSE (because I …
LOTW – Making graphical and algebraic links with simultaneous equations Read More »