Sunday, August 26, 2012

5 Maths Gems #100

Welcome to my 100th gems post!

This is a big milestone for me. I've published 327 posts since I started writing my spider web log 4 in addition to a one-half years ago. One hundred of those posts convey been business office of my 'Maths Gems' serial - each ane has featured a pick of news, ideas in addition to resources for maths teachers.

When I joined Twitter I couldn't believe how many ideas in addition to resources were beingness shared yesteryear maths teachers everyday that weren't beingness seen yesteryear the hundreds of thousands of maths teachers who aren't on Twitter. I recollect trying to convince a colleague to bring together Twitter in addition to he said 'I merely don't convey fourth dimension for it. I wishing mortal could merely summarise the ideas for me'. So that's what I elbow grease to do.

I used to write ane gems post a calendar week (I was on motherhood leave!) but straight off I operate full-time I exclusively deal ane or ii gems posts a month. Twitter even in addition to hence provides a constant flow of fabric to pick from, in addition to hence I maintain to summarise in addition to portion some of the best ideas, inward the promise that I tin larn these ideas into classrooms all over the world.

To celebrate the fact that this is my 100th gems post, I'll endure recording a exceptional podcast amongst Craig Barton adjacent weekend. In grooming for this podcast Craig wants yous to guide your favourite jewel (there are 500 to guide from, all indexed here). Tweet, DM or electronic mail Craig (or comment below) to explicate why yous chose it, in addition to it could cease upwardly on the show.

On amongst the gems...

1. Mastery Learning Cycle
Over the course of written report of the final ii years Mark McCourt (@EmathsUK) has published a series of posts on mastery. You must read these splendid posts if yous haven't already! Oliver Caviglioli (@olicav) in addition to Mark convey worked together to do a poster which visualises Mark's model of the Mastery Learning Cycle.
This is merely an extract - download the poster to sympathize what it's all about. This is definitely something to portion amongst all trainee maths teachers (and likely all experienced maths teachers too).

No incertitude Mark's mass 'Teaching for Mastery', due to endure published inward Spring 2019, volition endure a must-read too.

2. Manipulatives
If yous desire to occupation manipulatives inward your didactics but don't know where to start, Craig Barton in addition to Bernie Westacott convey recorded a video podcast that yous volition detect real useful. You tin access the videos through Craig's Youtube playlist. For event hither Bernie explains how to occupation manipulatives to instruct negative numbers:



I've blogged earlier nearly Jonathan Hall's (@StudyMaths) amazing library of virtual manipulatives. It has continued to grow.
One of the novel additions is a bar modelling tool. It's real slowly to occupation in addition to I'm certain lots of teachers volition detect it helpful.
3. Indices Tasks
Miss Konstantine‏ (task for exploring indices. Students variety the cards in addition to detect the strange ane out.
Peter Drysdale‏ (@pwdrysdale) made a Desmos version of this carte sort.

I can't maintain upwardly amongst all the ideas in addition to resources that Miss Konstantine‏ (@GiftedBA) has been sharing lately! For event I enjoyed her recent perimeter problems. Check out her Twitter feed in addition to spider web log for lots to a greater extent than neat stuff.
Speaking of indices, I made an indices business for a recent Teach Secondary article. This resources is designed to endure used amongst a Year vii course of written report later on spending some fourth dimension on index notation, but it would operate amongst other yr groups too. The total resources is here - it contains 4 introductory indices activities.
4. Area
Here's a overnice thought to assist students develop an agreement of what expanse is. Ilona Vashchyshyn (@vaslona) challenged her students to write their cite in addition to hence that it covers an expanse of precisely 100cm2. Read the thread for ideas on how to extend this activity.


5. Assessment and Questioning
Mrs Budak (@mrsbudak) tweeted an interesting thought from ⁦‪@teacher2teacher‬⁩ that could operate inward every subject. At the cease of an assessment students are given the chance to write downwardly everything else they know nearly the topics on the test. It stops students beingness frustrated when a examination doesn't encompass the things they revised, in addition to it's likely a adept occupation of fourth dimension to retrieve materials from one's retentiveness in addition to write it downwardly (it definitely beats sitting in that place waiting for the examination to end!).

Finally, for some argue this reminded me of some other jewel that I've been pregnant to portion for ages...


It such a uncomplicated thought piffling change, in addition to and hence slowly to do! It's worth reading the thread for give-and-take in addition to ideas. Credit to Howie Hua (@howie_hua) for outset tweeting nearly this dorsum inward May. Here's some other of Howie's ideas:


Update
I've had a busy few weeks visiting a issue of unlike schools, including ane where I saw soundless instructor inward activity for the outset time.

I helped to run the outset 24-hour interval of a novel London-wide Maths Hub Work Group on developing Influenza A virus subtype H5N1 degree pedagogy, which is led yesteryear Carlos Karingal. We were fortunate to convey a fantastic grouping of teachers attend in addition to I await forwards to seeing how our Influenza A virus subtype H5N1 degree didactics develops throughout the year. In my session I talked through some of the ideas inward this splendid piece written by Chris McGrane about approaches to didactics calculus.

Next calendar week I'll endure supporting Chris Reilly inward running some other Maths Hub Work Group - Challenging Topics at GCSE. I'll spider web log nearly this soon.

My 2d Teach Secondary article is straight off available to read online. It's nearly social club of operations, in addition to opportunities to interleave this topic amongst fractions, decimals in addition to algebra.
Did yous encounter that Pearson convey a novel serial of maths textbooks coming out? It's called Purposeful Practice in addition to yous tin thought sample pages here.

Finally, Christmas is fast approaching in addition to hence yous mightiness detect a occupation for my collections of seasonal resources (here and here) - some are topic based in addition to some are for enrichment. I've written diverse posts nearly Christmas presents for maths teachers over the years (here is final year's post on TeachWire if you're looking for inspiration). If yous desire to process yourself during December, the MA has a Christmas advent calendar where yous tin larn daily discounts on MA books.

I'll move out yous amongst this lovely job shared yesteryear James from MathsPad (@MathsPadJames). There are a arrive at of solutions inward the comments (spoiler alert!), but it tin endure solved inward a affair of seconds without whatever workings using GCSE degree maths.