In my recent post Indices in Depth I explained that TES recently recorded a couple of my CPD sessions.
A new video has been published this week: Angles in Parallel Lines. You can download the slides here which include links in the notes at the bottom of each slide.
I hope you enjoy it! I'm looking forward to filming more of these in February.
12 January 2020
4 January 2020
5 Maths Gems #119
Happy New Year! Welcome to my 119th gems post. This is where I share some of the latest news, ideas and resources for maths teachers.1. New Tasks from Don Steward
Don Steward has shared loads of new tasks in the last few months. Do check out his blog for the whole selection - here I have featured just a few examples.
In the task 'congruent parts and similar parts' the idea is to dissect the shapes into two congruent pieces with one, connected line that goes dot to dot.
The task 'frequency trees and percentages' is a great example of interleaving, as is the task 'regular polygons with algebra'.
In his post 'Introducing Angles', Don kindly shares his full set of slides introducing this topic, which include narrative and tasks.
2. Maths Kitchen
Thank you to Mr Kempson (@MrKempsonMaths) for sharing the website mathskitchen.com which helps students prepare for their GCSE exams. It's a free website designed for independent practice.
The content can be accessed without a login, but setting up an account allows students to use the progress page to find more questions on topics where they’ve made mistakes. They can also filter by level and access questions on topics they haven’t revised yet.
The site is easy to navigate. The solutions are well written (see example below) and there are videos to support students who get stuck.
Thank you to Anouk de Vos (@NookiedV) who shared the website alevelmathsrevision.com where A level Maths and Further Maths questions (predominantly OCR and Edexcel) and mark schemes have been organised by topic.
Eddie Woo (@misterwootube) recently listened to Craig Barton's podcast with Emma Mccrea. In it Emma shares a framework which can be used to modulate the difficulty of a mathematical task. Eddie made this fantastic sketchnote to summarise the key points:
John Corbett (@Corbettmaths) has launched a new set of Level 2 Further Maths 5-a-day questions.
He'll be adding lots more in January, along with a set of revision cards.
Update
I'm really pleased that people are finding my book useful. Here are two blog post reviews:
- Musings: A Compendium of Mathematical Methods by Jo Morgan - this post is written by Lisa (@Elsie2110). It's really helpful to read a review from a primary teacher's perspective.
- Let’s talk about methods (Part 1) - this post is written by Sudeep from Boss Maths (@boss_maths). It includes his thoughts on method selection, plus a fun method for finding the nth term of a quadratic sequence.
It's also nice to know that people have enjoyed listening to me and Craig Barton talking about teaching indices. I blogged about it here.
If you are interested in learning a bit about how middle / high school teachers think about teaching math, this conversation with @mathsjem is absolutely terrific. https://t.co/Up2CX95RJY— Mike Lawler (@mikeandallie) December 28, 2019
Do have a read of the latest MA eNewsletter which was published last week. At the MA we are very excited about two things: the launch of our revamped Mathematics in School journal, and the flurry of bookings for our upcoming Easter conference. I get the impression that people like our new accessible pricing structure and our brilliant conference programme. It's going to be great!
Last night I enjoyed a delightful evening at Dr Frost's triannual maths drinks. I particularly enjoyed the impromptu midnight game of charades! Thank you to Jamie for hosting. It was lovely to catch up with so many friends. Jamie has been hosting these drinks in the school holidays for a couple of years now. This was the biggest turnout yet with over 20 of us in attendance. It's an open invite so do keep an eye on Twitter if you want to come to the next one.
I'm back to school on Monday, right on time for my 39th birthday... This is one of the things I miss about my previous career - I always waited until after my birthday to return to work, but I can't do that any more!
I look forward to seeing people at BrewEd Maths in Croydon next week. I'll have a few copies of my book with me in case anyone wants to buy one!
I'll leave you with this great problem which was created by Jonathan Hall (@studymaths).
— Jonathan Hall (@StudyMaths) December 23, 2019
22 December 2019
Indices in Depth
A couple of years ago I wrote a blog post about a new project I was launching called Topics in Depth. The idea was to write a series of CPD sessions - each one covering an individual maths topic. This was in response to three things I'd noticed:1. that we rush through a lot of our teaching, and as a result many topics are taught at a very superficial level
2. that teachers don't get enough time to research topics thoroughly when they're planning lessons
3. that a lot of maths CPD was, at the time, quite broad and general - I felt that teachers would benefit more from spending time thinking about the specific topics that they were about to teach.
I started writing a series of presentations and presenting them at maths conferences. The idea was that teachers would then go back to their schools and share them at department meetings.
My intention to write a presentation for every topic in the maths curriculum was scuppered by the fact that these presentations took me months to write, and what with going back to work full-time and writing a book, I just didn't have time to write as many as I'd hoped. Now my book has been published I hope to rekindle my Topics in Depth project at some point in 2020.
Over the last two years I have had a number of requests to record my conference presentations so they can be shared more widely. I couldn't work out a good way of doing it, but then Craig Barton and TES came to my rescue.
I am delighted to present to you today the first in a series of Topics in Depth presentations that I've recorded with Craig Barton (in podcast interview style, which was great fun). Thank you to TES for recording and publishing these presentations.
This one is on indices. If you're a maths teacher with an spare hour, please watch. I hope you enjoy it.
15 December 2019
5 Maths Gems #118
Welcome to my 118th gems post. This is where I share some of the latest news, ideas and resources for maths teachers.1. Area and Perimeter
Thanks to @thatboycanteach for sharing an area and perimeter investigation here (see his tweet for the whole activity).
I like this new resource idea from Andy Lutwyche (@andylutwyche). There are eight slides - each has five supposed angle or shape properties. It is designed to encourage reasoning discussions in class about which are correct and which are incorrect.
I love trigonometry and Pythagoras pile-up activities. Mr Anderson (@MrAndersonMaths) has shared a new version which I've added to my shape resource library. This is more accessible than other versions I've seen because it builds up from a relatively simple problem with only a couple of steps to a more complex pile-up.
Ben Gordon (@mathsmrgordon) shared the first draft of phase one of a series of slides that his school will use with students to communicate why maths is important and where it can lead, including local opportunities. The editable slides can be downloaded here.
Miss Konstantine (@giftedHKO) shared a task she used for a discussion during a Year 11 foundation revision lesson. She says that each question raised an issue or misunderstanding or a variety of methods. You can download the task from her lovely blog.
I am so lucky that superstar Emma McCrea hosted a wonderful book launch for me on Saturday. Thank you so much to brilliant speakers Zoe Griffiths (from the awesome team at ThinkMaths) and Alex Cutbill. Thank you also to David from Spaghetti Maths, Albert from Chalkdust and Andrew Jeffrey for entertaining our guests.
Thanks to Emma it was a great party and I had a really lovely day. I'm touched by how kind everyone was. If you were there to support me and celebrate with me, thank you from the bottom of my heart.
Thanks to Emma it was a great party and I had a really lovely day. I'm touched by how kind everyone was. If you were there to support me and celebrate with me, thank you from the bottom of my heart.
I'm so pleased by the way my book has been received and very excited to finally see it in print. If you want to order a copy then you can do so through the publisher John Catt (it's also on their US website) or from Amazon.
My mum, an awesome maths teacher for c30 years, has just spent the afternoon reading @mathsjem new book and muttering...— Peps Mccrea (@PepsMccrea) December 14, 2019
What?
No way!
You can do it like that?!
Makes so much sense
Can't believe I didn't know about this
30 years. Because there was no book on methods. Until now. pic.twitter.com/jLmYoBIvoH
Updates
If you're consider coming to the MA conference which is in the Easter holidays (for most schools, but not all) then book now because the early bird rates end in a couple of weeks. There has been a lot of interest in the conference this year which is really exciting. I blogged about it here and now you can see the workshop descriptions here.
A couple of weeks ago I was lucky enough to spend a weekend with friends at my favourite maths event of the year: the big Maths Jam Annual Gathering. I loved it!
Because things are so manic I've had to cut down on the events I attend (not ideal when I'm trying to spread the word about my book!) but I'll be at BrewEd Maths in Croydon in January and possibly the Complete Mathematics Conference in Manchester in March. Hopefully I'll see you at one of those events.
Have a wonderful Christmas, maths teachers! A much-needed break is just round the corner.
26 November 2019
Book Launch!
Back in September I wrote a blog post about the book that I've written. In that post explained why I wrote it and what it's all about. I submitted my manuscript at the end of the summer holidays and (naively) thought that all my work was done. In September and October I chose the design of the cover, gathered some reviews for the Amazon page and that was about it - it wasn't a huge amount of work. Then came November, and suddenly everything was really full on.
Getting the book ready for print was a much bigger job than I expected. I stayed up late into the night many times in November, working on checks and edits. My editor was brilliant and made lots of useful suggestions. The challenge came from the fact that all of my equations were retyped and therefore needed thorough checking, and all of the intricately detailed old textbook extracts were retyped too. It was an immense job to proofread every single line. If I wasn't a teacher I would have taken a few days off work to do it. But I had to fit it in around long days at work, getting my girls into bed, doing my marking and lesson planning, and everything else. In hindsight I think perhaps it was foolish of me to think I could be a full-time teacher and mum of two young children and write a book! But hey, I lived to tell the tale.
It's quite possible that an error will have made it through to the book, and I can only apologise for that. I worked harder on this than I've ever worked on anything before, and now it's being printed I feel rather emotional about it all. I feel relief, anxiety and happiness all at the same time.
Because I never thought I'd write a book, and now I have, I really want to celebrate. Although I've organised and hosted two book launches and a number of other events in the past, I decided that I wouldn't be able to have a launch for my own book. My new job is really tough, and weekends and evenings in December are packed full of both work and family stuff, so I definitely don't have time to organise an event.
Thankfully my friend Emma McCrea (author of Making Every Maths Lesson Count) got in touch and offered to organise and host a launch party for me. I'm very grateful to her for working really quickly to get everything set up in time for the book's publication date. Tickets went on sale today, and I'm very excited about it.
Thankfully my friend Emma McCrea (author of Making Every Maths Lesson Count) got in touch and offered to organise and host a launch party for me. I'm very grateful to her for working really quickly to get everything set up in time for the book's publication date. Tickets went on sale today, and I'm very excited about it.
The launch is on 14th December at SAMA Bankside, which is a bar near Blackfriars in London (those of you who stayed on for the Humble Pi afterparty might remember it!). The event is 3pm until 5.30pm. If anyone wants to stay out afterwards and turn it into a maths teacher Christmas night out then I'm up for that (it's optional though!). It's been a while since the last #christmaths so I think we're overdue a festive party...
My little book launch will consist of maths activities, drinks, maths mingling, and two talks (one from me and one from the awesome speaker Zoe Griffiths). Tickets are £20 and this includes a copy of the book (hot off the press), a drink on arrival and all mathsy entertainment.
I know lots of people are going to be busy on the 14th, but I hope some people can join me to celebrate (I'm aware it's not ideal timing for a launch, but I really wanted the book to be out before Christmas).
You can book a ticket here. Feel free to bring partners and friends - this event is not exclusively for maths teachers, though the entertainment is all mathematical!
Hope to see you there. And if you can't come but still want to read my book, it's available to order here.
2 November 2019
5 Maths Gems #117
Welcome to my 117th gems post. This is where I share some of the latest news, ideas and resources for maths teachers.1. Ratio
My favourite maths blogger Paul Rowlandson has written another brilliant blog post - this one looks at various ways of thinking about how to make functions and equations out of pairs of equivalent ratios.
Joe Berwick (@BerwickMaths) launched a new website berwickmaths.com where he shares the worked examples he uses in lessons from Key Stage 3 up to Key Stage 5. Read the homepage and Joe's blog for more information on what it's all about.
3. Interleaving
Jason Steele (@steelemaths) shared a set of tasks where topics are interleaved - for example the task below is about expanding and simplifying but also gives students the opportunity to revisit fraction operations. You can download this from TES. Check out Jason's Twitter feed for more of his resources.
4. Normal Distribution
Holly Morgan (@Hollymog) made a Fill in the Gaps activity for standardising normal distribution. It's great to see these ideas in use at A level.
5. New Lesson Resources
In my last gems post I featured some new resources from TES author cparkinson3 (@CP3fxy). He has now shared 12 lessons on shape transformations.
Richard Tock (@TickTockMaths) shared a couple of great lessons for teaching equations of parallel lines and equations of perpendicular lines.
Update
I'm ridiculously lucky to work at a school with a two week October half-term. It's a game changer.
On 12th October I went to #mathsconf21 in Peterborough. As always, it was lovely to catch up with so many maths teachers. Here's me and Sheena (@Sheena2907) in matching maths dresses from Popsy:
The Peterborough conference was the day after the Harris Federation October Conference at the ExCeL Centre in London. Here I am with three out of my four maths colleagues from Harris Academy Sutton (yes, we are currently an all-female maths department!):
Thank you to everyone who supported us this week. It was the first time Craig and I had run our own course. We felt it went well so we might do it again next year. Special thanks to AQA, John Catt, White Rose, the MA and Izak9. Primary and prep school teachers should check out Izak9 (@AbacusandHelix) - really interesting classroom resources that I'd never seen before.
Finally, an update on some recent posts and some things that are coming up:
- I blogged about the MA Easter Conference (which I'm really excited about!), reflections from my return to Key Stage 3 teaching, and my dad.
- It's Maths Week England on 11th - 16th November. There are a number of competitions that your students can get involved in, listed here. For example MEI are running a Desmos Maths Art competition - students and teachers can win a Desmos T-shirt and a pizza party for their class.
- Have you visited Don Steward's website recently? He's been posting lots of lovely new tasks.
- At only £1.99 for many hours of maths entertainment, you'd be crazy not to download MEI's Sumaze! Adventure app. Like the other Sumaze! apps, it's brilliant.
- Cambridge Maths launched a new app called Define It. Every week they publish a mathematical word with several possible definitions for you to rate. They want users to help them find the best definitions.
- I'm very excited about Big MathsJam which takes place four weeks today. It is my favourite event of the year. And not just because the food is so good.
- My book is still in production but I'm hopeful it will be out before Christmas (fingers crossed!). You can order it and read early reviews here.
22 October 2019
Easter Awesomeness for Maths Teachers
A couple of years ago I went to BCME for the first time. I loved it! Having been a regular Saturday-maths-conference-goer for a few years, it was my first big residential maths conference. It was a totally different experience to one day events. I enjoyed the social stuff (we won the quiz! I may have mentioned that a few times...) and I also liked the pace. One day conferences can be intense - I feel like I rush around all day - whereas at residential conferences everything has more time. I loved BCME so much that the following year I braved going to the ATM/MA Easter conference on my own. It turned out to be brilliant. It really gave me a lot to think about and probably had a bigger impact on my teaching than any event I'd attended previously.
I noticed that there were a large number of trainee teachers at the ATM/MA conference this Easter. I was hugely impressed by their enthusiasm. There they all were, embracing their new career and having a thoroughly good time surrounded by mathematics. When I was training I had no idea these things even existed.
For decades the MA and ATM Easter conferences were the biggest events in maths education. Everyone went. Maths teachers flew in from all over the world. These days lots of teachers can't attend the Easter conferences because a) it's too expensive and b) they don't like losing almost a week of their Easter holidays. I have young children myself and totally sympathise with these reservations. Both times I've attended conferences in the Easter holidays I have been lucky enough to be awarded a bursary to help with the cost, plus my husband has taken annual leave to spend time with my daughters.
This year the MA has decided to take an innovative approach to give the conference wider appeal. For as long as anyone can remember the MA Conference has run over four days. This year it's shorter and cheaper and - hopefully - accessible to all. It's also at a beautiful spa hotel (Wyboston Lakes in Bedfordshire), which is a bonus.
So this is how it looks:
Day 1: Tuesday 14th April
The conference starts at lunchtime on Tuesday. There's a keynote from MA President Ems Lord followed by a linked workshop, and then a practical session run by the Nrich team. At the 2019 conference the Nrich workshop was one of my favourites so this is guaranteed to all be brilliant. In the evening there'll be a quiz (yay!).
Day 2: Wednesday 15th April
This day will be jam-packed with 40 sessions run by amazing speakers, plus a keynote from the one and only Chris Smith (I am so excited about this!). Workshops will be in four strands (Primary, Secondary, Post-16/Community and General). In each of the five sessions you can choose one of eight workshops - so there's plenty for everyone. The day ends with a Maths Jam and a BBQ.
Day 3: Thursday 16th April
The day starts with a keynote from me, followed by a keynote by Craig Barton. If you were at Craig's keynote at the MEI Conference then I'm sure you'll agree that it will be worth staying for! Then everyone goes home at lunch.
You can download the full programme here.
Costs
If you're not a member of the MA then join now (from only £2.50 per month) to save lots of money on conference rates.
To attend the whole conference from Tuesday lunch to Thursday lunch, including hotel room and food, it's only £299. But you have to book by 31st December to get it this cheap. If you've never been to a residential conference before then now's the time to try it!
If you're an NQT or a trainee teacher then you can go to the whole conference from just £229, which is insanely cheap when you consider what it includes in terms of food, accommodation and top quality CPD.
Also, if family commitments mean you can't do a residential so you only want to come to the middle Wednesday (five workshops plus Chris Smith's keynote plus lunch) then it's only £99. That's great value for so much CPD.
Finally - if you're a member of the MA and you've never been to the MA's annual conference before then you can apply for a bursary which will cover the entire cost of the conference! Go on, apply - you might get lucky. Details of this bursary are here.
Get your request into your school now! I look forward to seeing you there.
 |
| Quizzing at the ATM/MA conference 2019 |
For decades the MA and ATM Easter conferences were the biggest events in maths education. Everyone went. Maths teachers flew in from all over the world. These days lots of teachers can't attend the Easter conferences because a) it's too expensive and b) they don't like losing almost a week of their Easter holidays. I have young children myself and totally sympathise with these reservations. Both times I've attended conferences in the Easter holidays I have been lucky enough to be awarded a bursary to help with the cost, plus my husband has taken annual leave to spend time with my daughters.
This year the MA has decided to take an innovative approach to give the conference wider appeal. For as long as anyone can remember the MA Conference has run over four days. This year it's shorter and cheaper and - hopefully - accessible to all. It's also at a beautiful spa hotel (Wyboston Lakes in Bedfordshire), which is a bonus.
So this is how it looks:
Day 1: Tuesday 14th April
The conference starts at lunchtime on Tuesday. There's a keynote from MA President Ems Lord followed by a linked workshop, and then a practical session run by the Nrich team. At the 2019 conference the Nrich workshop was one of my favourites so this is guaranteed to all be brilliant. In the evening there'll be a quiz (yay!).
Day 2: Wednesday 15th April
This day will be jam-packed with 40 sessions run by amazing speakers, plus a keynote from the one and only Chris Smith (I am so excited about this!). Workshops will be in four strands (Primary, Secondary, Post-16/Community and General). In each of the five sessions you can choose one of eight workshops - so there's plenty for everyone. The day ends with a Maths Jam and a BBQ.
Day 3: Thursday 16th April
The day starts with a keynote from me, followed by a keynote by Craig Barton. If you were at Craig's keynote at the MEI Conference then I'm sure you'll agree that it will be worth staying for! Then everyone goes home at lunch.
You can download the full programme here.
Costs
If you're not a member of the MA then join now (from only £2.50 per month) to save lots of money on conference rates.
To attend the whole conference from Tuesday lunch to Thursday lunch, including hotel room and food, it's only £299. But you have to book by 31st December to get it this cheap. If you've never been to a residential conference before then now's the time to try it!
If you're an NQT or a trainee teacher then you can go to the whole conference from just £229, which is insanely cheap when you consider what it includes in terms of food, accommodation and top quality CPD.
Also, if family commitments mean you can't do a residential so you only want to come to the middle Wednesday (five workshops plus Chris Smith's keynote plus lunch) then it's only £99. That's great value for so much CPD.
Finally - if you're a member of the MA and you've never been to the MA's annual conference before then you can apply for a bursary which will cover the entire cost of the conference! Go on, apply - you might get lucky. Details of this bursary are here.
Get your request into your school now! I look forward to seeing you there.
19 October 2019
Classroom Reflections
It's been a long time since I last wrote a blog post reflecting on what I've been doing in the classroom. I remember writing one when I returned to work after maternity leave in 2015. During maternity leave I'd joined Twitter and became hugely inspired and excited about maths teaching - I returned to work raring to try out loads of new approaches and resources for the first time. My current situation feels like that one all over again. I've gone back to proper teaching after a year in limbo. Last year I was still in the classroom - but not my own classroom. I was teaching various Year 11 intervention and withdrawal groups in a number of different schools. I really missed belonging to a school community. An opportunity arose to move to a brand new school in the same MAT, only five minutes from my house, so I seized it. I've always wanted to be involved in setting up a new school and it's turning out to be just as exciting and wonderful (and exhausting!) as I expected. I absolutely love the school's vision and culture. It's very frustrating that I live in a grammar school borough, and I'm so happy that there's an amazing comprehensive school that I can guarantee my daughters have a place at. On Open Day we had parents tell us that their children had passed the local selection tests but they were putting our non-selective school down as their first choice. I'm so proud to be part of it.
My classes
I teach 8X1 and 8Y4 (also known as Cardano and Leibniz). Because we only have two year groups, in some subjects (e.g. a subject that only has one lesson a week) teachers might teach every single Year 8 class, which is a time saver in terms of planning. There is no overlap in planning for my two Year 8 classes because they are very different groups. I also teach a totally mixed Year 7 class, though we've reviewed that and we're re-grouping all of our Year 7s after half-term. My current Year 7s are the most delightful class I've ever taught! People warned me that I'd miss teaching GCSE and A level, and in fact that's what stopped me from applying to work at the school in its first year when it was in a temporary building. I haven't been missing them at all. I've been enjoying focusing on developing my Key Stage 3 teaching, and I know I'll teach A level and GCSE again in the future. It is so nice to teach maths without the constant exam focus. I've taught Year 11, 12 and 13 every single year of my teaching career so this year is totally different. Change is good.
Resources
I've been using MathsPad in most lessons, as well as plenty of Don Steward and some things from variationtheory.com. Here I'll share a few examples of resources that I felt worked particularly well.
When I taught percentages to 8X1 I used mixed percentage multipliers from variationtheory.com. There are three sheets, starting with this one:
This was a really good level of challenge for my students.
For my 13 students in 8Y4 I created a different set of sheets with a lot of structure and scaffolding. I decided to teach them multipliers (that in itself was a difficult decision). I started with increasing using this resource:
This is nothing special or new, but it had the right amount of structure and direction as a starting point for them. We ended up doing parts of mixed percentage multipliers too, it just took us a bit longer to get there.
When I taught reverse percentages to 8X1 I made good use of MathsPad. I like the structure of their slides on this topic:
The associated worksheet starts with a couple of examples and some accessible questions, leading on to a really high level of challenge. I've only shown extracts from these resources because these require a subscription to access the full resource.
I've just moved onto algebra with both my Year 8 classes. 8X1 particularly enjoyed this expanding activity from Don Steward:
I was delighted when I spotted a pattern in the answers and they got all excited about it. It made it really easy to check answers too.
We also had a lot of fun with MathsPad's Number Tricks resource.
For Year 7 I used MathsPad when teaching negative numbers. I particularly like their Number Line Journeys activity (again, this is just an extract - not the full resource):
MathsPad also have a lot of nice little tasks that you can dip into for extension work. For example their sheet Negative Number Puzzles: Addition and Subtraction has pyramids, magic squares and all sorts of little puzzles involving negative numbers.
I could go on about resources all day. I'm enjoyed using lots of activities I've not used before. Some have gone well, some haven't. It's always good to try new things.
Retention
We are fortunate to have Hegarty Maths which I'm a big fan of. My 8X1 class are completing a MemRi task for homework every week. MemRi tasks automatically ask students questions on topics they have studied in the past. By moving most of their retrieval practice from classwork to homework I've got more time to focus on the topics I'm teaching in the lesson.
8Y4 really need support on retrieval. They often have trouble remembering the previous day's lesson. I'm investing a lot of time on revisiting learning from Years 1 to 7. They also respond very well to set routines. We had a Discovery Day in October and we had to move our seats into a new arrangement for a day - I hadn't expected them to respond so negatively to a change in routine, and it made me realise how important it is for these particular students to know what to expect so they feel safe in maths. For retrieval and routine - and to help these students to experience success in maths - I've started using the 'Five for Five' model I wrote about here. They are responding very well to it. Obviously I'm not able to say if it's having any effect on their long-term retention - we'll have to wait and see.
I make my own set of questions each lesson but it only takes a minute. An example is shown below - these questions are the right level of difficulty for this particular class. Four questions are from primary school or Year 7 and the final question relates to their current topic. The questions change subtly each day but are always on the same topics. On the first day we go through it in great detail, on the second and third day they refer to their notes before we go through it together and on the last day I give it as a test that I mark. By the last day they really want to get full marks.
The other thing I've introduced is Memory King - inspired by something Dani Quinn said years ago which I mentioned in this blog post about teaching Foundation. In the first week of Memory King I challenged 8Y4 to learn their first twelve square numbers. They all had to recite the numbers to me - and those who wanted to could also enter a competition where they recited them at the front of the class, and we timed them to see who could do it fastest. It all got very exciting and they got really into it (they were practising in the playground!) so I invited the Principal to come and watch them perform their square numbers. It was amazing to see students who lack confidence in maths get so excited to show the Principal what they know. The winner was a boy who managed to recite all twelve in about 2 seconds which was insane. I then set them the task of learning the names of polygons from triangles up to decagons. I think the whole class had a tear in their eye when the girl who doesn't speak much English stood up and so beautifully recited 'triangle, quadrilateral, pentagon, hexagon, septagon, octagon, nonagon, decagon'! After that I set them the seven times table. This might seem like an odd one, but I know that they are not all fluent in times tables and if I can get them excited about learning and reciting them then I will.
Depth
The final thing I want to reflect on is timings. A few years ago I started a writing a series of presentations about teaching topics in depth rather than rushing through them. This year is my first time teaching a Scheme of Work that is written by a MAT and used in a large number of schools. I'm struggling with it. Because we had a whole week of Inset at the start of term (owing to us opening a new building) we started the term behind on the timings. We then only had three weeks to teach Year 7 algebra from scratch including simplifying, expanding single brackets and sequences. This is about half the time I needed! Everything was rushed, which makes me really unhappy. We lost a few days to school events and then I ended up with only three lessons to teach the whole of negative numbers! Argh. Such a fundamental topic in such a short time. In the last lesson I gave them this exercise from TeachIt Maths:
The amount they struggled (with adding and subtracting negatives, not the substitution) confirmed what I suspected - I had taught negatives way too quickly and it needed another week or two. I just don't know where I'll find that week.
We don't have to do MAT assessments until January but the topics are packed in really tightly and nothing is getting the attention it needs. After half-term I have one week to do the whole of written methods and order of operations! I need a whole week on order of operations alone. But when will I find time to explore all the wonderful multiplication methods I want to do with them? It's all very frustrating, and I know that I probably have many readers in the same situation, having to constantly rush through teaching because of assessment deadlines. I haven't worked out a good solution for this, but I'm just letting you know that I share your pain!
Anyway, it's half-term for me now so I get time to reflect and re-energise. I'm looking forward to all the fun maths I get to teach after half-term, but for now - I need a rest!
My classes
I teach 8X1 and 8Y4 (also known as Cardano and Leibniz). Because we only have two year groups, in some subjects (e.g. a subject that only has one lesson a week) teachers might teach every single Year 8 class, which is a time saver in terms of planning. There is no overlap in planning for my two Year 8 classes because they are very different groups. I also teach a totally mixed Year 7 class, though we've reviewed that and we're re-grouping all of our Year 7s after half-term. My current Year 7s are the most delightful class I've ever taught! People warned me that I'd miss teaching GCSE and A level, and in fact that's what stopped me from applying to work at the school in its first year when it was in a temporary building. I haven't been missing them at all. I've been enjoying focusing on developing my Key Stage 3 teaching, and I know I'll teach A level and GCSE again in the future. It is so nice to teach maths without the constant exam focus. I've taught Year 11, 12 and 13 every single year of my teaching career so this year is totally different. Change is good.
Resources
I've been using MathsPad in most lessons, as well as plenty of Don Steward and some things from variationtheory.com. Here I'll share a few examples of resources that I felt worked particularly well.
When I taught percentages to 8X1 I used mixed percentage multipliers from variationtheory.com. There are three sheets, starting with this one:
and ending with this one:
This was a really good level of challenge for my students.
For my 13 students in 8Y4 I created a different set of sheets with a lot of structure and scaffolding. I decided to teach them multipliers (that in itself was a difficult decision). I started with increasing using this resource:
When I taught reverse percentages to 8X1 I made good use of MathsPad. I like the structure of their slides on this topic:
We also had a lot of fun with MathsPad's Number Tricks resource.
MathsPad also have a lot of nice little tasks that you can dip into for extension work. For example their sheet Negative Number Puzzles: Addition and Subtraction has pyramids, magic squares and all sorts of little puzzles involving negative numbers.
I could go on about resources all day. I'm enjoyed using lots of activities I've not used before. Some have gone well, some haven't. It's always good to try new things.
Retention
We are fortunate to have Hegarty Maths which I'm a big fan of. My 8X1 class are completing a MemRi task for homework every week. MemRi tasks automatically ask students questions on topics they have studied in the past. By moving most of their retrieval practice from classwork to homework I've got more time to focus on the topics I'm teaching in the lesson.
8Y4 really need support on retrieval. They often have trouble remembering the previous day's lesson. I'm investing a lot of time on revisiting learning from Years 1 to 7. They also respond very well to set routines. We had a Discovery Day in October and we had to move our seats into a new arrangement for a day - I hadn't expected them to respond so negatively to a change in routine, and it made me realise how important it is for these particular students to know what to expect so they feel safe in maths. For retrieval and routine - and to help these students to experience success in maths - I've started using the 'Five for Five' model I wrote about here. They are responding very well to it. Obviously I'm not able to say if it's having any effect on their long-term retention - we'll have to wait and see.
I make my own set of questions each lesson but it only takes a minute. An example is shown below - these questions are the right level of difficulty for this particular class. Four questions are from primary school or Year 7 and the final question relates to their current topic. The questions change subtly each day but are always on the same topics. On the first day we go through it in great detail, on the second and third day they refer to their notes before we go through it together and on the last day I give it as a test that I mark. By the last day they really want to get full marks.
The final thing I want to reflect on is timings. A few years ago I started a writing a series of presentations about teaching topics in depth rather than rushing through them. This year is my first time teaching a Scheme of Work that is written by a MAT and used in a large number of schools. I'm struggling with it. Because we had a whole week of Inset at the start of term (owing to us opening a new building) we started the term behind on the timings. We then only had three weeks to teach Year 7 algebra from scratch including simplifying, expanding single brackets and sequences. This is about half the time I needed! Everything was rushed, which makes me really unhappy. We lost a few days to school events and then I ended up with only three lessons to teach the whole of negative numbers! Argh. Such a fundamental topic in such a short time. In the last lesson I gave them this exercise from TeachIt Maths:
We don't have to do MAT assessments until January but the topics are packed in really tightly and nothing is getting the attention it needs. After half-term I have one week to do the whole of written methods and order of operations! I need a whole week on order of operations alone. But when will I find time to explore all the wonderful multiplication methods I want to do with them? It's all very frustrating, and I know that I probably have many readers in the same situation, having to constantly rush through teaching because of assessment deadlines. I haven't worked out a good solution for this, but I'm just letting you know that I share your pain!
Anyway, it's half-term for me now so I get time to reflect and re-energise. I'm looking forward to all the fun maths I get to teach after half-term, but for now - I need a rest!
