Rule Book

Last week I did a bit of private tutoring with one of my tutees I haven't seen in a while. She's currently revising for her Mathematics GCSE exam that she has in March (well the 1st paper is 28th February)! After we had gone over lower and upper bounds, direct and indirect proportion, bearings and a few other things she showed me the 'rule book' that she had been keeping over the past month or so to revise more effectively.
Now, as I used to work in the school in which my tutee is studying I know of one of the Mathematics teachers there that uses these 'rule books' with all of his classes in KS4 as an effective way of them keeping revision notes and examples of questions. Each week he'd check these books to see that the students were using these. However, my tutee doesn't have this teacher for Mathematics and so I was massively impressed that she had decided to do one off her own back.

In the book she had a separate page for each topic/different type of question, all pages were numbered and at the back of her 'rule book' she had an index to easily find certain topics to revise from. I thought this was brilliant and I am now wondering as to how I could introduce this in class and whether or not students would use it as well as she is? Would it be something that I'd have to check on a weekly basis? Would these checks and the compulsory nature of me insisting the students kept these books then have a negative affect on them wanting to keep them? Should they be something that the students themselves would have to WANT to be keeping rather than something I would be telling them to do? All questions I'd have to consider and I may well contact my previous colleague to see how best he uses them with his classes?!

Here's my tutees' rule book...(I don't know who Sam is - maybe he appears throughout the book to explain concepts etc?)

 Here's some of the notes she's made inside - looks like Pythagoras' Theorem in 3D!

Here's the index pages - notice how she's almost made 100 pages already!!












The only thing I asked her was if anybody had checked the notes/examples she had written in her book. She said that they hadn't so far as it was just something she had been keeping to help her revise! I thought that this may need to be done so that she was certain that everything in there was accurate (I'm sure it would have been). If introduced in class these would, at some point, need marking or at least looking over by me. I could see these being used in conjunction with a class exercise book. The 'rule book' would be used for students to take down notes at the start of the lesson - just one example, key formulae/definitions etc, and then exercise books could be used for practise questions, workings out, homeworks etc. Mark the homeworks as they are given and completed and then mark the 'rule books' once a week/fortnight?

I'd be interested to hear if any Mathematics teachers are using anything similar in class and how best they have been implemented? Do the students take to these well? Do they use them proactively? Tweet me @mrprcollins or reply below!

Exciting Times for Stationary Geeks!

This landed on my desk this week after the Year 8s parent's evening...

 

 

That's right...it's my very own teacher's toolkit, complete with all the stationary I could possibly need as a Mathematics teacher.

 

It was decided in our department that each teacher would get one of these and so the only equipment we'd need to rely on being in the classrooms was the set of mini whiteboards and a set of calculators. In the boxes we have pens, pencils, rulers, protractors, compasses, scissors, glue, paper clips, post-it notes, rubbers, board pens, and mini whiteboard pens! This, for a stationary geek like me, is very exciting and I was proudly showing off my new stationary toolbox on Friday to my students, some of them were as excited, some thought I was a bit 'sad'...fair enough!

Teacher's Planner

This year I am going to make much better use of my teacher's planner!
I was given one last year by my GTP employing school but I didn't really use it that much, in fact I only really used it to keep track of my class' homework.

There were a couple of reasons why I didn't use it that much. The first was that it was only A5 sized. I know that doesn't sound like a good enough reason not to use it but I'm quite particular about things like this and the fact it wasn't A4 didn't really wash with me - I just didn't feel there was enough room to put everything I needed. The second reason, leading on from the first, was that I planned all my lessons on an electronic lesson plan template, and these were planned in depth throughout the year. So, as I was putting an in depth lesson on an electronic format and then printing off for each lesson, making notes on the print out and storing for later reflections etc, I didn't see the point in then putting brief information of each lesson in the planner?! When planning in advance I just used a scrap piece of paper to plan the next day/s lessons and then would cross them off once completed in full electronically.

However, this year I already have a lot of lessons planned in depth to work from/tweak/borrow parts from/adapt for different year groups/sets. So, I feel it is going to be useful to put details of each lesson in the planner and then go to my saved lesson plans from last year and adapt as needed. There is another reason this will work...I have been given an A4 planner this year (HOORAY).
Another reason is that I am tutor to a year 8 group this year and even though I was a joint tutor to a year 12 group last year I wasn't really required to do that much as my colleague had a hold on everything that was going on.
I feel the planner will be equally important to record my tutor group information as it will be my teaching.

Last year there were a few occasions where I wasn't aware of certain trips until a reminder e-mail was sent round a week in advance and so this year I will make a point of jotting down all dates/reminders/deadlines/meetings etc in the planner to really keep track of EVERYTHING that is going on and that myself, my tutor group or my students need to know.

Here's my new planner (I'm geekily excited about this)...

 

I've already written in all the dates up to the half-term and my corresponding teaching periods/PPA. I've added my class lists to the back and my timetable and have even started putting in all the #NQTtips I have seen on Twitter or elsewhere on the web - this is mainly so when I look back through my planner throughout the year I'll remember everything I've read over the past few weeks.

More stationary from www.primaryteaching.co.uk

Having stocked up on some stickers and my 'Mr Collins likes this' stamp at the start of my GTP year I recently paid another visit to www.primaryteaching.co.uk and purchased some new stationary for my NQT year.

I still have plenty of 'Mr Collins' Award for Awesomeness' maths stickers left and my 'Mr Collins likes this' stamp is still going strong and so I didn't need much (although I was tempted by so many things on the website)!

However, reflecting on last year, I realised that I spent so much time, when marking student's books, writing the same phrases over and over again. Namely 'what went well' or 'what I like is...' or 'i like that you have...' etc and 'what you need to do to improve is...' or 'next you should look to' or 'how you can improve is by... etc. So, I bought myself a 'What Went Well' and 'Even Better If' stamp that should save me time marking.
My employing school last year on my GTP didn't use these, however at my second school placement they were used by every teacher in the maths department when marking books and they seemed to save a lot of time! I may even have one waiting for me at my new school but figured that it won't hurt having one at home if so!

Whilst on the marking theme I also got some of their green teacher's marking pens - I prefer to mark in green than red, although after the first half term or so last year I pretty much used whatever pen I actually had left in my pencil case after lending all others out! Now I have a few to keep me going!

It's funny what you find in Tescos!

On my daily visit to Tesco (yes, I find myself in here way too much) I stumbled upon a rather random offer on the end of the bread aisle...

The offer was that if you bought any 2 Heinz or Warburton's products you got a free notebook!

Now, I had read somewhere recently about getting a notebook and in it putting the names of all of your students/tutor group (a name to each page) and then in it making any observations about them throughout the year. This includes: things they like, things they don't like, who they like to work with (and don't), any problems with their work, topics they did really well on, extra curricular clubs they are involved in etc.

All of this is in order to get to know your learners better, build positive relationships with them and generally pay an interest in them. Now, I feel I am pretty good at this and at knowing what's going, who supports what football team, who likes the latest XBox game, who's performing in the school plays...but there are always those little details that I either forget or wish I had written down somewhere to remind myself when coming to writing reports, or when my students' tutors ask for feedback from lessons, or even when the SEN dept ask for their reviews on students and how they are progressing in my lessons. I feel that by jotting down any, and all, relevant information in my new notebook could well help me collect this information that could then save time later in the year.

I have also thought about letting my TAs use the notebook in lessons, particularly looking at the students they are in the class to support. They see what goes on in my class from a different perspective to mine and work more closely with certain individuals and so it could be a great thing to have them write a comment when they feel necessary. I know they keep their own information for their own files and so I could, on having brief feedback with them following our lessons (I got into the habit of doing this, and sending my TAs my lesson plans prior to lessons last year), write their suggestions down myself if relevant.

Here's my freebie...(I needed bread and baked beans anyway)...