5 Maths Gems #151

Welcome to my 151^st gems post. This is where I share some of the latest news, ideas and resources for maths teachers.

1. Interwoven Maths

@nathanday314 has launched another brilliant new website. Interwovenmaths.com is a repository for tasks interweaving different maths topics together. Questions are carefully chosen to reveal the structures underpinning and connecting the different topics. The website includes fully editable PowerPoints and solutions. Teachers are invited to submit their own tasks.

2. Starting Point Maths

@ChrisMcGrane84 is a great task designer so it's been fantastic to see him share a series of new tasks to his website Starting Points Maths.

Here are two examples. The first is a scaffolded task for those who teach the grouping method for factorising non-monic quadratics.

And here's a task on fraction addition. 

Chris has also written a blog post 'Task design and why Bob Dylan was wrong' which is well worth a read.

3. Range
@MrAlleyMaths shared a nice set of tasks on range.

4. Equation Solving
@jshmtn shared a good idea for equation solving practice. This activity creates 45 potential questions to answer.

5. MathsPad Booklet
I've featured MathsPad booklets before. The Year 7 Place Value booklet is free, the rest are only available to subscribers. I highly recommend a MathsPad subscription - I use mine every day. 

The team at MathsPad have now published Year 8 booklets for Expressions, Angles, Area & Volume, and Forming & Solving Equations. There are more booklets still to come. These booklets are packed full of exercises and puzzles. Here's an example of an activity in their area booklet:

And here's a great puzzle from their equations booklet:

Update

My lovely school is recruiting a maths teacher! We're a new school so we expand every year (we currently have Year 7 - 10, and it won't be long until we open our new Sixth Form). We'll need three new members of the maths department in September. These roles are suitable for ECTs and more experienced teachers. We're based in Sutton, South London (Zone 5). If you're interested in applying, feel free to get in touch to chat about the role. The closing date is 7th January and full details are here.

Did you see my last blog post about my new Angles in Polygons CPD? I've had some lovely feedback about this CPD - I'm glad people are finding it helpful.

Here are a few more things you might have missed on Twitter:

• @draustinmaths continues to publish new resources on her excellent website. I'm a big fan of her 'Fill in the blanks' activities and have added many of these to my resource libraries.
• @El_Timbre shared a link to an online book about ratio tables that I've not seen before.
• On the MA Facebook group I spotted a link to the History of Mathematics Project from Momath and Wolfram. This is a a virtual interactive exhibit of maths artefacts, a bit like an online maths museum. It's awesome. I like the timelines they have created and think these might be useful in lessons.
• @riley_ed published a post about his lesson sequences. This is well worth a read. This is exactly the sort of discussion we should be having about curriculum in maths!
• @MathigonOrg has launched its annual puzzle calendar with 24 challenging daily problems. 
• GCHQ is setting a special Christmas Challenge on Monday 13 December, and they are keen to get secondary schools and colleges involved. There will be seven puzzles as part of a special Christmas card, with each puzzle being aimed at a specific age group. Schools are invited to sign up and share their progress each day using the hashtag #GCHQChristmasChallenge. There will be a resource pack for schools available from 10th December.

Events

La Salle shared the locations of their upcoming conferences:

It's been a while since I hosted an event myself, but I've decided to hold one next term. In early March my school will host an event for maths teachers which will feature talks from myself and Steve Wren, who is Ofsted's subject lead for maths. Look out for details in early January!

I'll leave you with this lovely Square Puzzle which was shared by Chris Smith (@aap03102) in his weekly maths newsletter. To subscribe to this excellent newsletter, email aap03102@gmail.com.