Probability Lesson & NQT Final Assessment

For my official, and final, NQT observation/assessment I was told that I would be observed on May 10th and that my NQT assessor could come into any of my 4 lessons I had on that day. This meant that I spent a fair amount of time the weekend before ensuring that my lessons were planned and I had all my resources ready to go regardless of what lesson my assessor would be popping in.

A quick tip for any NQT/PGCE/ITT starting in September...for any official observation make sure you give your assessor/observing everything they could possibly need for that lesson. This includes lesson plan, seating plan, class list, assessment results or scans of your mark book and copies of all the resources you'd be using that lessons. This way the see that you've clearly prepared for the lesson, have thought about what they need to see and they then should be able to see previous class results and link these to your lesson objectives and context for the lesson being observed. Also, have the class' books handy to show progression over time and marking - this all goes down well too!

On the day, I e-mailed my assessor just to say I looked forward to seeing them at some point that day (a gentle reminder). I then received a reply saying that the plan was for them to come and see me P2 (year 7). P2 came and went and I still hadn't seen my assessor. P3 was when they actually turned up and this lesson was with Year 8. A lesson on probability following their recent assessments. I don't know at this point if the statement of what lesson they'd be coming in was a 'test' of some sort, or whether it was just a matter of circumstance...I'm inclined to believe the latter.

Anyway, the lesson that was observed...I received an 'outstanding' grading for the lesson and so I thought it was worth sharing, and for my own personal teaching reflecting on and remembering for the future.

I knew the lesson I would be doing with this class (set 5 year 8) would be on probability following their recent assessment where the probability questions were not done particularly well - so I wanted to address this area of weakness. Now, even in my short time as a Mathematics teacher, I have used many different ideas/activities when teaching the topic of probability and its one of those topics that Mathematics teachers enjoy teaching in all manner of different ways. In the past I've done the Monty Hall problem, the horse race, watched Derren Brown's television shows, done a 'Maths Vegas' themed lesson and even observed other teachers using 'gambling' as a resource by 'betting' (fake 'money') on 'wacky races'. I decided to keep things a bit simpler this time round as I wanted my students to be comfortable with the vocabulary used in Probability and mainly, how to write a probability.

Here's my 5 Min Mathematics Lesson Plan for the observation (yes, this was perfectly acceptable for my final NQT lesson observation)...

This lesson plan was adapted by @ilovemathsgames from @TeacherToolkit's original 5 Min Lesson Plan. Both can be found on their respective Twitter pages/tweets and on the TES.

http://www.tes.co.uk/teaching-resource/The-5-Minute-Lesson-Plan-by-TeacherToolkit-6170564/











Before the lesson started I set out my classroom so that all of my 9 students (yes, I only had 9 students in my set 5 year 8 class) were sat around a single grouped set of tables. I then laid out the cheap paper tablecloths I got as part of my experimentation with #poundlandpedagogy. My aim with this was that the students would write on the table cloths throughout the lesson, rather than in their exercise books. The table (and cloth) were then added to with whiteboard pens and felt tip pens for the kids to use throughout the lesson.

The lesson started with an image of the answer/s to one page of their recent assessment (putting the lesson in context) with the particular question I wanted to address, the probability question, circled.

In addition to the image on the board I then started to introduce the lesson to the students as they got sat down. I showed them a bag, in which there were 11 multilink cubes of various colours and 1 'fruitella' sweet. I asked the students to write down any key words as they were said throughout the 1st task (and lesson on the whole). I then started to ask students to pick at random, from the bag a multilink cube. At this point they had no idea what was in the bag or what colours the cubes were, how many cubes there were etc. The point of this was to see if they could come up with an estimate for how many of each colour there were based on each students' picked item/cube. I went round the table after each student asking questions such as 'what do you think the chance/likelihood/probability is of that colour coming up?', 'is that colour more or less likely than another?', 'do you think the probability of that colour being picked is more than 1 in 2?' why? why not? etc.

After each student had had a go, and none of them had picked the sweet, I revealed to them all the contents of the bag. Throughout the task they had been writing down, on the table cloth/table the results of each student's picks. We then compared, after a brief moment of shock at the fact there was a sweet in the bag, the results with the actual items in the bag. Here I checked their understanding of how we express probabilities by asking what the probability was of each colour coming up. I then checked this further by going through 2 slides on my notebook file I created for the lesson...

 As you can see I checked here whether the class were able to express a probability as a fraction, revealing the convention when a few struggled. We also discussed here that probabilities of as single event occurring add to 1.

 To provide a link into the main activity I then did a similar thing with a dice rather than a bag of marbles to show that regardless of the event the conventions stay the same in terms of how we express probabilities. The dice on this slide is an interactive tool that when clicked 'rolls' the dice to generate a number - really useful. I got this off the TES somewhere but can't remember the particular resource. If it's yours let me know so I can link to it!

After this checking (mini plenary if you like) I set up the main activity by revealing the lesson objectives, showing what we had already covered and what we were going to look at next. I then explained the main task and gave out the dice and counters for the class to use. The main task consisted of each student individually rolling 2 dice. The numbers rolled on each dice would then determine which of 3 counters they would move up a space on the strips of paper they were given. If they rolled two even numbers one of the markers would move, two odd numbers a different counter and if one was odd and one was even they were to move the other (and final) counter. The winner was the one that got to the final 'square' on their strips. Here's the slide and image of the strips they were given to use...

The instructions, which some of the students found tricky to understand 1st time, were left on the board and reinforced to those that needed it. I worked with one student as I didn't have my LSA with me that lesson and they needed a bit of further support to get rolling!
There was an extension on the board too for those that finished quicker than others, which 2 or 3 of them got onto after being reminded what a square number was and what a prime number was. At this point I referred these students to the prime numbers display they had done earlier in the year (posters of the 1st 10 or so prime numbers).

This was the 'strip' of paper the students were given to place and move their markers up and down.

After the activity was done and each student had found a winner, which they wrote down on the table cloth, I went through our class results and then posed the question to the class 'why do you think this happened?'. I took a bunch of responses to the class and then drew up a sample space diagram to illustrate why it had happened.

We discussed the 'liklihood' of each counter being moved and then moved on.








The 2nd main activity involved rolling dice again. This time, I gave each student a sheet with numbers 1-36 written on them in a grid. I gave each student 10 markers to place on any of the numbered squares in the grid and told them not to show their partner. They could put more than 1 marker on a square, but no more than 3 on any one square. This was something that needed explaining a few times. I kept the instructions on the board too whilst the activity went on. I told the class that I would be rolling two dice and then multiplying the numbers that came up. If they had a marker on this number they would then take it off. The person with the most markers left on their sheets at the end would be the winner.

This is what their grids looked like. After the rules had been explained the students started to ask questions based on what they had just learnt about the dice and the probabilities of certain numbers coming up. We had a brief discussion of each question (without spoiling the outcome of the activity) before then starting to roll some numbers. At the end of the task I asked the students to now place their counters a 2nd time based on the squares they thought were best to put markers on (i.e. those that couldn't come up based on the rules of the game). This checked their understanding of the task and of the probability of certain numbers coming up, or not.

Finally, the plenary...

I really like these types of plenaries as they really do highlight who has grasped the lesson and who hasn't. They were each asked to write down, on the table cloth again, an outcome to which the answer was on the board. One by one I then went round the students asking for them to read out their outcome (a bit of literacy here) i.e. 'tomorrow will be a Saturday', 'the probability of rolling a 6 on a dice' and then asked another student to state what the probability was of that student's outcome using the probabilities and key words on the board. This was also differentiated by ability by the probabilities that were chosen. Most chose the worded probabilities like 'impossible' and 'evens', but there were a few at least that used the fractions to express their outcome (and correctly so).

Here's how the table looked at the end of the lesson...

As you can see, lots of key words written over the table. My explanation of '1 out of 12' and how this is written too with the 'out of' being the line between the numerator and denominator of a fraction...what is this line called? Is it called something? I think I have heard it referred as something other than a 'line' before? Answers on a postcard please (comment below).

The feedback I received from my assessor was really positive as my final assessment showed. His only 'concern' was the writing on the tables. One student had to write on the table as the cloth didn't stretch right the way over the grouped tables. I had written on the tables in the past with the class as it rubs off easily (I checked beforehand). My assessor's concern was that students, if allowed to draw on the tables in my lesson, could go to another classroom and do the same, assuming it was ok.
In an ideal world we'd all have whiteboard paint over our desks, on the walls etc to create a truly interactive environment. I have seen 'white rooms' before in libraries and universities where students can literally write on the walls, floor, ceiling, tables, chairs etc. All of which can be rubbed off and reused. Something for the future perhaps.



So, that's that. I got that 'buzz' throughout the lesson that tells me that everything is linking and going as I had envisaged; this doesn't always happen! The class were working fantastically throughout the lesson and were asking questions throughout. This was not the 'norm' with the class by any means and at times they had been difficult to teach/control. This lesson (and plenty of others) however, they were fantastic. I feel they got a lot from the lesson and just hope that they remember it for the future; retention is a key problem with the class.

I will use this 'format' of lesson in the future with small lower ability groups and may even use it with larger class sizes, students in groups with perhaps a different probability task to complete for each group. I may even do it with 'home' and 'expert' groups to get students moving round the room after each task to discuss their findings with other groups who hadn't seen/done certain tasks.

I hope my experience of my assessment will help others, and that ideas can be taken from the lesson I did with my year 8 class. It was one of the most enjoyable lessons I had with the class and one of the lessons that stands out from my NQT year (lucky timing on my behalf here).

Paper Plates and #poundlandpedagogy

Thinking of how I was going to teach my set 5 year 10 class provided something of an ongoing headache throughout the year. I was constantly having to ask myself what would get them involved in the lesson, what would actually benefit them - students who didn't see much 'point' in most of the things I was having to teach them in order for them to perform at all in their examinations. I tried all manner of ideas throughout the year.
These have included my mini Scheme of Work that I made and delivered for them. This worked for a while, but towards the 7th or 8th lessons in the Scheme of Work they started to lose interest in it. However, they did get a lot out of it and I will use this in the future. To see the Scheme of Work post click here...

http://mrcollinsmaths.blogspot.co.uk/2013/02/your-new-flat-scheme-of-work.html

I tried to make all of our lessons as interactive as possible with as many manipulatives that I could find appropriate for each lesson. I tried the 'text book' approach by just giving them a text book to work through on a topic after a brief instruction from me. Strangely 1 or 2 of them preferred these lessons over any other and liked being able to just get on with it. The rest ran out of concentration half-way through the lesson and the amount of questions attempted by some were embarrassing to say the least. So, having gone through this see-saw like attempt all year I decided to stick to what I felt they had worked best with when planning some revision lessons and that was with the more bizarre lessons, the lessons where that element of 'are we really doing this sir?' would crop up.

For one particular revision lesson I decided to use the paper plates I had bought as part of my experimentation with #poundlandpedagogy to revise everything we had done concerning circles. I also got out some straws to form the 'tangents' and gave them specific things to do with each paper plate they were given. The students were given a plate at a time and these were the things I asked them to do/draw on each plate...

1st I asked them to label all the key parts of a circle using the key vocab list I had put on the board. They had to write/draw/label each of the key words on their paper plate in the correct place. Here's what they created...

 As they were annotating their paper plates I was going round the class asking them why they were putting each word in each place - trying to get a definition out of them.

After they had finished this task I then got them to (roughly) draw any 3 or 4 lines from the centre of the circle (radii) and to then, as accurately as they could, with a protractor measure each angle of the sectors created. This led to discussions as to what the angles should sum to, how to use a protractor and the accuracies/inaccuracies of the lines they had drawn being the reasons behind why/why they didn't sum to 360 degrees...

After this task I then got students to measure the radius of a plate, it's diameter and then work out it's circumference and area using the formulae I reminded them of on the board and the approximation of Pi for those that didn't have a calculator with them (don't ask)!

At the end of the session we had a lot of plates annotated with circle vocab, angle facts, area and circumferences etc etc. Some students moved on to work out areas and lengths of sectors/arcs respectively. This then gave them all a clear visual aid to take home and hang up somewhere or add to their revision notes when revising for their examinations.

Balloons and #poundlandpedagogy

As part of my experimentation with #poundlandpedagogy I had bought some balloons to use in class. Now, last year, for one of my formally observed lessons on my GTP, I used balloons to hide 'clues' in for the project-based lesson we were doing. This year I decided to use the balloons to pose questions to the class to try and answer throughout their lesson.

On each of 7 or 8 balloons I wrote a question, the session below involved quadratic sequences, and in the balloon (prior to blowing them up) I placed the answer to the question on a piece of paper. The idea was, throughout the lesson, where we looked at quadratic sequences, if a student felt they could answer the question on any of the balloons they would let themselves be known and I would come and check their workings. If and when they did this they would then be allowed to come and pop (very carefully) the balloon they had answered with the magic balloon popperer (a compass). Out would fall the answer to that balloon's question and they would then win a prize (also got as part of #poundlandpedagogy).

Here are the balloons...

 It wasn't long on entering the class that my students immediately asked what the balloons were for.

The questions they had to answer were those that were only possible having learnt what they did in the main part of the lesson (unless, like one of my students, they clearly had some prior knowledge of quadratic sequences...he popped a few). This meant that the attention I got from the students was even greater than usual, with them all craving the knowledge to be able to answer the balloon questions and pop them to reveal if they were correct. I only checked their answers initially to ensure I didn't have 7-8 popped balloons with no correct answers.

It is definitely something that I will look to do again. It creates a great amount of intrigue, motivation and desire in the students. It also brings a great competitive element to the lesson to see who can be first to answer each question/pop a balloon.

I also used the string I bought as part of #poundlandpedagogy to hang them up next to the board!

#poundlandpedagogy Eggs!

These have been on my 'wish list' ever since I read some tweets from other #poundlandpedagogy teachers on Twitter. I can specifically remember a tweet from @WallaceIsabella.

However, my recent trips to 'Pound World' (see http://poundworld.net) have been unsuccessful in finding these. So, in a desire to get some of these I searched on the web and found them just as cheap on Ebay and then on the following website http://www.littlecraftybugs.co.uk/index.asp.
They arrived this week!

I got 72 of them so I can use different sets for different classes...

After snipping the bit of plastic holding each half together, and filing the sharp bits off they are now ready to use in class tomorrow. Here's what I plan on doing with them...









As a starter for my bottom set year 10 class I have cut up sets of 4 different numbers and put these in each of 12 eggs (1 for each student + a few spare). At the start of the lesson I will get students to pick an egg from a box and then get them to do the following with their 4 numbers:

1) using any mathematical operation, and each of the numbers once only, make the number 24
2) arrange the numbers to make the largest number possible
3) arrange the 4 numbers in any way you like and then write that number in words
4) find the largest sum you can from adding 2 of the numbers to the other 2 numbers (this was a question that they got wrong in their recent foundation mock examination)

So, for the number in the picture on the left...

1) (8-4)x(4+2)
2) 8442
3) 4842 = four thousand eight hundred and forty two
4) 84 + 42 = 126 or 82 + 44 = 126












Then, for my second set year 10s, who have been doing trigonometry the past few lessons, they have a trig question each in their eggs where they will have to find a missing length of a right-angled triangle. After they have found their own missing length I will get them to peer assess with their partner to check their partners work and have theirs checked before we then go onto looking at finding a missing angle!

 Pick an egg...any egg

10 ticks trigonometry w/sheet cut up into individual questions (1 in each egg).
I'll also be putting the 4 numbers in the eggs too for them to try and make the number 24 as with the year 10 class above. I may also get them to multiply 2 2-digit numbers from their 4 too.







I'm looking forward to seeing the reaction of the students tomorrow when they are presented with these at the start of the lesson.

I have lots of other ideas as to how I can use these in class too which I'll post about as and when I use them in class!

Tessellations

Continuing my experimentation with #poundlandpedagogy I was looking for a more practical way of using my 'Memo Cube' than just using them as pieces of paper to write notes on. I'd used them in tutor time as scrap pieces of paper to jot down our word of the week examples on, or the numeracy puzzles we do, but wanted to find a 'better' use for them.

So, I decided to use them in a tessellations lesson with my Year 10 set 5 class, using a lesson that @kutrahmoore had previously done.

Before getting into the main activity (using the 'Memo Cube' notes) I introduced the topic of tessellations and referred to the class' previous learning on interior and exterior angles of polygons using this resource that I found on the TES. After briefly going over why the 3 main shapes (square, equilateral triangle and regular hexagon) tessellate I gave the class the w/sheet (slide 12) to complete. The questions on this sheet are very similar to those that come up in the examination papers and so I saw this as good practice for the class. I then advanced through the rest of the slides showing to the class how they can make their own tessellations and how MC Escher created his famous artworks. The class particularly liked how the tessellations were formed and then created and the prepared ppt that you can download above is very well presented to show these.

Then, I introduced the class to how they were going to create their own tessellations. This was where @kutrahmoore's activity came in.

The class were given a couple of the 'Memo Cube' notes and were asked to draw a line from the top of the note to the bottom. It could be any sort of line they liked, straight, 'zigzag', wobbly etc. Then they were asked to draw a line from the left hand side of the note to the right hand side in a similar fashion. This then split their piece of paper into 4 sections.
They then had to number the 4 original corners of the square (from left to right, top to bottom, 1, 2, 3 and 4).

They then had something that looked like...(here's the one I used to model the activity to the class)...

After the class had drawn the 2 lines, and numbered the corners 1-4 they were then asked to cut out their 4 sections. This can be seen in the bottom of the 3 images here.


These 4 sections needed to then be rearranged as per the slide shown below...

This then creates the shape the students then use for their tessellations. Once stuck together, front and back, it will look something like...

 All they needed to do next was to draw around their shape onto a piece of A3 paper and then keep going to create their tessellations.

Some of the work that was produced was fantastic! We didn't quite have enough time for the majority of students to fill their pieces of A3 paper and then colour them in appropriately to then put up on display. So, they'll continue with them next lesson.









Here's an idea of what they managed to create as the lesson progressed...

 

Maths Vegas! (Negative Numbers)

Today my students and I went to 'Maths Vegas'!

In a series of lessons we have had on looking at negative numbers, adding and subtracting them and multiplying/dividing with negatives etc I found this resource on the TES that I thought would work perfectly to see how much the class had learnt, and what we needed to do more work on!

At the start of the lesson, before we started the 'Maths Vegas' activity I got the class to do a little starter activity that @reflectivemaths had come up with after a conversation with @ASTsupportAAli - a spin on the traditional 'Noughts and Crosses' game.
Continuning my experimentation with #poundlandpedagogy the class were given a bunch of my coloured square pieces of paper (Memo Cube) that I got from 'Pound World' to work on and in pairs they played the game - to see more info on the game see @reflectivemath's blog post here.

I used the time the class were playing the 'Noughts and Crosses' game to set up a table on the board that would be used for the main activity - 'Maths Vegas'. I went round each group and gave them the equipment they'd need and asked each for a suitable team name for the lesson.
Each group then had a mini whiteboard, marker and a visual representation of £50 that they would use in the activity.

Each group had the following equipment to use in the lesson.

As I was going round the class getting team names and giving out equipment the 'buzz' about what was going to happen started to generate. I was putting team names on the board 1 by 1 and so the other groups were naturally drawn towards these and what other groups were calling themselves. I then added to one of the groups an extra £10 to use in the lesson before anything had started. This naturally drew a few questions as to why one group had all of a sudden got more money to use when we hadn't even started!

As I addressed the class to explain the activity I immediately had a hand-up...'Why have they got more money sir?' The answer was simple, that group were the only group to have chosen a Mathematically themed team name for their group... 'Rhombus'. At this point, and as I was giving the reason, brilliantly, a few of the class kinda of said (as I was saying it) 'because it's a mathematical name'. Clearly I'd awarded extra points for this in the past! :)

I then explained that the activity would work as follows:

Each team had £50 (or in the case of 'Rhombus' £60) to 'play' with throughout the lesson.
They would be given a question to which they had to place a 'stake' on. They could place a minimum of £1 and a maximum of £10 on each question.
If as a group they then answered the question correctly their stake got added to their amount, if they got the question wrong the 'stake' was taken off their amount. So, if starting with £50 and placing £10 on the 1st question they'd have £60 if correct and £40 if they got it wrong.
The class were given 30 seconds on each question, after seeing the topic of the question (see resource) to decide on their stake.
The class were given 1 minute to answer each question once revealed.
The class had to hold up their whiteboards, with the answers on, at the same time to avoid any group/s writing down the answers of others.

Before then starting the activity, and taking each group's 1st stake I asked each group to assign certain roles. They needed one person to be the person who writes the group's answer on the whiteboard, one person to assign the 'stake' for each round, one person to agree on the group's final answer and the rest of the group would help work out the answers in each 'round'.

As the activity started there was a good 'buzz' about the classroom, each group engaged in trying to answer the questions. The groups worked well with one another and the competitive element behind how much each group was 'staking' on each question and therefore how much each group could have at the end of each round was fantastic. At points, the class got too excitable and so I decided to take off money for those groups that I had to wait for for far too long. This stopped some low level disruption and allowed us to move on through the questions much quicker than we were initially.

At the end of the 8 'rounds' we managed to get through I put the groups final scores on the board. These were determined by the amount of money they had gained/lost throughout the lesson. Every team lost money, which from an ethical 'gambling' point was what I wanted. At this point I used this fact to emphasise the problems with placing 'bets' and 'stakes' etc and made it clear that it was not something that I was trying to encourage, but educating them on instead.
The group that then 'won' at 'Maths Vegas' was the group that lost the least amount of money - happily, this was the group dubbed 'Arsenal'! :)
I also then gave some VIVOs (rewards) to those teams that didn't pick up any fines throughout the lesson.

Here's how the table looked at the end of the lesson...

You'll see the 'Thoughts on Crosses' activity examples I gave on the left. The main 'Maths Vegas' table on the rest of the board.

I would highly recommend doing this activity and using the resource above. The resource covers adding and subtracting negatives, ordering negative numbers (and finding the median of them), multiplying with negatives, dividing with negatives, magic squares with negative numbers, negative coordinates and more!

Circle Theorems & Hula Hoops!!

Inspired by @MrReddyMaths' guest blog post by @adrianjohnst on his blog my Y10 class have been creating Circle Theorems using Hula Hoops bought at 'Pound World' today!!

To see Adrian's blog post click http://mrreddy.com/blog/2012/12/guest-blog-circle-theorems-and-hula-hoops/

To visit the 'Pound World' website go to http://poundworld.net/. This lesson/blog post is part of my experimentation with #poundlandpedagogy.

This was our 1st lesson back after the Easter holidays and with a few personnel changes to the set due to recent mock results I felt it would be a good idea to revise over a few topics this week to get the class back into the swing of things and to provide links to the topics in the Unit 2 paper that we still need to cover. Another reason for looking at Circle Theorems again is because I didn't feel the class learnt enough when we covered them the first time round, the lesson, for whatever reason, didn't seem to sink in and so we needed to do more work here - the question/s that have come up in mock papers the class have done weren't fantastically well answered, as a whole group.

So, I started the lesson by using my Mathematics 4 pics 1 word Circle Theorems resource - see my previous blog post http://mrcollinsmaths.blogspot.co.uk/2013/04/mathematics-4-pics-1-word-circle.html (there's a link in this post to my resource on the TES available for download). I then, using the words in the starter activity went over the circle theorems on the board. I also had, on the tables prior to the class coming in, a sheet of QR Codes that linked to my Circle Theorem videos on my YouTube Channel (mrcollinsmaths). The idea then was for the class to use the videos and the notes I had written on the board to recreate one of the Circle Theorems. I asked groups to volunteer for a particular circle theorem at this point and this created a bit of competition with certain groups wanting to do certain Theorems over others. Once the groups had their circle theorems assigned I showed them (in the style of 'Blue Peter') one I had made early to model what it was I was expecting. Having thought about it now, I should have shown them Mr Reddy's blog post (darn hindsight)!

So, here's one I made earlier...

I used a few of my other purchases at 'Pound World' including the 'Memo Cube' 'post-its' (however these aren't sticky) and the masking tape to secure the rods.

The rods I got from our awesome D&T department. I luckily caught one of the NQT teachers in the car park and told him what I was planning to do - we then went to the D&T workshops and sliced up some wooden rods they had lying around so I could use these as the tangents, chords, radii, diameters etc! These were a great help and it pays to know all the departments in your school - you never know when you're going to need to call on them for help!

This 'model' then gave the class the basis of what I was looking for. After a short health and safety warning about splinters I gave the groups their hula hoop, wooden rods and sellotape/masking tape etc. At this point I had quite a few of our faculty in the room as I had invited them in if they were free to see what we were doing (and give me a hand). A few of them went and found us some extra sellotape as the masking tape wasn't great for holding the parts in place. Nonetheless, look what the class created...

 Angles drawn from the same point

 Angles drawn from the same chord

Angle in a semi-circle (angle at the circumference is half the angle at the centre)

 Cyclic Quadrilateral (opposite angles = 180 degrees)

Angle at the circumference is half the angle at the centre











After the class had been given 15-20 minutes to complete their circle theorem hula hoops I asked one representative from each group to explain to the rest of the class what circle theorem they had done, explain the relative parts of each etc. I then collected them all in and handed out to the class a set of circle theorem past paper questions from the 'bland.in' website. The class then used my YouTube video and all the Theorems (now on the floor of the wall at the front of the class) to answer the questions. I was particularly impressed at this point that some of the class had got our previous lessons notes out of their exercise books to refer to too!

Here's all of them at the front of the class & the QR Codes sheet and questions I gave the class...

 All of them, at the front as a reference - I just need to 'hang'/ put these up on one of the walls in the room for future use!

Here's the QR Code sheet I made the class. The centre QR Code links to the playlist on my YouTube Channel with all the explanations and some past paper question solutions. The 6 QR Codes round the centre one link to a specific theorem.







I (and I hope the class) really enjoyed this lesson. I feel they were much more secure with their knowledge of circle theorems at the end of the lesson having gone over the answers to the questions in the 'plenary'.
I know need some more Hula Hoops to do a session on Venn Diagrams (as suggested by a few of my Twitter followers following my #poundlandpedagogy tweets)!

Masking Tape & Magic Squares

Today was the 1st day back after the Easter Holidays and this gave me a chance to put into good use my purchases as part of my experimentation with #poundlandpedagogy. For more details on this see my previous post - http://goo.gl/aKNCh.

So, today with my Y8 set 5 class (one of them) I decided to use the 'masking tape' that I bought. I created a large 3 by 3 grid on the floor of the class underneath my IWB. Here's how it looked...

I started the lesson, as you can see by the image on my IWB, by getting the class to do a few things involving a 100 square. Namely, I got them to choose any 3 numbers of their choosing (>10) and add them up and then I asked them to pick a 2-digit number, reverse the digits, subtract the smaller from the larger number and then look at what the lowest possible answer was and why.
After this brief starter to bed them back into school life I drew a 3 by 3 grid on the board and asked them to experiment with it and try and create a 'Magic Square'. A square where all the rows, columns and diagonals sum to the same amount. I gave them free choice of what numbers to use and provided support (along with my 2 LSAs) whilst they were attempting this. The class found this quite challenging but none the less they were all able to access the task. Whilst the class did this they each had a go at our usual 'times tables challenge'. Using the IWB times tables 'game' I found off the TES they each had a minute to get as many correct answers as they could. I record these scores on a regular basis and the class love doing it and request it each lesson if I haven't mentioned it!

After the class had had a go at trying to create a 'Magic Square', and they had each completed their times tables challenge, I stopped them and prepared them for the next task.

I wrote the numbers 1 to 9 on the whiteboard and gave them each one of my number tiles from 1 to 9. I then told them that they would now try to create a 'Magic Square' using themselves and the tiles they had been given. They were to use the 3 by 3 grid I had mapped out on the class floor using the masking tape to do this. We spoke briefly about the significance of the numbers, the fact the number 5 would be a great choice for the 1st number to go in the 'middle' of the 'Magic Square' and then looked at the pairs of the remaining numbers.

The next part was over to them and I pretty much just stood back and let them get on with trying to move themselves, and each other to make the 9 numbers fit so that it created a 'Magic Square'. It was good at this point to see those students who took the lead and were telling others where to stand.

They didn't quite get to the full solution, they were close...but needed a bit more guidance, so we went through this on the table at the back of the class...

 

 

I'm lucky enough to have had exactly 9 students in my class to do this activity with. However, I can see it being run in class with different groups as a competition. Perhaps set up, using your masking tape, 3 different 3 by 3 grids around the room. Split the class into 3 teams and get them to see which team can get the solution the quickest?! I'm sure there will be more ways I can use the masking tape - any suggestions are more than welcome! #poundlandpedagogy



#poundlandpedagogy

I have recently been reading lots of tweets with the hashtag #poundlandpedagogy. The phenomenon seems to have been started my @WallaceIsabella and there are loads of teachers out there now contributing to the discussion.

Isabella's original work on #poundlandpedagogy can be read in this article http://osiriseducational.co.uk/osirisblog/poundstore-pedagogy-inspiration-in-the-aisles

#poundlandpedagogy is where teachers use the items/objects cheaply available in stores like 'Poundland' and 'Pound World' etc in their classrooms to improve teaching and learning. Coming up with innovative ways to use the 'everyday' items you find in these stores.

There are already some brilliant ideas out there as to how teachers are using these items in their classrooms. Some fantastic examples are:

(@ASTsupportAAli) Bulmershe School Toolkit Blog - http://bulmershetoolkit.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/cheap-shops-brilliant-lessons.html#!/2013/03/cheap-shops-brilliant-lessons.html

Dave Cookson's (@seatonburnDCO) blog where he regularly updates what he is using in his classroom under  the 'Technique a Week' heading - http://seatonburndco.wordpress.com/technique-a-week/

& most recently (inspired by the above) Mandy Lawson's (@seatonburnALA) new blog where she outlines how she plans to use #poundlandpedagogy in her classroom after the Easter break - http://seatonburnala.blogspot.co.uk/#!/2013/03/inspired-by-poundland-pedagogy-chat-on.html

There are plenty of other teachers contributing to and sharing their #poundlandpedagogy and they can be found by following the #poundlandpedagogy (click on this link) on Twitter! Some of my favourites so far include @fimturner's haul, & @ldufty's store eggs and reusable keyboard keys!

So, having been inspired and excited by the prospect of getting some cheap products and thinking of ways I can use these in my classroom I ventured into town today...

I went to 'Pound World' as it was the 1st one I came by, in preparation I also looked at the 'Poundland' website to see what sorts of items I would be likely to come across. You can check out both of their sites at http://poundworld.net/ and http://www.poundland.co.uk/.

I was amazed at how many things there are in these shops that you can use. The whole time I was in the shop my mind was going mental trying to think of ways to incorporate each item into my lesson. I went down each and every aisle searching for bargains to use. I eventually dragged myself away from the store with the following items to get me started this half of term...

 'Memo Cube' aka 'Post-it' notes! I already use these a lot in my lessons using my 'Tweets Plenary'. I also get my form group to write their examples using our school's 'Word of the Week' on these. I have got some more ideas to use these involving a rope ladder, but I'll post on that another time!

 Next up...balls of string. Being a Mathematics teacher these naturally come into play when looking at circumferences of circles, investigating and discovering Pi and looking at length etc. I have also used these this year for a 'probability washing line' and most recently to try and keep my garden fence from falling over! I plan to use these in some sort of 'washing line' display and, again, will post on this in due course.

 A great find here - masking tape! I get regular e-mails from Pivotal Education's Ellie suggesting ideas for 'Active Maths' lessons. One of these suggestions was to create a 'magic square' grid on your classroom floor, give students the numbers to form the magic square and then get them to arrange themselves in the grid so that all the rows, columns and diagonals sum to the same number! This is what I'll do with this initially and I'll post when it's done!

Balloons! I love using these in lessons and used them in one of my termly assessments last year on my GTP. I put a little piece of paper in each of about 12 balloons, 4 lots of 3 differently coloured balloons (differentiated). In a certain coloured balloon would therefore be a 'clue/hint' for the lesson. The students were then encouraged to, if needed, come to the front and [very safely] pop the balloon they required to get that clue for the lesson. i haven't used this yet this year and so these will come in handy to revive this strategy I have used previously...blog post to follow!

Lastly, and my favourite, most awesome, find of the day goes to...6 hula hoops (each costing £1)! Now, I have been on the look out for these since I read Bruno Reddy's (@MrReddymaths) blog post on using hula hoops to help his students revise the circle theorems. This is exactly what I intend to do with these and my Y10 class. I will, perhaps, use the string here too. There will be an epic blog post to follow this lesson, when it is done - watch this space!

 

As you can tell from the above, I intend to write an individual post, including pics, of how I have incorporated each of my purchases into my lessons and what effect they had on the learning of my students. I will try to do one of these posts a week from now until the half-term week and then hopefully go shopping again over half-term (if not before) to hunt around for some more ideas. I'm already on the hunt for some eggs and recycled keyboards in order to try out @ldufty's idea!

 

More to come... follow the #poundlandpedagogy for more ideas that are already in action!