Got a whole fortnight’s worth of stuff to fit into this post as Easter holidays mean I’ve had a little break from frequent Twitter checking! Here are my picks from the last two weeks: Visual representations (@mrbuckton4maths)A couple of really really nice visual representations for relative frequency and fraction multiplication. I love how the relative …
Pick of Twitter 04/04/2015 Read More »
1. Crack place value firstThis might seem like a no-brainer, but teaching rounding on top of an insecure understanding of place value is a recipe for disaster. Before pupils can get their heads around rounding, particularly to a given number of decimal places, they need to understand why 0.43 is bigger than 0.413, otherwise the …
Following my trawl through the xkcd archives to find my favourite comics for A Level, I thought I may as well post some that may be relevant for KS3 and GCSE. There are plenty of funny graphs and pie charts (great for the last five minutes of a lesson), and a few topic-related strips. This post contains a …
xkcd Percentages comics Read More »
If you haven’t heard of xkcd (click now and lose three hours), it’s a webcomic run by Randall Monroe focusing on maths, science and computing. Although some of his comics (mostly the coding ones) go over my head, the maths-based ones are hilarious, and some are great for sharing in lessons – with the caveat that some …
xkcd comics for A Level Read More »
Predictably, lots of the blog posts I’ve read this week have been about the third Maths Conference last Saturday. Having said that, it’s great to read other people’s perspectives and get an idea of what went on in all the workshops I didn’t attend. Here’s a few I’ve enjoyed: @BodliUK ~ 3 Techniques You Should Know, Mastery …
Pick of Twitter 21/03/15 Read More »
A great quick activity to get pupils out of their seats; this works particularly well at the end of a lesson for an exit activity and can be used for most topics. Prepare a set of cards before the lesson; I usually make simple pairs, but sets of 3 can also work quite well. Give each …
This is a great way to get pupils collaborating in the classroom and focusing on the steps to solve problems. Put pupils into groups of four, then distribute four problems. Each pupil solves a step before passing to the left and so on, until each problem has a complete solution. This works well for simple …
I usually start work on factorising algebraic expressions with a critical look at what factorising actually is and a few reminders of prior learning about factors. I pop up this diagram when pupils enter the classroom, and get them to think about what it is showing. We then have a discussion and collect ideas. The slide represents …
Factorising linear expressions using algebra tiles 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 »