The total eclipse will last one hour and 12 minutes, and will be visible to North and South America, Europe, Africa, and parts of West Asia and the eastern Pacific.
The moon will start going into partial eclipse at 12.07am in the UK. The eclipse will then become total from 1.11am until 2.23am. The eclipse will end entirely at 4.27am.
Jane Hart has now published her Top 100 Tools for Learning 2015 list, appropriately using Slideshare, one of my own favourites (these presentations are all uploaded to Slideshare) and I see is number 20 in the list of top tools:
I wrote about my own selection recently, it was very hard to choose 10. I thought it would be interesting to see where they came in the list.
Tool (CY votes)
Place in Top 100 2015
Evernote
10
WordPress
8
Google (search)
3
Twitter
1
Slideshare
20
PowerPoint
5
Excel
56
Diigo
42
WolframAlpha
–
Desmos
–
So I am not alone in my choices for most of my favourites; I did not really expect WolframAlpha or Desmos to appear in this particular list but they still get my vote! WolframAlpha is useful for so many subjects – not just Mathematics.
I found it interesting looking at the list, seeing Screencast-O-Matic back in the list at number 27 reminded me to try it again; I downloaded the recorder and it certainly works very easily – now this is not the most exciting video in the world – just a test, but it took just a very short time to record and upload to YouTube:
Padlet (29), formerly Wallwisher is such a good idea and I have not used this for a while; Wordle and the other various word cloud generators are another example. Tools to try with Year 7 I think.
multiply multi-digit numbers up to 4 digits by a two-digit whole number using the formal written method of long multiplication
divide numbers up to 4 digits by a two-digit whole number using the formal written method of long division, and interpret remainders as whole number remainders, fractions, or by rounding, as appropriate for the context
divide numbers up to 4 digits by a two-digit number using the formal written method of short division where appropriate, interpreting remainders according to the context
Appendix 1 of the KS2 documentincludes the examples below and states that “the examples of formal written methods for all four operations illustrate the range of methods that could be taught. It is not intended to be an exhaustive list, nor is it intended to show progression in formal written methods. For example, the exact position of intermediate calculations (superscript and subscript digits) will vary depending on the method and format used. For multiplication, some pupils may include an addition symbol when adding partial products. For division, some pupils may include a subtraction symbol when subtracting multiples of the divisor.
NC Formal Long MultiplicationNC Formal Short & Long Division
And at KS3 (UK age 11-14) we are reminded that students should be able to “use the four operations, including formal written methods, applied to integers, decimals, proper and improper fractions, and mixed numbers, all both positive and negative”.
The Mathematics documents can all be found on this page.
I am really pleased with my introduction of RAG123for marking. I will write more fully on this in future but certainly Year 7 seem to have got the idea – 10 minutes into a lesson after discussing some examples – a little voice – “can we RAG123 that?”
Responding to a query on using the box method I realised an additional example was needed where a common factor could be taken out first. The updated post can be found here; additionally if you just want to direct students to the resource – the slideshow only can be found on Mathematics for Students.
Desmos on Android
Desmos on Android has had a major upgrade and you can now access your account with all your saved graphs and also create new graphs. Press the three lines in the top left corner to sign in, sync up, and take all of your graphs on the go. (Post on Desmos Apps on Mathematics for Students)
On the subject of Desmos did you know you can join the dots?!
Some useful notes and tips for students who might need some revision of previous work whilst studying their new courses can be found on Mathematics for Students – Transition Time.
Jane Hart of the Centre for Learning and Performance Technologies is accepting votes from educators for the Top 100 Tools for Learning 2016. This list is based on contributions from learning professionals around the world. Voting is open now and will close on Friday 30th September 2016; Jane will reveal the 2016 Top 100 Tools list on Monday 3rd October 2016.
Having written several of these compilation posts which I hope are a selection of Maths goodies – I have created a new category – under Mathematical Miscellanyyou can find all such posts – all have been checked to make sure they are still relevant and up to date.
An annual job for me is setting up my homework blog. I always put homework details online as well as explaining it in class. I use a blog (which doesn’t turn up in web searches) with a page for each class. I find publishing the details online for students makes me think about explaining it carefully and I can also give any links to resources which may help. None of my students can ever say to me that they didn’t know what the homework was!
I want to easily lay my hands on any of my resources so Evernote is ready to go with a notebook for each class where I can put any resources or ideas / random thoughts using my phone or computer. I was reminded of the wonders of Evernote search recently – I will be looking at Surds with Year 10 – a search on surds in Evernote rapidly returned every resource I had ever created. It also returned any document, specifications for example with the word Surds in it. I want to make sure I tag notes really well this year to make things even simpler to find.
I also us my own blogs! For example I can remind myself of all the Starters I like, Problems & Activities or ways to end lessons, findRich Tasks….the list goes on! You can see the various page tabs near the top of the blog. Certainly – however you do it, make sure you can rapidly find anything you need so you can really concentrate on thinking about your students’ learning; see Lesson Planning.
Mike Hadden – Random Student
If you want to make sure that you include all students in your class then some kind of system for choosing students is very useful, for a simple and very effective low-tech way then read Harry Fetcher-Wood’s excellent post and make some lolly sticks cards! Harry’s post includes discussion on the fact that this can be contentious; I think the key is to use this technique when appropriate and be very clear that it is OK to be unsure but good to contribute in some way. I let students know that a suitable response includes a question back to me. Another offline option is to use one of Mike Hadden’s many excellent spreadsheets– look at the ‘Other’ section for the Random Student spreadsheet. You can easily create a spreadsheet for each class.
Random Name Selector – Primary Technology
For an online optionthis random name selector by John Mclear on Primary Technology will randomly select a name from a list you can easily input. Once you have input a list of names you can then save the list as a link. It is possible to remove a name from the list once it has been chosen.
You can save a list of names so have easy access to lists of all your classes by just having the link somewhere easy to access.
Classtools.net Random Name Selector and Countdown Timer
classtools.net has numerous flash templates which allow teachers to create diagrams, activities and games. As with the previous random name selector the resource on classtools.net also allows you to save a list of your own for easy access later. ClassTools also has an excellent countdown timer which gives you a choice of soundtracks of varying lengths; this is a Flash resource an alternative HTML5 timer where you can add a video and save a link to your customised timer is also available.
You may need some specialist paper – coordinate grids, isometric or polar paper for example. See For (Online) Stationery Geeks!I always have a set of whiteboard flipcharts to hand where I already have pages with coordinate grids and any other stationery / background I want.
For some fun with crayons try this Crayola colouring application or amuse your students with the writing repeater!
I will be using my name cards again this year as I found that these really helped me learn the names of my students – collecting the cards at the end of the lesson is a further chance to fix the student names in your head!