Monthly Archives: July 2015

Jul 25 2015

Mathematical Posters

Math Gems

Math Gems

Always popular this post on Mathematics Posters is kept up to date. The post includes several excellent sources of free posters to decorate your walls and get your students thinking too!

There are of course endless possibilities for putting things on walls! Student work obviously but also definitions and key facts to remember   particularly now in the days of no formula sheets! (See also Mathscard from Loughborough University) Or perhaps some exam terminology. Maybe put some mathematical puzzles on the wall for idle moments!

Put Desmos into projector mode and produce some posters of different graph types. And remind students to get the Desmos app free on their phones!
Desmos android2

Jul 17 2015

Time to tidy up

Tidy UpIt’s holiday time so time for a bit of tidying up, just like last year – my
house and my blog!

I’ll be doing some tidying up and updating in the never ending quest to make useful things easy to find! I’ll post details of my weekly tidy ups!

Transum - Arithmagons

Transum – Arithmagons

 

One task is to revisit popular posts and update them as appropriate, one such post is that on Arithmagons. which has been checked and updated – Craig Baton has written a whole set of resources on Arithmagons.

These can provide great starter activities and the ‘backwards’ versions really promote great thinking and understanding.

(See also ‘Good Mathematicians Can Go Backwards!

 

Jul 9 2015

End of term…

So school’s nearly out for the summer in the UK; time to mention those end of term activities again.

workers of zen

Workers of Zen

The selection of activities here reminded me how impressed I was when I first saw the Counting Chimp and how I loved my Spirograph as a child. I had also forgotten the excellent Workers of Zen problem.

I have added the UKMT team challenges, their crossnumber puzzles make a great end of term activity. The junior materials can be found here and senior here.

Some lovely end of tern ideas from Jo Morgan can be found here.

So it’s time to reflect, tidy up and plan for next year!

Wishing educators everywhere a wonderful and well deserved break – if you are already on holiday I hope you are relaxing – if the end of term is near then enjoy the last days of term and then have a great summer.

Jul 5 2015

RAG 123

At Maths Conference 4 recently I attended a session on marking, Martin Noon’s “Marking for the Reluctant Marker”. you can find Martin’s resources from the session here.

The session was a reminder to me that I really wanted to try the RAG 123 idea, something I had already read about from Kev Lister.

I decided I wanted a very simple version without the word level anywhere and created my version as follows: Marking Guide (Word) Marking Guide (pdf). (We assess students on their “Engagement with Learning”, criteria they are familiar with.)
RAG 123 CY

I also created a version for students to stick in their books for reference.
Student version RAG 123 student books (Word) RAG 123 student books (pdf)
RAG 123 student

Having tried this with my Year 9 class this week I am convinced this is something I want to try next academic year. Talking to a student later she said she thought it would be useful in other subjects too.

I explained the idea at the beginning of the lesson and let them know that I would ask them for their assessments at the end of the lesson, stressing that a 3 for understanding was a note to me that they needed help

Having collected the set of books it took a very short time to go through the set and see their I believe very honest RAG 123 assessment on the work on Functions we have been studying. I signed my agreement of their assessment. Some students also made additional comments to clarify / justify the reasons for their assessment.