20 April 2020

5 Maths Gems #126

Welcome to my 126th gems post. This is where I share some of the latest news, ideas and resources for maths teachers.

1. Online Manipulatives
Larissa Chan (@_LarissaChan) shared a great website with a wide range of virtual maths manipulatives. It's worth having a play with these tools. They might be useful if you're sharing your screen with students when delivering online lessons.
In related news, Bernie Westacott (@berniewestacott) shared the news that ⁦‪matholia.com are now offering free access to all their resources and apps until the end of the school year.
2. Dot to Dot
Miss Konstantine (@giftedHKO) shared this Number Dot to Dot on her blog back in January but I missed it at the time. It was a starter activity for her Year 11s, covering things they'd made errors on in their mock exams. Check out her blog to see what the solution looks like - it's very cool - and for similar activities.

3. UKMT
To assist families and students during school closures, the UKMT has made a number of extra past papers available for free in their online shop. You just need to register on their website for access. These resources include JMC papers, IMC papers and SMC papers from 1999 to 2014.
4. JaggersMaths
Mrs Jagger (@JaggersMaths) - previously Miss Banks - is in the process of making her collection of resources free on TES. You can see what's available on her website jaggersmaths.co.uk.

For example she has shared a numeracy resource that contains 174 different numeracy activities to use in form time or maths clubs.

She also has a set of SSDD problems, a series of short GCSE ('Pick 'n' Mix') papers, and a set of GCSE problem solving papers

5. Bridging the Gap
I've blogged about supporting the transition to A level maths twice before. My first post was all the way back in 2014, but most of resources I suggested in that post are still useful. The second post was in 2017 and was mainly about entry assessment and early intervention.

We are currently facing quite a worrying time for Year 11s who plan to start A level maths in September. This gap in their education comes at a really crucial time for them. While many of our Year 11s will be celebrating never having to do any maths again, those who plan to take A level in September will be looking for advice on how to prepare.

@Mr_Rowlandson tweeted that some teachers in his MAT have made a list of topics and video links on Hegarty Maths and Corbett Maths for these Year 11 students. It aims to help them learn or revise parts of the GCSE specification that are useful when starting A level in Year 12.

Thank you also to @mathsteachrich for adapting this list to include MathsWatch.

Hegarty Maths users will also find Colin Hegarty's own Pre-A Level Transition Course helpful.

And - in an exciting development - Colin also announced today that he'll soon be running daily live lessons, free on Youtube, for all students interested in doing maths at A level.

Update
When it comes to online resources, maths teachers have always been spoilt for choice. New additions to the collection include the lessons from BBC Bitesize, Oak National Academy and the NCETM.

This term I'll mainly be continuing with what I was doing before Easter (i.e. setting tasks on Hegarty Maths), which I discussed in my recent podcast with Craig Barton.

Over Easter I blogged about running a school assembly on 'Innovation in Times of Crisis'. If you're interested in seeing how this ten minute assembly came out, you can watch it here. Working out how to record this assembly prompted me to record some of my own conference workshops. These are aimed at any maths teacher who has the opportunity to do CPD from home. I have now recorded four workshops in total and have two more to go. These, along with the Topics in Depth sessions I have previously recorded with Craig Barton, can be viewed on my CPD Playlist on Youtube.

It's the sixth anniversary of my blog next week so look out for my annual Gem Awards.

I'll leave you with this great image from a 1954 textbook, shared by Sarah Carter (@mathequalslove).




Stay safe, maths teachers. x





2 comments:

  1. Does anybody know the UKMT JMC 2020 Answers? Btw, I don't want to cheat, I have already done the test.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. No, and given that my students haven't done it yet, it would be really unprofessional for any teacher to share them before the test period is over. Be patient! Hope it went well.

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