6 November 2016

5 Websites You Should Know... #3

This is the third in my series of posts about five maths teaching websites that you may not be familiar with. My previous posts were about Corbettmaths.com and MrCarterMaths.com.

Today I'm featuring MathsBot.com, a wonderful website packed full of tools for busy teachers. MathsBot.com is one of a set of websites from maths teacher Jonathan Hall (@StudyMaths).

Jonathan is constantly adding helpful new features to MathsBot. In this post I'll highlight a few of these features, but do visit MathsBot.com to explore the website yourself.

MathsBot holds a huge bank of questions which can be filtered by topic and displayed in numerous helpful formats:
  • timed mini-whiteboard or starter questions
  • differentiated questions (red/amber/green)
  • GCSE style questions, displayed individually (example below) or in a revision grid
  • printable practice GCSE papers (you choose the length, topics, difficulty etc)



There's also a worksheet generator where you can produce printable worksheets for a large range of topics.


MathsBot also has activities such as Four Operations Puzzle and Number of the Day.
Form Time Ideas
Formtimeideas.com was also created by Jonathan Hall. If you're a form tutor and you don't know this website, go and look at it right now! With this user-friendly website you can easily fill a 20 minute form time with quality activities - it works well with any year group, from Year 7 right through to Year 13. My Sixth Form tutor group enjoy it, and I often click on 'Name the Flag!' so they can do more of them! The content changes every day so form times require no planning whatsoever - it's a huge time saver for form tutors. It makes me sad that there are form tutors who needlessly worry about how to fill their daily form times because they've not heard of this website.
Flash Maths
I know you've already heard of FlashMaths.co.uk, but it's always good to be reminded of the classics. This website is another of Jonathan Hall's creations. There are so many great activities on Flash Maths, it's hard to know which ones to feature here.
Flash Maths includes activities that students can come up to the interactive whiteboard to complete, such as Drag and Drop Venn Diagrams.
It also includes tools that are helpful for teacher explanation, such as this Rotational Symmetry Demonstration.
Flash Maths has activities which students complete in their books or on mini-whiteboards. Memory Maths is one of my favourites - it works well with any age group. 

Shape Shoot is fun!
I have also used Equation BalanceRounding Numbers and Substitution Grids in the past. Helpfully, Jonathan has made all the Flash Maths content available to download and run without an internet connection.

I really think that there should be a proper annual award ceremony for people who make outstanding contributions to maths education. The type of event with bow ties and sparkly dresses where people are properly thanked and congratulated for their successes... Until such a thing exists, this will have to do: Thank you Jonathan - your websites are brilliant, and a huge help to thousands of maths teachers and form tutors. We really appreciate all your efforts.

Look out for the next post in my websites series, coming soon...


3 comments:

  1. This looks like an excellent set of resources. A big thank you to everyone who produces such resources and generously shares them. And thank you, Jo, for reviewing them.

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  2. Thanks Jo,
    I am really enjoying reading your round of resources and am always amazed at the websites that you lead us to. There is so much excellent work being shared, and I am with you, bring on the awards night!

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  3. I've recommended Mathsbot for a while now to the parents of my students to help those that need a little extra practice. I love getting more tidbits like this from educational communities like this, educationweek,speedreadinfo.com, and homeroom that explore how teaching is so much more than reciting lessons plans while students stare out of classroom windows. Great list here.

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