Author Archives: MsKMP

332. Movement Maths

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I’ve got to share a new YouTube channel with you. It was created by a former colleague who is not only an ace Maths teacher, but also a trained children’s fitness instructor. ‘Movement Maths: How to survive High School Maths’ is all about daily chunks of Maths with a fitness boost.

First – it addresses basic concepts that many students forget or stress over (initially it will be aimed at Foundation students)

Secondly – the videos are engaging and show that you can do Maths and exercise anywhere (my current favourite is the airport in video 13 – how did he find an empty sp?)

Thirdly – there are recaps and summaries built in

Finally – it was reviewed by students, who loved it!

Subscribe to the Channel, get fit and see what your students think

Update: 1st June 2019

It appears all the videos on this channel have been deleted.

330. Still Dancing Men

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You may already know about my blog posts on the ‘Dancing Man’ cipher. If not, check them out here;

34. The Dancing Cipher

97. The Dancing Cipher (part two)

Now, I have two parallel classes and I want to set the Dancing Man project as a homework, but they’ll be doing the task at different, but overlapping times. I don’t want the second class to have an unfair advantage, so I’ve written a second task. All the instructions are the same, but it’s a different text. I’m not sure whether to give each class a different text or whether to randomly assign both texts within both classes to avoid copying/generate confusion.

This text is a little more interesting than the last one … think zombies!

You can download an advanced (Beta?) copy below and I’ll update you on how it went, after I’ve done it.

Dancing Men Project 2

Letter frequency analysis project answer B

 

326. Instant whiteboard

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Welcome back to school!

I must say your display boards look lovely …

What’s that? You could do with another whiteboard

Why would you need that? They’re not cheap you know!

To help you actually teach? You’ve never needed the space before…

Oh … you have needed the space … you have raised this before …you’re still waiting …

Why didn’t you say! I’ll put you on the list for when we have some spare funds & time

You know the feeling – you could do with more space, but there just aren’t the funds to do anything about it. I initially needed an extra notice board because two form groups were going to use my room. We have a split lunch and I thought it only fair to give the other tutor some space. The idea of those ‘magic whiteboards’ was nice, but they are flimsy and expensive. They’re also pretty useless when you have a rough breeze block wall. Rummaging around Amazon I found some extra thick sticky back whiteboard roll, which was half the price of the ‘magic’ ones. There are a lot of different makes and sizes of roll depending on your needs. I bought a long narrow roll and cut it in half: it fits splendidly on my double doors. The quality is good too, however I think they’ll need a bit more TLC than a heavy duty whiteboard.

So, I’m feeling rather chuffed by my ingenuity when I discover they’ve changed our form rooming and I’m no longer sharing with another form. Nevermind – one board for form notices and one board for homework reminders!

If you like the look of mine it was by Rabbitgoo on Amazon. They are different sizes and prices so I haven’t put a specific link. The description of the one I bought is: Thick Whiteboard Chalkboard Wall Sticker 44.5cm×200cm Thickness:0.18mm

322. Accessing Quadratics

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If you teach in the UK and haven’t used the excellent Access Maths site, why not?

Seriously, you are missing out!

I’ve used and recommended to colleagues lots of the Access Maths resources. This is the latest worksheet I’ve downloaded (click on the image to link to the 9-1 GCSE resource page):

Image credit: www.accessmaths.co.uk

I used these pentagonal problems (I believe they are know in pedagogical circles as ‘Fox Diagrams’ – but you try Googling that term and not getting a page of pictures of foxes) with my GCSE class as a two part homework. The first homework was to do the outside skills – if they felt confident they could skip questions, if they needed help they should come and see me. I stressed that they would need to use these techniques to part two and it was their responsibility to make sure they were ready. Part two of the homework was to complete the middle ‘exam’ question in their books in their books, showing the full method.

I actually enjoyed marking this homework as it gave me an insight into how they visualised problems – there were at least four different ways to complete this task. Unusually I made any low achieving student come back and redo their homework in an informal detention. By spending a few minutes reflecting on the skills they’d already practised (or should have practised), every student jumped from 0 or 10% to 100% correct. I did little more than point out where their technique had started to fail them. These students left the extra maths session with big smiles and a sense of achievement.

Inspired by the talented @AccessMaths (you really should follow them on Twitter) I’ve done my own triangular resource on expanding, factorising and solving quadratic equations.

Down the pdf here: Staged Quadratics problems

321. Patterns and sequences

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Now what have a pair of roller skates got to do with number sequences? If you can guess before the reason, I’ll be surprised – it’ll mean there is more than one person as random as me!

Image Credit: No Fear adjustable quad skates/Amazon.co.uk

As you may have guessed from my earlier post 317. Pyramid Power I’m currently doing an Algebra unit on Number Sequences. I’ve changed the way I’ve taught this topic this year to incorporate a ‘Big Picture’ view as opposed to one lesson on drawing the next picture, the next on finding the Term to Term rule and finishing with a lesson on finding the Nth term. The beauty of mathematics lies in the connections we make, not the disparate skills.

After the investigative approach of the Pyramid Numbers lesson, we did some text book work on generating number sequences (eg Start with 5, add 3) expanding to look at the physical patterns each time, so the previous rule would have looked like N groups of 3 dots plus 2 dots. As with any class (mixed ability or not) there were varying levels of progression in these lessons. To pull everyone forward I wrote structured worksheets and allowed the students to choose which they did. I described them using the following comparisons with the roller disco at our local Sports Centre:

  • Sheet 1 – beginner on roller skates, need a bit of hand holding (I’ll own up to demonstrating our local instructor’s technique for teaching beginners in front of the class)
  • Sheet 2 – okay on skates, just a word of encouragement every now and then
  • Sheet 3 – speedskating, no fear of the next challenge
  • Extension – all the skills! Some tasty questions from a tough textbook exercise

After a student completes a sheet they just move to the next – there are no duplicate questions. I printed them A5 to stick neatly in their books but you might prefer A4. Solutions are provided.

Patterns and sequences A4 one per page

Patterns and sequences A4 two per page

Patterns and sequences solutions (docx)

Patterns and sequences solutions (pdf)

BTW I can tell you from personal experience that landing on your rear whilst speed skating really does hurt!

320. Pre-A level skills boost

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This is the time of year when Year 11 begin the last minute frantic revision, complete their exams in a haze of hay fever and late nights and then have a well deserved extended Summer Holiday. Over that long summer, they will mature into sensible young adults who are ready to make those critical decisions which will impact their future career choices.

Hang on … this isn’t some idealised political pamphlet describing the leaders of tomorrow!

In reality, Year 12 stroll into the first A-Level lesson like over-confident Year 11s in their own clothes. Except in Year 11 they knew more Maths. Odds are your fresh faced class haven’t looked at a Maths book in over ten weeks!

Despite what some students may think, we teachers aren’t evil. We know they need that long summer to just be themselves. What can we do to help out our future A-Level students and allow them to relax?

I’ve put together a booklet of Maths related activities for students to dip into over the holiday which will be given to them on their last lesson. I hope your students enjoy it!

Alevel prep for Y11 (editable docx)

Alevel prep for Y11 (pdf)

I printed these four pages as a colour A5 (A4 folded) booklet and also printed them as a poster set on A3.

 

 

319. Cunning codebreaker

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Do you like a good codebreaker or crack the safe task? My first choice teacher for ideas is Alutwyche on TES Resources. Seriously, check out his amazing resources and follow him on Twitter (@andylutwyche).

Now the thing with ‘Crack the safe’ tasks is there will be a small group of students who everyone expects to win it. It doesn’t matter how long the code is, there can be an anti-climax when someone wins.

What if you could level the playing field or extend the challenge?

Introducing the ‘Lock out hasp’ – a common tool in the field of electrical safety. A very ingenious tool that you may want to look up. It allows you to add numerous locks to a puzzle – they could be differentiated solutions, they could be staged problems. The choice is yours!

Different

Different hasps have different numbers of holes, different locks have different numbers of digits: the hardware store is your oyster!