Aug 28 2016

Resolutions for (Maths) Teachers

As the new Academic year approaches in the UK and has already begun elsewhere..
time to review and update ‘Resolutions for (Maths) Teachers’.

Resolutions for Maths Teachers PowerPoint file
or as a pdf Resolutions for Maths Teachers (hyperlinks work in the pdf and can be faster than PowerPoint).

My emphasis is naturally on the students’ learning and you will see further emphasis on talking to the students about learning and study strategies; read The Learning Scientists blog for more information and downloadable materials on study strategies. Follow @AceThatTest on Twitter or on Facebook.

Also added to this edition a reminder that we of course need to help our students be great problem solvers. See also the Rich Tasks pages, one for age 11-16 and the other for age 16+. The 16+ page has been updated with considerably more detail. With the UK new A Level specifications having a greater emphasis on problem solving and more challenging questions, activities such as those here should be a natural part of our regular teaching.

As…

Aug 21 2016

Mathematical Miscellany #6

Another compilation this week, this time of updates to this and some companion blogs.

A consistently popular page on this site has been Rich Tasks – this has now been split into two separate pages, one for age 11-16 and the other for age 16+. The 16+ page has been updated with considerably more detail. With the UK new A Level specifications having a greater emphasis on problem solving and more challenging questions, activities such as those here should be a natural part of our regular teaching.

Do explore the brilliant Underground Mathematics site as well as Jonny Griffiths’ various sites. Further resources are provided in the presentation at the end of the page.

With a new academic year approaching for UK students or just started for students elsewhere, I have updated Transition Time on Mathematics for Students. This is a collection of resources and activities aimed at students changing stages in their studies – perhaps starting more advanced studies at school or heading off to university.

The illustration here is from Jonny Griffiths’ Carom Maths, a collection of forty mathematics activities bridging the gap between A Level and University. Check the List of Activities, for Inequalities for example, illustrated here, choose Carom 1-2: Inequalities. This will lead you to a complete PowerPoint with information and questions on Inequalities.

In last week’s Mathematical Miscellany #5 I included Jonathan Hall’s MathsBot.com site with its many excellent Tools for Maths Teachers. With some great starters and a bank of GCSE questions with solutions more detail has been added to this post on Mathematics – Starters and Plenaries. The Collections page on the same site has also been updated and checked. As the name implies these are sites with a fantastic supply of starters.

More posts in the Mathematical Miscellany category.

Aug 15 2016

Mathematical Miscellany #5

Twitter can be useful for alerting one to resources / news, note the first two items.

Problem Solving – an open access (free) book which looks at research on Mathematical Problem Solving.

Note this page for a large collection of free Mathematics books.

Jonathan Hall has many excellent Tools for Maths Teachers. Here you will find various tools including Starters and also a bank of GCSE questions. Note that you can show solutions for the GCSE questions – there is a link at the bottom of the page for each question.

The page on Apps has recently been updated, there are fuller descriptions of the various apps and note the addition of Summaze2 from MEI and Sigma. A wonderful example of a free app – Maths to make you think, visually attractive and no irritating adverts trying to make you buy the premium edition!

In Mathematical Miscellany 4, I mentioned the excellent Linar Equations Calculator; for an excellent way to illustrate the balance method of solving linear equations, try this manipulative on Mathisfun, this is very simple to use and does not require the user to log in.

UK Results 2016 – a new page has been created which I will update as A Level & GCSE results / news comes in. As I do each year, I will provide links to the results statistics and grade boundaries for the various examination boards.

Note my Twitter Examinations list. Check this for announcements / news. (You do not have to be a Twitter subscriber to use the list.)

Whilst this is Mathematical Miscellany #5 I have been writing these compilation posts for quite some time. They were at one time ‘Thoughts this week…”. Previous posts are all filed under the category (note the Category menu on the right) Mathematical Miscellany.

Aug 6 2016

Holiday Time

Looking back over some previous posts, I thought I would put the holiday themed posts together:

This year’s holiday included a visit to the wonderful National Cinema Museum in Turin – see the Mathematics in the Movies post (now with added songs!)

Holidays includes some really interesting links on mathematical buildings, architecture inspired by Mathematics and suggested mathematical tours in London. And did you know you can use WolframAlpha to explore properties of buildings?