A job for the summer break is always to think about the organisation of posts and pages of this blog.

The first project is a check on the reading series of pages; this series is devoted to various reading materials – many of which are free!

• Blogs – Learning & Teaching
• Research – Mathematics Learning & Teaching
• Research – Learning & Teaching
• Books (free)
• Mathematics Book Recommendations
• Reference
• Books (free) STEM Learning
• Newsletters and Magazines
• Presentations

Looking at the Books (free) page, check that search on Mathematics books by price from lowest to highest on Amazon. If you search on all titles this gives all the free entries which seem to include lots of toddler books and samples. The most relevant results can be worth checking.

A post for students is on Mathematics for students; note this book currently free on Kindle:

GMAT Foundations of Math – 900+ Practice problems (see also GMAT Math Practice)

For puzzle fans perhaps try Henry Ernest Dudeney’s puzzle collection.

Looking at the free offerings, these include Mind Hurdles: Mystery Number – a set of ‘number mysteries’, one or more of which would make a good lesson starter and Henry Ernest Dudeney’s – Amusements in Mathematics a puzzle collection (with solutions). The first set of puzzles will offer a trip down memory lane for those who remember money – pre-decimal! There are several categories of puzzles available.

And do make sure you have Colin Foster’s KS3 books in your collection.

Colin Foster’s KS3 Instant Maths Ideas (3 books) are now freely available online; these contain a wealth of ideas to try in the classroom. Colin Foster is a Reader in  Mathematics Education in the Mathematics Education Centre at Loughborough University.

Reading the latest newsletter, I see that Nrich will be publishing a challenge a day throughout the UK summer break, every weekday from 19 July to 31 August, a new game or puzzle will appear on this Primary page and this Secondary page. Once students have tried the day’s challenge they will be able to compare their approach to previously published students’ solutions.

Also from Nrich remember there are many interactive games and puzzles.

For calendars with a GCSE question a day from 19th July to 5th September have a look at Wayne Chadburn’s Summer boost resources, one for Higher and one for Foundation. He writes these calendars to provide regular, varied practice. In the next academic year he will produce calendars for year 11 students each month from September to April; the calendars for September 2021 are already available. Note the three versions including crossover questions, Foundation, Foundation plus and Higher.

On Transum, a whole collection of school holiday Maths activities to do at home is available. To quote from Transum Mathematics:

Here are some suggestions for activities that will keep children thinking mathematically while having fun and learning new skills.

These are really clearly categorised and we have a lovely mixture of learning and puzzles and games to make you think. There is a great deal of choice here. See also the full list of all fun maths activities.

Try these brilliant GeoGebra puzzles from Daniel Mentrard, also his 64 geometric puzzles.

Perhaps try Tangram on Mathigon.
How many of the different shapes can you make?

rich also have a Tangram activity for students age 7 – 11 or for 5-14 years olds try Tangram Pictures.

From The Complete Mathematics Conference, I really enjoyed Maths Conference #26, July 2021. The highlight for me (apart from very much enjoying my own session presenting with AQA on the New GCSE Maths tests from Exampro which been developed for the two-year AQA key stage 4 scheme of work) had to be the first session of the day I attended – a first look at the web version of Autograph.

I have also added this information to a new page in the Autograph section of my Use of Technology series.

A web version for Autograph is now available, a game-changer for this sophisticated object-based dynamic geometry system. It has a great deal of functionality already and will be developed even further. I am so pleased to have the option now of sharing pages easily with students. The interface is intuitive. Select the various options to see all the functionality available. Add some points or an equation and experiment! I really like all the style options in Autograph making it possible to create attractive resources. And look at all those colours! That certainly appeals to me with my interest in using colour in Mathematics to add clarity to explanations. Note the colours of the points I have used in my reflection example below. This is just my own first look, I will be learning much more.

I find Autograph very intuitive for illustrating transformations. It is very simple to enter a shape and transform it. The shape can be user-defined so it is very easy to set up illustrations. It is also very simple to add labels. With Autograph when you select objects you get a menu of appropriate choices; selecting an object and equation offers the option to reflect. I thought I would create a page to show reflection in x=a:

Select the image or this link to see the above page. Select the workspace if nothing appears and try changing the variable a by tapping along the line.

It is possible to embed a page as well as share it…

A web version for Autograph is available, it has a great deal of functionality and will be developed even further. The interface is intuitive. Select the various options to see all the functionality available. Add some points or an equation and experiment! I really like all the style options in Autograph making it possible to create attractive resources. And look at all those colours! That certainly appeals to me with my interest in using colour in Mathematics to add clarity to explanations. Note the colours of the points I have used in my reflection example below.

I thought I would create a page to show reflection in x=a:

Select the image or this link to see the above page.

It is possible to embed a page as well as share it… (select to see the embed and change variable a using the menu

I was delighted to present this session for ATM and MA London Branch #London Maths (watch this space for the programme for the next academic year) on Rosenshine’s Principles in the Mathematics Classroom. This also refers to elements of the Great Teaching Toolkit – Evidence Review.

As promised, the slides (there are lots, but you can pick out what you want – and slide 14 links to the various sections) are available below in various formats. Hopefully, the notes pages add to the images and hopefully will be useful whether or not you were at the session.

The first download is the PowerPoint file including notes, the second a pdf file of the images only, I find it can be much quicker to use links from a pdf file and the third, in case it’s useful is a pdf of the notes pages (links do not work in this format).

November 22 – slide set used for the Seneca webinar can also be donloaded.

There is also a link to this post on the page Lesson Planning – Reference where there are many other useful links to resources.

These slides are the set used for the November 2022 Seneca Webinar.