WK 8: Yummy Maths
An ever-growing source of investigative mathematical tasks which draw their inspiration from the world around us. My personal favourite so far (though, in fact, this one is not a real-life task) is the...
View ArticleMath talks – visual patterns
Just began first visual patterns maths talk with my year 8 pupils: “Find: the 10th pattern, 50th pattern, a rule to find any pattern.” Growing match stick squares pattern (3n + 1) A: “I timesed by...
View ArticleBeing Mathematicians and Problem Based Learning
Having been, in equal measure, inspired and kicked up the backside by attending my first Teachmeet at Monkseaton Middle School, I am getting my thoughts together for going down the problem based...
View ArticleWK 9: Nation Master – international statistics
A website aiming to be “the web’s one-stop resource for country statistics on everything from obesity to murders.” I really wish I had found this a few months ago when doing a statistical inquiry with...
View ArticleRAG123 marking trial
The single most powerful strategy I have used this year There’s already a great deal of information and enthusiasm about RAG123 marking around (read Kev Lister’s blog if you haven’t heard much about...
View ArticleSeven Times Table Blues (and leaving one’s comfort zone!)
My year 6 Times Table Rock Stars took a step forward today as we recorded our first song! It was really just a practice though, since the English department are sending along a lead guitarist next week...
View ArticleDisplay: “Ingredients of Learning”
After some reflection on “Growth-mindset” and Bjork’s_Seven_Study_Techniques (largely through reading Learning Spy), I’m looking at how I can bring more of this consciously into my teaching. There’s...
View ArticleClass Volume / Expectations Dial
It must be a tough deal being a pupil – 5 or 6 different classrooms a day, each teacher having slightly (or completely) different expectations as to what constitutes desirable behaviour. If you’re not...
View ArticleRAG123 marking – still going strong
As I so enthusiastically stated in a previous post, RAG123 marking is truly a transformational practice. Still going strong a month into the new academic year, I am learning things every day about my...
View ArticleWK10: Seven Myths About Education – Daisy Christodoulou
If you enjoy going right to the heart of your teaching practice and taking an honest look at things, this book is an exhilarating read. Described in The Sunday Times as “A heat-seeking missile aimed at...
View ArticleHotel Cubed – multi-link hotel building investigation
Design a hotel using multi-link cubes to generate the maximum profit (based on number of “windows” per “room” etc.) This is a genius activity created by Fawn Nguyen and Andrew Stadel (see here for the...
View ArticleTimes Table Tactics
Learning times tables facts isn’t that easy a trick for some pupils. I remember when I learned my times tables (having moved to Sheffield and ended up effectively in the year above) – I had some pirate...
View ArticleWK11: Times Table Rock Stars
Rock music, learning times tables, inflatable guitars, Tina Turner wigs, Bruno Reddy… nuf said! TTRockStars.com
View ArticleNegative Numbers – temperature idea
I’ve always struggled to give a hands-on situation for adding and subtracting negative numbers. I generally tend to focus pupils on the direction of movement (along the lines of: “If you add or...
View ArticleMetric Conversion Poster
Ideally I wanted to convey several things here: 1) the meaning of unit prefixes and their relationship to each other 2) ideas of scale / suitable units for different objects 3) how to convert between...
View ArticleVertical Numberline
And whilst we’re at the whole classroom display thing… I’ve started to use a vertical format on scales (see-previous post) in general after reading / thinking about Bruno Reddy’s post on teaching...
View ArticleSome ideas on Times Tables
It seems like a mixture of a) visual representation / manipulation and b) lots of practice is the key to helping pupils learn their times tables. Whilst speed is one way to measure fluency, this can be...
View ArticleTimes Table Rock Stars –“Reddy” Reckoner
Quickly read off your TTRockstars Rock status with this ready-made “Reddy” Reckoner (okay, not actually a ready reckoner, but the pun was not to be resisted). (Link to full size file is here)
View ArticleDepth over Speed?
Prompted by a recent Twitter conversation, I have been reflecting on my experiences with a lower set Year 6 class that I have had the fortune of teaching this year. At the beginning of the year, almost...
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