Advent Calendar Resource

Earlier this year, in February, I found the following resource (by dannytheref [@dannytheref])...

http://goo.gl/X3oP5u

The only problem with this was that I was 2 months too late! However, having remembered the resource, I relocated it earlier this week with the intention of using it this month in the lead up to Christmas for some festive starter activities to kick off my Mathematics lessons.

If you haven't seen/used the resource before you can download it from the TES by clicking on the link above. Here's what the resource includes...

The home slide is complete with a festive jingle. You then click on the doors to reveal the starter task/activity to do.

I recommend reading the instructions and answers document that accompanies the resource to fully understand all of the different activities on offer. These could be done on a daily basis with your classes or just randomly depending on when/how much you want to use this in your lessons!

My favourites are:

The product game - the resource takes you to a website to play this
Heads or Tails - classic!
'One of these things is not like the other thing' - sung by the Cookie Monster...what's not to love!
Pointless - brilliant game
The boys vs girls head to head - the accompanying music is brilliant

I know I'll be using this in my lessons this month. If you do too let me know how the resource goes down and don't forget to leave a comment for dannytheref on his resource too!

Numeracy Across the Curriculum (ITT/NQT Session)

On Monday 4th Nov 2013 I delivered a 'numeracy across the curriculum' session for my school's ITTs and NQTs. I was only given 30 minutes for this as the other half of the hour session was delivered by one of my English colleagues on 'Literacy across the curriculum'.

For the session, I used the following Prezi and included a number of ideas for getting numeracy into other subject's lessons. These ideas I will explain further here to support the ITTs and NQTs at my school, and also for anyone else who is interested in those ideas that I presented...I hope they are of use!


*Feel free to flick through the Prezi I created for the session. Throughout the presentation: I referenced the National Numeracy Organisation; briefly explained what numeracy was; gave my colleagues a question to attempt and used this to highlight the different ways students will go about solving the same problem; suggested ways in which you could/should be using numeracy in lessons; provided examples of what could be used to help (data from SIMS and a guide to the levels in Mathematics [from another colleague in my department]) and then presented 12 ideas, all of which I will explain further here (due to having to whizz through them in the session)!*

Idea #1 - Scrabble Tiles
I wrote a blog post on these previously which can be seen by going to --> http://goo.gl/rxCbrK

The Scrabble Tiles can be used in any subject by getting students to find/create key words for the lesson. The numeracy element comes in by getting students to find the sum of the numbers on their tiles. They could then even multiply this by a 'number of the day'. You could get students to estimate the highest total score for a word in your subject, would it differ in other subjects? Why? You could award extra points to students if they come up with a key word for the particular topic you are teaching; you could even award a percentage of their score, for example students could get 10% extra if the word is related to the lesson.

Idea #2 - Use the Dates

This idea is particular useful in subjects like History and English where you have historical dates to refer to or historical figures/people to mention. Get students to work out how many years it has been since certain dates, since the death of historical people. In Geography you could ask students to find the number of years since an event happened. You could get students to work out the age of people who have died by giving them their year of birth/death; you could go as far as working out how old they were in years, months, days, hours etc and could discuss conversions between time here. You could ask students how many days it is until events in the future too. For example, in RE, religious festivals such as Divali, Christmas, Eid, Easter etc. In Design and Technology (or Art) you can get students to create Gantt Charts for their projects and work out the number of days allocated to certain aspects of their projects (this idea came from @kutrahmoore).

Here's an example of a Gantt Chart. These could be used for any subject where an extended project is used - or for revision purposes in terms of creating a revision timetable!






Idea #3 - Pie Chart of the lesson

This could be used to great effect as a plenary activity. Get students to draw a pie chart to sum up the lesson. This activity could be differentiated for students by either keeping the timings simple (i.e. half the lesson I...(half the pie chart), a quarter of the lesson I...(a quarter of the pie chart), an eighth of the lesson I...(a quarter of the pie chart) etc) or getting students to use smaller time intervals, i.e. I spent 4 minutes reflecting on my progress (so a 24 degree slice would be needed to represent this). In order to do this the students will need to divide the 360 degrees in a circle up accordingly; 1 minute of the lesson would be represented by a 6 degree slice of the pie chart.

Idea #4 - Graphing Progress

Again, as a plenary activity in a lesson, or perhaps even kept at the start of every new topic in their exercise books, students can create a suitable graph/chart to 'graph' their progress throughout a topic. Here they can practise their skills of drawing suitable axis, with a consistent scale, and plotting points on their graph across a given time period. You can discuss here with students the criteria that they'll put on their 'progress' axis, whether it be a grade, level or other scale. You could also discuss the benefits of one graph/chart over another.

Idea #5 - Top Trumps

I love top trumps cards and have used them in my lessons to help engage lower ability students in their learning. I have a particular set of 'animal substitution top trumps' cards that I use regularly when teaching the topic. How these can be used in other subjects is by using key people/events and getting students to create their own top trumps cards and assign people/events certain values based on some categories you/they decide upon. For example, in English, you could take all characters from a particular novel (lets say Of Mice and Men) and then get students to rate them on their: likability, nobility, strength etc. Students then assign each character a value for these categories based on what they have learnt about them by reading the novel and then they'd play the game of top trumps in the traditional manner. To make this even more numeracy related you could get students to create sums/calculations instead of just having a single number. This way students would have to first do the sum before deciding whose card was the winner. In Science, this can be done with the Elements, perhaps taking proton number, mass number, number of electrons etc as the categories.

Here's an example of the 'Animal Substitution Top Trumps' I use...

With these top trump cards you give students values for a, b and c to substitute into the expressions on the cards. I change the values throughout the activity (to negatives, decimals, fractions etc) and then award 'rewards'/'house points' for those students holding my favourite cards (the chicken, pig and hedgehog - just in case you were wondering).

You can download this resource on the TES by clicking on --> http://goo.gl/HTzasQ









Idea #6 - Line Ups (range, median etc)

This can be used in a number of subjects where your students have to measure anything. For example, if they need to measure their heights for a given activity, or perhaps their heart rates in PE. Get them to line up in ascending order and then ask the class to work out the range, median and mode of their heights, heart rates, hand spans, weights etc. In History, you could take this idea further to make a timeline out of students for a certain event, say World War I or II, hand out to them key events, or get them to create these themselves, and then get them to line up in ascending order. Then you could calculate time frames between certain events. I can see this working well in PE too for the speeds at which they complete certain events/tasks.

Idea #7 - Venn Diagrams

Venn Diagrams can be used to compare any 2 (or more) things. In English, they can be used to compare characters in a book. In Science, they can be used to compare elements, In PE, they can be used to compare sporting events. In History, they can be used to compare historical events. In Geography, they could be used to compare natural disasters. In Music, they can be used to compare songs/bands/artists. In Food, they can be used to compare recipes. And so on... . Venn Diagrams can be used as either a starter activity or a plenary. They can also be used for revision purposes if asked to 'compare and contrast...'.

I have a resource on the TES I use when introducing Venn Diagrams (or HCF and LCM) that acts as a starter activity to get students to compare...Batman and Superman or...Shrek and Donkey. Download and adapt them here... http://goo.gl/Qh7NuQ

Idea #8 - Calculator Stories
This idea stems from a resource I found on the TES, you can download that resource here --> http://goo.gl/1AJ80j

Here it is too...

As you can see by the image to the left, this involves using a calculator to perform certain calculations to which the answers can be read by turning the calculator upside down in the 'old school' fashion where kids would type 5318008 to spell out 'boobies'!

You can therefore take any piece of text, omit any words you can spell by typing in numbers on a calculator and then turning it upside down, and then create a sum for students to answer to reveal the word in the text. You could get students to create their own or prepare them for them as a short starter activity. This would get them reading some key information for your lesson whilst practising their calculator skills. Check whether your students have their calculators on them at all times or whether you'll need to borrow some; they should all have them with them in our school (as long as they have Mathematics on the same day as your lesson)!?

Idea #9 - Cash Reward/Behaviour Tax
an idea I recently read in @TeacherToolkit's #100ideas book...

The idea is that, perhaps as part of a behaviour management strategy, at the start of a lesson you give all students a certain amount of 'money'. I have some fake £10 notes printed out that I use with ratio activities, or you could use money from board games, print your own etc. Then, throughout the lesson, perhaps when giving out reward points or warnings (in line with your school's behaviour policy), you then issue a reward cash value or 'tax' to the students. This tax could be 10%/25% of the money they have at that time in the lesson, or could just be a determined amount, say £20; a discussion here about which would be the greater amount would be lovely! The students at the end of the lesson with the most money could then 'trade' them in for a small prize or even receive an additional reward point.
I have used raffle tickets in the past in this manner (give them out for good behaviour/work, take them away for poor behaviour) and then draw a ticket at the end of the lesson and that person wins a prize. Here you can discuss the probability of them winning, based on the number of raffle tickets they have!

Idea #10 - Bananas!
I have no idea why this activity is called 'bananas' but I love it nonetheless...it is an idea I found through @TickTockMaths' '59 Starters' resource available on the TES. I blogged about it very recently at --> http://goo.gl/b9h5k1

Here's the idea...and this can be used in any subject...

You basically choose a few categories, related to your subject/lesson, and then pick any letter of the alphabet and get students to think of a key word for each category that begins with the chosen letter of the alphabet. How you get in some numeracy is that one of the categories could be 'a mathematical word' or 'a word to do with numeracy'. Get students to define their chosen word and say how/when they'd use it in their Mathematics lessons.

Idea #11 - Estimate the lesson

Estimation appears naturally in every day life. We estimate the amount of time it's going to take us to complete a journey, the amount of time we need to leave for certain tasks, the amount our shopping is going to amount to when we get to the check-out etc etc. For any subject there will be a number of occasions in your lessons where you can ask students to do some estimating. It could be the amount of time an activity is going to take them, a mark/score they believe they'll get on a test/assessment, the number of years since an event, the amount of an ingredient they will need for a recipe for a given number of people, an amount of liquid to use in an experiment, the length of wood to cut to make an object from etc etc. You could even, when asking students to estimate something related to your lesson, ask them to estimate the answer to a calculation i.e. estimate the answer to 34.98 + 23.1.

Idea #12 - Squares

I love squares. This is perhaps one of my favourite activities to do and there are so many variations of this activity that I probably need to write another blog post/book to explain them all...and even then they'll be other variations found too!

The activity 'squares' is based on a 6 by 6 dotted grid (or other square sized grid of your choosing) and players take it in turn to join two dots together, thus making 1 of the 4 sides of a square. The game continues with the other player taking their turn. Each time a square is created by having all 4 of its' sides complete the person wins that square.
How I make this more 'mathsy' is by having numbers in each 'square' prior to the start of each game, then, when a student wins a square they add that amount to their total. I've also done this when introducing algebra to get students to collect like terms (this would require letters and numbers to be placed in squares at the start).
This can be adapted for any subject by making a mega game of squares on the class whiteboard, or even better, on the IWB. Instead of writing numbers in the squares you can write questions for students to answer. So everytime they win a square they answer the question in the square they have won. The game is all about strategy and problem solving and is an enormous amount of fun!

Additionally, this can be done on a coordinate grid with a set of axes for students to call out coordinates before drawing their line (or their partners' chosen line). For example 'I want to join the points (2, 3) and (3,3). This variation could be used well in Geography when discussing maps and grid references.

Here's an extreme example of a 'squares' grid, write questions/numbers etc in the squares and each time a square is won the students answers that question or adds the number to their score!














So, that's all 12 ideas I presented (briefly) in my numeracy across the curriculum session. I hope it gives you a better idea of each and ultimately, how you can build numeracy into your lessons (if you were struggling to find a way to do so). There are loads of ways you can adapt these ideas to suit your subject/students/lesson etc I hope I've given enough examples for specific subjects? If you try anything out do let me know by commenting below or tweeting me at @mrprcollins.

59 starters (so far)

A month ago, whilst doing my regular resource reviews on the TES, I came across a resource that was that good I felt the need to blog about it...it's been a while since I had that thought, but now (having found a few minutes between planning lessons for going back to school tomorrow) I'm ready to do so.

The resource is from Richard Tock (@TickTockMaths) (tes username: richardtock) and is quite simply a jam packed ppt with loads of starters for your Mathematics lessons.

You can download the resource from the TES here --> http://goo.gl/aoFVYR

The ppt includes random number/letter generators, you can randomly choose a starter task, you can assign your own favourite starter tasks on the menu screen by dragging the relevant numbered starter into the 'drag favourites here' section and much much more.

Here's the main menu...

 
As you can see the starter tasks are all differentiated by the colour coding that has been assigned to each task (key in top right of screen). By clicking on the 'pick one randomly' you can get a random starter task (make sure you enable macros when the ppt opens).






Some of my favourite starter tasks from the '59 starters' resource:

Starter #1 - what is special about this grid? I won't spoil this by revealing the answer, check it out yourself!
It'd be interesting to see what students would come up with here, and how they would go about trying to find the 'specialness' of the grid!

Starter #29 - bananas. Very good for literacy links. It is also very generic which allows it to be used as the starter in almost any lesson/subject. This could be adapted for all subjects, and even keep 'a mathematical word' to get a bit of numeracy in other subjects.

Starter #14 - What is the question? I like these tasks, especially as you can create any question to which the answer is on the screen, for almost any topic too. Click the number in the centre of the screen to randomly generate another!

Starter #33 - 4 pics 1 word. I created some of these last year, check them out by viewing my blog post at --> http://goo.gl/wx0uBR & download them from the TES by clicking --> http://goo.gl/vWkZCP.

Starter #59 - What is the best number? Why? This links to the YouTube video clip of Sheldon from the Big Bang Theory explaining what the actual best number is. Cue debate from your students!





I also like all the Dara O'Briain's School of Hard Sums questions as I have seen, and shown these episodes in class on a few occasions. Some of the questions are quite tricky, but fear not...Richard Tock has included all the answers!

So, download this resource and it will essentially cover your starters for your lessons if you are struggling to find inspiration, or anything to specifically link in to your main lesson's topic/theme. The tasks I have tried out with students so far have gone down really well and it allows you to get lessons off to a quick start by having something to think about on the board as students arrive, you collect h/w in etc etc.

Thanks to Richard Tock for uploading this resource to the TES and making it available to everyone!

Year 6 Problem Solving Day

Right in the middle of the first half term of the school year I helped host, and organise, a Year 6 Problem Solving Day for my school's local primary schools. In all, we invited 6 of our local primaries and each brought with them 4 students and 1 member of staff. The day ran fantastically well with all schools feeding back positively on the day and in the subsequent online survey that I sent round. However, without the help and support of our mathematics faculty assistant and my fellow Mathematics teachers the day wouldn't have even gone ahead.

The only downside to running events such as these is the amount of organisation and planning the day takes. For this event we had to (in no particular order):

contact our local primaries, get the names of the students/staff attending
send out details of the day a week before the day itself
book the school's study centre to host the event
enlist the help of our Year 9 prefects to support the Year 6 students on the day
advertise the event in our school's bulletin/the website and in staff briefings
print and write certificates for each student who attended/prefect that supported the event
print out answer booklets for each primary school to use on the day
print off name badges for all involved
arrange parking spaces for the primary school's minibuses
arrange refreshments for our visitors
get a member of SLT to come and award the certificates at the end of the day
ensure everyone knew of fire and safety procedures should we have to use them
seek permission for use of photographs for the school's website
plan all the activities for the day
plan cover for the lessons my colleague and I missed due to running the day...

...and I'm sure there are loads more things that our faculty assistant did behind the scenes that I am unaware of!

However, despite the mammoth task of planning the event (and the time it took up) it was well worth while. I planned all the activities and I used resources I had found on the TES or from tweets that I had seen.
On the day itself the activities were arranged in 6 different bases, each with a different activity. Our primary schools then rotated round the bases in a carousel of activities type style. The schools had 20 minutes to attempt the activity at each base, they wrote down their answer in their answer booklets, reset the activity to how they found it and then advanced to the next base. Each school therefore got to attempt each activity and the results were collated at the end and points awarded for the successful completion of each task.
Each student was then awarded with their certificate at the end of the day and the winners were then announced.

The activities (with all links to the resources used) are listed below, with a brief description of each activity and how/where I found them...

The Factors and Multiples Puzzle
http://nrich.maths.org/5448 @nrichmaths

The Factors and Multiples Puzzle, from the nrich website is one that I have used in class before and set students as a homework task. Each time the students, regardless of age, have found the puzzle challenging and only a few have been able to complete it. The answer (seen in the picture inserted to the left) was uploaded to Twitter by @SmileMaths and they reminded me of the activity when i was looking for inspiration on my Twitter time line. Only 1 school managed to complete the puzzle in the 20 minutes allowed. For this 'base' I took a photo of each teams completed (or partially completed) puzzle and then worked out how many points to award based on the numbers being in the correct row/column. A total of 25 points available!



The Marshmallow Challenge
http://marshmallowchallenge.com/Welcome.html

The Marshmallow Challenge was the most popular 'base' of the day and was an idea I saw tweeted by @ArcherEdTech. The picture to the left was the laminated instructions I gave to the students arriving at the base. I had a lot of our Year 9 students positioned on this base to help measure and cut out 1m of string and tape and to ensure the structure was freestanding at the end of the 20 minutes with the marshmallow on the top. The height was recorded. The winning height was awarded 5 points, 2nd 3 points and 3rd 1 point.

 

Lost Labels
http://www.tes.co.uk/teaching-resource/The-Lost-Labels-6292871/
RSS Centre for Statistical Education

A resource I found on the TES whilst doing my usual resource reviews. When I was planning the activities for the day I wanted to get a mixture of activities that covered the 4 main areas of Mathematics (number, algebra, shape space and measure and data handling). However, the algebra activity was left out as the Year 6 students may not have come across much of this as of yet in their learning of Mathematics. N.B. the day was for any Year 6 student, not necessarily those that were 'gifted and talented' in Mathematics. So, the lost labels task asked students to complete the labels on the axes of a couple of bar charts, just based on a few clues. I like how this task leads to a lot of interpretation of bar charts, decisions as to the scale of the axes etc. 5 points were awarded for each successfully labelled bar chart (10 points on offer here in total)

Murder Mystery
http://www.tes.co.uk/teaching-resource/Murder-Mystery-Maths-3-6305825/

Another resource I found on the TES when doing my resource reviews and when looking for end of term activities at the end of last year. Now, this task was the only one where we had any sort of EBI feedback on. The activity just took too long and therefore not all schools were able to give an answer to this one and had to 'guess' based on the amount they were able to complete. So, in future, if I were to use these sorts of activities again, I would ensure that the activity was completed over 2 bases and therefore allowed more time. Nonetheless, I still think this is a fantastic resource, that I have used with Y7-10 students at the end of term. The task, in an hour lesson, has taken anywhere from 10-60 minutes depending on the ability of the group and the number of students in each group. I think I was hoping that with each school having 4 students and 1 member of staff that if each took one 'clue' and answered it that they'd be able to do it in the time allowed. I may have underestimated this a bit?!

Triangles Mystery
http://wordplay.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/05/13/triangle-mysteries/?_r=0

Another idea/activity I saw on my Twitter time line over the Summer, this time tweeted out by @stevenstrogatz. What I really liked about this activity is that it was in the New York Times and this, for me, gave the puzzle a certain gravitas that I feel the students/staff appreciated as they saw it as a puzzle that was trying to be solved elsewhere in the world, and not something I had just thought up/found for them alone. There is more that can be done with this task rather than just the simple nature that I presented it due to the 20 minutes allowed.

It could form the basis of a mathematical investigation to give to students in KS3?

 

Mathematical Treasure Hunt
Smile Cards http://www.nationalstemcentre.org.uk/elibrary/collection/45/smile-cards-by-number

The final activity that I included was one that had been used in the Year 6 Problem Solving Days done in years past. The day had previously been run by a colleague who retired at the end of last school year. I worked with her when working as a cover supervisor and she helped me loads in terms of allowing me to observe her lessons, help plan and run revision sessions for year 11s and I now teach in the room she vacated. I owe a lot to her in terms of my own development and felt that it was important that the day still had something of hers in it. She had left behind her boxes of resources that she used on the problem solving days (there's a year 2 one coming up later in the year) and from these I searched through and used the 'base' numbers she had on each table, the answer booklets and of course, this resource. The resource itself was one from the SMILE cards series, involving students going on a mathematical treasure hunt around the study centre, finding cards with mathematical problems and then finding the card with the answer to that problem on before attempting the problem on that card. The students wrote down the path between the cards and then were awarded points on the correct answer/path. The students enjoyed searching round the study centre for the clues and some of the year 9 prefects helped locate those that I put in obscure places.

In preparing the day I created this ppt with all the resources/instructions etc I needed to print/laminate for the day. If you would like to use them just click the link below (and of course the links above).

My resources --> https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/37694946/Y6%20Problem%20Solving%20Resources.pptx


As I have said above, the day was a great success. The day ran smoothly, mainly due to the organisation that had gone before it (especially on behalf of our faculty assistant). I was a bit nervy at the start of the day that everyone would turn up and the day itself would go to plan. These worries soon disappeared and the best part of the day was seeing the students attempting the puzzles, asking questions, posing questions to questions asked, talking to staff from our primary schools and enjoying the solving of the problems that were set. There was a definite 'buzz' around the study centre that morning and all students were fully engaged in trying to solve the puzzles/problems given to them. The day ran on time, awards were handed out by one of our SLT members and the winning school took home with them the remaining bag of marshmallows that weren't used in the challenge! They were thrilled!

Since the day itself one of my colleagues has held a meeting with all our local primary schools and the feedback he got on the day was great. He said that staff that didn't even attend the Problem Solving Day were speaking very highly of it due to the fact that the year 6 students that had been on the day went back to their respective schools and were clearly telling their other teachers all about it. This is not only fantastic news for those of us that helped run and organise the day, but also for our school as it puts out a very positive message about the school. We have now had requests for similar days to be run in the future, in addition to the year 6 and year 2 problem solving days we already put on. So, hopefully, it is something we can look to offer on a more regular basis, in different disguises, for other year groups in our primaries, or for groups of students that are enthusiastic about Mathematics.

I, despite the panic and stress of ensuring everything was prepared for the day, thoroughly enjoyed the event and would recommend running a similar event to anyone that is thinking about doing so. I like liaising with our primary schools, the chance to speak to the students who could well be coming to our school in September 2014 and the opportunity to do something 'different' for a few days in the school calendar.

Many thanks again to our faculty assistant (she knows who she is), my colleagues that helped run the day and those that came down (in their free periods) to see what was going on. To the year 9 prefects for supporting and of course to all the year 6 students and their teachers for attending and making the day as good as I could have hoped.

Starter Displays

I'm in the process of setting up my new classroom and when thinking about what displays I wanted to have up in my new room I was trying to think about what has worked best for me in the past. The displays I think work the best are those that you can either use or refer to in lessons. In the past I have used the '4 4s' problem, my '2 0 1 3' display and my 'Mathematical Concept Wall' displays in class as starter problems to pose my students; their answers then go up on the displays for all to see.

You can view my blog posts on these displays by clicking on the below links:

4 4s --> http://mrcollinsreflectivejournal.blogspot.co.uk/2012/03/4-fours-challenge.html
2 0 1 3 --> http://mrcollinsmaths.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/2-0-1-3-challenge.html
Mathematical Concept Wall --> http://mrcollinsmaths.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/mathematical-concepts-wall-for-want-of.html

All of the above displays will be used again this year at some point. I already have a space marked out for the '4 4s' problem and a wall in mind for the 'Mathematical Concept Cards'. However, I wanted some displays that I could use on a daily basis. Displays that would allow me to direct students and then allow them to get on with a short task that we could then discuss the results to as a class. So, with this criteria in mind I have created the following...

'Number Cruncher'

This starter activity is often found in daily newspapers and comes under many different names 'Brain Gym', 'Mental Maths' etc etc. I downloaded a resource from dwatson802 on the TES website last year which had an interactive version of this starter task (http://www.tes.co.uk/teaching-resource/KS3-KS4-Mental-Maths-practice-Numbercrunch-Starter-6120840/). The ppt has 2-3 of these puzzles that are displayed on the board with a minute timer counting down before revealing the answer. I used this and my classes liked it, however there were too few of these to use on a regular basis and I didn't really want to spend loads of time creating a mega ppt of 'numbercrunch' puzzles. A reason for this is that I regularly forget about all of the starter tasks that I have used in the past/created - there's just too many ideas I have used. So, in order to forget forgetting about this one I have made a 'number cruncher' display. The display is simply a set of laminated arrows and start/finish circles that I can write on and change as I feel fit.
I have put the display above my IWB so the class can see it easily and as soon as they enter the class be getting on with it whilst I do the register and other adminy things.

Here it is...

The start number will go to the far left then the students will follow the operations on the arrows until they get to the end shape where the answer will be written when going through the workings as a class after they have enough time. I may even start from the 'finish' shape and get students to do the inverse operations to get back to the 'start' number.





The thing I like about this starter is that I can differentiate by my classes by changing the operations on the laminated arrows, the 'size' of the starting number, the type of operations on the arrows etc.

I may even write the 'start' and 'finish' numbers and then the workings in between each arrow before asking students where the mistake(s) are and to correct it. This will be one of the ways I try to get my classes to think about the mistakes they make in Mathematics, that it is OK to do so and how they can go about correcting them.

I will change the operations on the arrows as required depending on what class I choose to do this starter with and how often. By no means will I do this starter with every class every lesson. But it is there as and when I need it!
I'm hoping my students will get into the habit of doing it so much that they'll want to do it?

The number of the day is...

Another starter display I have made is a 'the number of the day is...' display. Here it is...

I made this using the www.magicwhiteboard.co.uk products I use all the time when putting up displays. I just put one of their A1 magic whiteboards on the back wall of the classroom (visible to all students) and on it I put half of one of their green A4 magic whiteboards.

Simply, I will just write a number of my choosing on the green magic whiteboard sheet and get students to answer the 7 questions written below.
The 7 questions range in difficulty and are suitable for most, if not all, classes. Some lower KS3 classes may not be able to do the 'product of prime factors' question but all the others are doable by all. Some of the questions are quite open too and have multiple entry points which helps the 'growth-mindset' I'm trying to induce in my students. For example, if the number of the day was 24 students could answer 20 + 4 or 12 + 12 for the first question. They could answer 8 and 3 or 6 and 4 for the 3rd question and question 7 allows them to pull out any other fact about the number. It could be that it is the square root of 576!? It's up to them.

Again, this display can be used as and when I decide (or my students desire). It won't be used every lesson with every class but is there when I need it. I can already see certain days of the week/year being used as 'the number of the day'. For example, Pi (3.14....) can be used on Pi day, 13 for Friday the 13th etc. I can get other teachers to guest on the display and choose the number of the day, perhaps in the style of Sesame Street where 'Today's 'the number of the day is..' is bought to you by...Miss Moore'. Perhaps my Twitter followers would like to suggest some too...

I'm hoping that both these displays will take off from the 1st week back. It will hopefully create a bit of intrigue in my students and will get them wondering what the 'number of the day is' or what the 'number cruncher' will be (I can only hope). If nothing else it'll jog my memory of two tasks that I can pull out of the hat at the last minute if necessary!

My 'go to' websites and resources

In preparation for starting the new school year I've been busy going through my 'favourites' tab on my Internet Explorer browser. I thought this would be the ideal time (having deleted a lot of old sites and blogs that aren't regularly updated) to list them for future use over the course of the next school year. I figured this would be useful, not only to me, but to other teachers (and in particular Mathematics teachers) that are looking for a few reliable sources. So here they are...

Mathematics Websites/Blogs:

The TES Mathematics Resources page
http://www.tes.co.uk/maths-secondary-teaching-resources/

This is definitely my first port of call when I'm looking for new resources to teach a particular topic. Being on the TES Maths Panel has its advantages too in helping sift out the very best resources on the site. Check out the @tesMaths Twitter account for regular updates on 'resource of the day' and 'resource of the week'.

Don Steward's 'Median' blog
http://donsteward.blogspot.co.uk/

This blog is crammed full of brilliant tasks and images that can be easily printed off to use in class. It is by far the site/blog I wish I was the creator of, thank you Mr Steward!

Nrich
http://nrich.maths.org/6840

I love the Nrich posters (link above) and have many of these laminated and put on display in class for students to be inspired by and to do when they may have finished their task/s. The challenges, rich tasks and lesson ideas on the site are great.

Great Maths Teaching Ideas
http://www.greatmathsteachingideas.com/

This site, by William Emeny (@Maths_Master) is excellent when looking for...'great maths teaching ideas'. I particularly like his orange peel lesson to help show where the formula for the surface area of a sphere comes from. William regularly tweets out his ideas from the site so be sure to follow him (if you don't already - I'm sure there's 1 or 2 out there).

Ellie's 'Active Maths' blog
http://activemaths.edublogs.org/

This was one of the first blogs I came across when I first joined Twitter. I followed @PivotalEllie and soon signed up to her 'active maths' e-mails. Although the site appears to not have any recent blog posts the e-mail tips are still being sent out and I would recommend signing up to these by going to the 'Join Free Tips List' page using the above link.

Mr Taylor's 'To Infinity and Beyond' blog
http://taylorda01.blogspot.co.uk/

I follow Mr Taylor on Twitter (@taylorda01) and regularly read his blog posts. I find his reflections on his teaching and the regular posting of his own resources really useful. I particularly like the @mathschallenge tweets images that he has recently put together.

'I Speak Math' blog
http://ispeakmath.org/

The 'I Speak Math' blog is one that I have only recently stumbled upon and is by @jreulbach. It's a blog from the US for Middle School math teachers and each Sunday has a 'MS Sunday Funday' blog topic (much like the #blogsync) where math teachers all blog on a similar topic, which are then hosted on this blog. Great to get some ideas from across the pond!

Just Maths
http://justmaths.co.uk/blog/

Follow these 3 maths teachers on Twitter @Just_Maths for regular updates on the resources they create. They have some fantastic stuff on their website/blog free to download for others to use.

Would You Rather? blog
http://wyrmath.wordpress.com/

This is another recent find - a blog that has a lot of 'would you rather...?' questions that could be used as starter questions, extension problems, mini-plenaries etc. Well worth keeping in mind for the coming year.

Sheffield Maths
http://www.sheffieldmaths.co.uk/index.html

This site has loads of resources ready to download and use in class. I've used the 'Chris Moyles Quiz Night' loads in the past and are a favourite of my previous students.

Mathsbox
http://www.mathsbox.org.uk/index.html

The 'Settlers', in particular, are simply amazing. If you haven't seen on used them yet you're missing out.

Websites great for everyday resources & displays:

Teacher Resources on Line:
http://www.cleavebooks.co.uk/trol/index.htm

This site has number lines, graph paper, isometric paper, scales, grids, tables etc etc. I can't remember how many times I have thought to myself 'I need some 6 by 6 grids...' or 'where did I get my giant number line for the board...'. Everything is in one place here.

Teacher Created Resources
http://www.teachercreated.com/free/monthly-calendars.php

I like the monthly calendars on this site that you can download free as a pdf. They include information for each day that could spark conversations in tutor time.

A Maths Dictionary For Kids
http://www.amathsdictionaryforkids.com/dictionary.html
and
Maths Charts (for teachers)
http://www.amathsdictionaryforkids.com/mathsCharts.html

A great website for kids to use as part of homeworks, to aid in their understanding of the key mathematical terms and the charts are fantastic for displays. Print A3, some information can get lost (hard to see) if printed on A4.

Web Sudoku
http://www.websudoku.com/?level=1

A site to get all levels of sudoku puzzle for your students to do in class.

Ken Ken
http://www.kenken.com/teachers/classroom

An alternative to Sudoku, slightly more 'mathsy' than sudokus and just as popular with the kids.

IWB Tools

Online Stopwatch
http://www.online-stopwatch.com/full-screen-stopwatch/

I love this tool. I use it lots in class to time certain activities. I have also used it as a behavioural technique to count up the amount of time a class wastes talking when you're waiting at the front of the class.

Random Number Generator
http://www.e-beam.com/fileadmin/user_upload/misc_images/Flash_Tools/randomnumber.swf

Does exactly what it says on the tin. Choose your own range too.

Flash Maths
http://flashmaths.co.uk/viewFlash.php?id=1

My favourite resource on the site is the 'Memory Maths' 'game'. Students get a 4 by 4 grid and sums flash up randomly in the boxes throughout the time limit allowed. You have to work out the answers and fill in the grid before the time is up.

Sum Sense
http://resources.oswego.org/games/SumSense/summulti.html

This IWB resource flashes up times tables with a twist...the numbers are given, and the spaces for them but you have to drag and drop the digits in the correct order to make the sum correct.

Form Time

Form Time Ideas
http://formtimeideas.com/

This site was set up by Jonathan Hall @StudyMaths this year and it's brilliant. It includes links to the BBC News articles of the day, has maths sums, science periodic table symbols, literacy tasks, jokes, facts and plenty more. I used it loads as soon as I saw Jonathan's tweet and will continue to do so next year.

Wonderopolis
http://wonderopolis.org/

Great for those questions that make you think. A site from the US that is updated daily. You can scroll back through 'wonders' and search via categories too to find something suitable dependent on your tutor group theme that week? Follow them on Twitter to find out the daily 'wonders' @Wonderopolis

100 Word Challenge
http://100wc.net

My form group regularly took part in this last year and I love the idea, the site and the way students get enthused about writing to each of the weekly prompts. Follow them on Twitter @100word and @TheHeadsOffice


And that's it for now. I'm sure there's loads I have forgotten and this is by no means an exhaustive list of the resources/sites I have used over the past few years. I'll update if I realise any I've forgotten...

180!

Back in June I came across the following resource on the TES...

http://www.tes.co.uk/teaching-resource/Darts-Project-number-and-geometry-project-6323154/

The resource is a Darts project that gets students to practise their use of compasses to construct their own dartboard. This, however, is only the 1st part of the resource. The second part includes a set of 8 'challenge cards' that get students to answer questions based on the possible scores you can throw in darts. The challenge cards are differentiated and levelled starting at asking what scores you would get if you threw, say, a single 8, double 7 and treble 6 up to the highest level challenge cards which ask students to work out how many ways they can achieve a certain score with 1, 2 or 3 darts. The higher challenges require a lot of thinking and workings, which makes these challenges great for seeing how students approach a task, whether they are able to work systematically and present their findings.

As part of the resource the uploader (chk242) has included a lesson plan, the powerpoint with the challenge cards on it, assessment sheets and a link to his blog post, which you can also view below...

http://mathematicalmagpie.blogspot.co.uk/2013/02/bullseye-mathematics-of-dartboard.html

Naturally, as soon as I saw the resource I had to go and get myself a dart board and get started with the 'project' straight away. I used the end of term lessons to trial out the project.

Here's the dart board I got...

I was originally looking for a magnetic one as suggested in the blog post above, but when I saw the selection on offer at Toys 'R' Us in Croydon and saw this one I decided to go with this - it has that 'ping' noise when the darts hit the board, and I like that!

It only cost £12.99











The board is a magnet to the kids as soon as they see it. They want to know what it's for, whether they're going to play darts, if it's mine etc etc. It acts as a good visual aid for students when creating their dartboards using their compasses. The only downside to the one I have is that there is no bull/bull's eye, just the one 'bull'.

I found that it took most students a lesson and a half to complete their dartboards, after having introduced the project, used the mymaths lesson as the 'starter' activity and then set the class off on drawing their circles etc. It shows how weak some students can be with using a pair of compasses (and also that half the compasses I had to work with were far too loose to be used effectively). We were able to discuss how big each of the sectors had to be using angle facts we had learnt previously which was a nice 'stopping point' in the lesson when a few students had got to the point where they were ready to draw the sectors.
The challenge cards then took anything from a lesson and a half to 3 lessons depending on how much time you have to give to the project, and how long your students stay with it. Some of my students were really interested in finding all possible ways of making certain numbers using the darts and would happily have worked through each of the challenge cards if given the chance.

In addition to the challenge cards, and creating the dart boards I used my dartboard to have a class challenge to see who could get the highest '3 dart score', much like in the blog post above. This introduced a nice 'sideline' to the main tasks and my classes got quite competitive with this. I also used the board in a few of my 'last lessons' of the year to play other dart based games such as 501, 301 (when time permitted a shorter game) and 'Killer'.

I also found, that whilst the board was at the back of my room, I could use it to settle conflicts in the classroom or to use it as a reward for those that finished tasks. It's great for choosing a set number of questions students have to answer too, although this can go both ways depending on how good you are at darts/who you allow to through the 'dart of decisiveness'!

A lot of fun can be had with the 'project' and the dart board in general. I plan to have the board put up in my new classroom ready for next year (with the darts hidden out of sight until I need them).

The board was also used in my school's Open Evening. I had one of my top set year 9 students help me out with the board and we had a 'who could get the highest 3 dart score' competition on the night with (potential) students, their parents and their brothers/sisters all trying to get the highest score. The mental maths involved in adding their 3 darts was quite challenging for some of the younger students (and some of the parents too) and it created a great 'buzz' about the room we were in.

Thanks once again to chk242 for uploading this resource.

How to Learn Math - Introduction (Session 1)

Having seen a few things floating around twitter and on the TES Mathematics community blog (http://community.tes.co.uk/tes_mathematics/b/weblog/default.aspx) I have enrolled today on Jo Boaler's 'How to Learn Math' course on Stanford University's free online platform.

All the course details are found on this site:

https://class.stanford.edu/courses/Education/EDUC115N/How_to_Learn_Math/about

Registration is really simple and you can start the course whenever you like and work through the 8 sessions at your own pace. It started on the 15th July and runs to the 27th Sep (2013). I've only just enrolled but haven't missed anything - all the course content for each session is ready to go once you've signed up.

Follow Jo Boaler on Twitter @joboaler and use the hashtag #HowToLearnMath to communicate with others on the course (there's over 25,000 people signed up to it).

I've just finished working my way through Session 1 (Introduction) and here are my thoughts so far...

The first session introduced the course and explored the problems with Mathematics teaching, perceptions about the subject and stereotypes behind the subject and its' learners. The main thing I have taken away from the session is just how much negativity there is towards our subject and how this can be combated by us teachers and the parents of our students too.
Throughout the session you are presented with a series of videos and complementing exercises to fill in/complete. These are fairly short exercises but can take longer depending on how much time you have to give to the course. I like the element of peer feedback where you are able to see others' responses and comment on them.
Personally it has made me think about how I teach Mathematics and what presumptions and generalisations I make about my students. It also made me question why so many students come into secondary school with a negative feeling towards Mathematics. Some students seem to have this perception that Mathematics is hard, they're not 'good at maths' and aren't as good as others. The session discussed the gender stereotypes in Mathematics and other cultural influences.

It got me thinking about how we 'label' some students in Mathematics, especially those 'bottom set' students who already find mathematics difficult but then get labelled as the 'bottom set' and this just helps to reinforce their beliefs. This, I feel, is one of the biggest problems with ability-setting students - the fact we attach some sort of label of ability to these students. I too am guilty of this as I can recall many times where I have, on my blog, referred to my 'bottom set' students as 'low ability'. Are they really? Perhaps, but surely by referring to them in this way I am putting a ceiling on what they are possibly capable of.
There have been lessons this year with these groups where a student may have said something negative to another student following a contribution of theirs to a class discussion. Something along the lines of 'that's wrong you idiot'. This then gets followed up by a comment from this student along the lines of 'well you're in the same set as me, you're just as stupid - we're all set 5!'

How we can move away from this 'label' the students seem to carry around with them is, I suppose, the 'big' question. One which I don't yet have an answer for, but am hoping to try and overcome with these classes.

The session also discussed intervention strategies that had been used to help overcome these stereotypes. These strategies are all psychological, which for me personally is great, what with my Psychology degree and background. The fact that girls can underperform on a test, that they have beforehand marked their gender, emphasises that there are elements of stereotyping that have been embedded in their beliefs and attitudes towards certain subjects.

Something that Craig Barton @mrbartonmaths and @tesMaths stated in his summary of session 1 is that we've all had parents at parents' evening excuse their child's perceived ability in Mathematics or progress in the subject due to them being 'poor' at maths themselves. I feel this is the starting point of students believing that they too can't be good at the subject, or that it is bound to be difficult. I don't think they'll be a student in my classes in September that doesn't have some sort of preconceived idea of their 'worth' in Mathematics. Past experiences will govern whether they are capable, or not, in Mathematics and they may have put them off altogether. Some may have high expectations on them due to always being in 'set 1' or because their parents were good at maths and so they should be too.

All of these questions/thoughts have been brought about by session 1 and the questions Jo poses in the video clips. There are loads of resources as part of the online platform too and I have the rest of Paul Lockhart's 'A Mathematician's Lament' to read (I've read the required first 5 pages) as part of the course reading.

I'm thoroughly looking forward to the rest of the sessions, which I will blog about as and when I complete each one.

I highly recommend this to any Mathematics teacher, teacher, parent or anyone that has some spare time over the Summer who has an interest in the above.

I have also just ordered Jo's book 'The Elephant in the Classroom' too to add to my Summer reading. Available from Amazon (other online book retailers are available of course) at: http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Elephant-Classroom-Helping-Children/dp/0285638750/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1375188955&sr=8-1&keywords=the+elephant+in+the+classroom

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).

Bearings & Google Earth

In the 3rd term of this year I was due to teach Bearings to my set 5 year 8 classes. Now we had done a lot of work on drawing and measuring angles and so I wanted to try and find a way where they would be able to put into practice these skills whilst learning about bearings.

I started where I always do...the TES. I found on here a great lesson idea and set of resources by 'Webster75'. The resources involve looking at airport runways, the numbers on each of end of the runways and then creating your own airport with the correct numbers on the ends of the runways based on their bearings.

A link to the resource: http://www.tes.co.uk/teaching-resource/Runways-GCSE-Bearings-Lesson-6079340/

There is an in depth lesson plan as part of the resource that has a whole host of ideas to use. Some of these I did, others I chose not to based on my class' needs. However, I do like the idea of taking a class outside and doing the 1st activity using compasses.
I decided to use the powerpoint resources in the resource to introduce bearings to the class and how they relate to the numbers on the ends of the runways. Then, as suggested in the lesson plan, I decided to give my students a laptop 1 between 2 to use Google Earth to investigate the link between the numbers on the runways.
I was concerned as to whether Google Earth would work fast enough and well enough in class but these concerns soon disappeared when the students started to use the program. I asked them to look at Gatwick, Heathrow and then any other airport of their choice to start with. This led to a few conversations of places my students had been to or where their relatives where from (a great way to get to know your students a bit better).
I then got them to write down the numbers on each end of the runway, the actual bearing at either end and then once they had a few of these to try and find a link between them; I used the 'key questions' part of the lesson plan here.

I then drew out a similar diagram to one of the ones shown in the powerpoints to draw some of the bearings on. This helped to visualise the concept a bit clearer and some were able to see that the 'north' lines were parallel. This then led to me asking about what they knew about angles and parallel lines. Some students were able to point at those that were equal on my diagram, others were able to say which two angles added to 180 degrees. We soon drew out the link from these conversations and the students then used Google Earth to find another airport to check if their new 'rule' applied here too.

Some of the airport images...
If you don't have access to Google Earth you can get these images off of Google Maps, print them out and give them to students in pairs/groups and ask them to do the same as if they had the program to work with.

Gatwick Airport:

At the end of this runway you see the numbers 06, this means a bearing of 060 degrees

At the opposite end of the runway you see the numbers 26, meaning a bearing of 260 degrees.

Some students noticed a difference of 180 degrees between the bearings. When drawing the runway with the north lines and bearings at each end you are able to see the co-interior angles summing to 180 degrees.

 

Dubai:

12; bearing of 120 degrees. It's co-interior angle would then be 60 degrees (or a bearing of 060 in the case of the runway) so a bearing of 300 degrees would be at the other end of the runway, noted by the digits 30.



 



Be warned...after the kids have looked up what you ask them the first thing they'll do is search for their house, their friends house their uncle's house etc. Or...they'll try and get the flight simulator to work, or visit the moon, mars and space!

 

I recommend this resource to other mathematics teachers looking to teach Bearings at some point in the future. Be sure to take a look through the lesson plan as there are lots of ideas for tasks/activities you can do in and around using Google Earth as I did above.