6:45am: Alarm goes off. Contemplate turning it off and going back to sleep – it is a Saturday after all. Somehow remove myself from bed and into shower. 7:15am: Showered and eating breakfast. Dad decides to start an in-depth conversation about learning maths and nearly makes me late! I don’t get to see my parents …
What did you do for Pi Day this year? Read More »
This was the first lesson I taught using algebra tiles (you can find out about them here) and it’s my go-to way to introduce completing the square now. It’s worth starting with a little work on factorising first, just so you don’t completely blow their minds. I start the lesson by considering representations of perfect …
Completing the square using algebra tiles Read More »
How I discovered algebra tiles I discovered algebra tiles last year when, in a fit of desperation, I took to the Internet to find a good way of teaching completing the square in a way that might actually get it to stick in the heads of my Year 11s. I’d previously completely failed and confused …
Why algebra tiles are the most amazing thing, like, ever Read More »
This is part of a series of blogs on my favourite way to teach adding and subtracting fractions in a way that sticks and really develops understanding of the process. Lesson 2 – The importance of equal-sized bars At the start of the next lesson, present pupils with two more sets of data, this time …
Introducing fraction arithmetic (2) Read More »
The lesson(s) detailed below have been absolutely groundbreaking for me in terms of teaching adding and subtracting fractions in a way that makes the topic stick and that pupils really understand. The ideas behind it were introduced to me as part of the NCETM’s Multiplicative Reasoning course (previously mentioned in my blog about bar modelling). Unfortunately, …
Introducing fraction arithmetic (1) Read More »
I love using Tarsia puzzles – they’re great for getting the pupils talking about their maths. If you’re not sure what I’m on about, start off by popping over to Hermitech Labs to get a copy of the Formulator Tarsia software, then have a look at the premade ones that Craig Barton has collected on his site. Here …
Top ten tips for Tarsia Read More »
I started writing about multiplication methods yesterday (read Part 1 here), but waffled for rather longer than necessary, and as a result, didn’t actually get to discuss what I originally wanted to, namely which from grid, lattice (Gelosia, Chinese, Napier’s etc) or long multiplication we should be teaching as a method to pupils. In one …
Multiplication madness? (2) Read More »
As a department, we seem to have spent the last six months debating exactly which method is OK for multiplying large numbers. Personally, I learnt column/long multiplication at school, and got pretty good at it, although to be honest, past about midway through Year 11 I can’t recall a situation where I’ve really had to …
Multiplication madness? (1) Read More »
I absolutely love teaching Pythagoras’ theorem – not sure why, but I suspect it has something to do with the sense of “wow” I got when I first learned about it and realised that maths isn’t all about doing sums. There’s loads of really interesting stuff you can do with it, and as the first …
Teaching Pythagoras’ theorem Read More »
The first session I attended at Celebration of Maths 2015 was titled “Effective Revision” and run by Ryan O’Grady (@tiredoldcliche). My colleague had picked the sessions for us, and I wasn’t sure I’d get much out of this – I was pretty convinced that I’d got revision sorted. So far this year with Year 11 …
Effective revision (COM2015) Read More »