5 Websites You Should Know... #5

In October 2016 I started writing a series of posts called '5 Websites You Should Know...'. I wrote four posts, covering Corbett Maths, Mr Carter Maths, MathsBot and MathsPad. These posts were based on a presentation I did at a TeachMeet. The fifth website in my TeachMeet presentation was resourceaholic.com, but it didn't make sense for me to write a blog post about my own website. So my '5 websites' series ended after four posts, leaving me with an unsatisfactory unfinished project.

Recently I discovered David Morse's resources and wrote about them in Gems 82. I feel like I should do more to spread the word about these resources, so I've decided they need a post in their own right. This is a good opportunity to finish off my '5 Websites You Should Know...' series!

David's resources are all freely available on TES and can be accessed through his growing website maths4everyone.com. There are over 250 resources, many of which I have linked from my resource libraries. David, an experienced maths teacher and Head of Computing, was the most downloaded new TES author of 2017. In this post I'll focus on David's worksheet grids.

I like these grids for five reasons:

• The questions are well written.
• Some sheets cover a single skill in depth, which is very useful when introducing a new skill for the first time (isolation of skills is all the rage at the moment, and makes a lot of sense to me... one thing at a time, please).
• Other sheets are specifically designed for revision, so cover a whole topic in one place. Last year I wrote about how I run my Year 11 revision lessons after Easter - these grids will be perfect for the topic-specific element. 
• The grid format is print friendly and student friendly. Plus there's no clutter, no mistakes, and the branding is unobtrusive.
• Full solutions are provided.

Let's look at some examples...

1. Circle Theorems (First Steps) includes a whole sheet just on isosceles triangles in circles. I've never taught this explicitly before - it normally just comes up in amongst the other circle theorems. Next time, I'll slow down, teach it properly and use this resource.

This is what the solutions look like:

2. Calculating bearings has five worksheets of varying difficulty levels. GCSE students always seem to struggle with bearings - these questions really help develop fluency.

3. Area of a triangle using sine is an excellent set of questions on this topic, with a good level of challenge. I'd use these questions at both GCSE and A level.

4. Multiplying surds is one of a set of worksheets on surds. It specifically focuses on multiplying. As with the other resources, there's a sensible progression of questions here.

5. Expanding triple brackets provides straightforward fluency practice with a good level of challenge. There are similar sheets for expanding a single bracket, expanding and simplifying and expanding double brackets.

I've only provided five examples here but the collection of resources on TES is extensive and growing. Hopefully you get the idea - it's all standard fluency practice but well designed and user-friendly. These work well for classwork, revision, and cover. In my opinion these are really useful sets of questions.

David has shared way more than just worksheet grids so do check out his website to see the rest of his resources. Today I found his collection of challenging exam questions on vectors really helpful when planning a Year 11 lesson.

I'm very grateful to David for all his hard work in creating and sharing his resources. I hope you find them useful too.

5 Websites You Should Know... #4

I recently launched a new series of posts called '5 Websites You Should Know...'. So far, I've covered Corbett Maths, Mr Carter Maths and MathsBot.

Today's post is about one of my all-time favourites, MathsPad. This website requires a subscription to access some of the resources, but many are available for free. I've been using MathsPad for years but recently it has become my go-to website for both Key Stage 3 and for new GCSE topics. Nicola (@MathsPadNicola) and James (@MathsPadJames) have added some absolutely wonderful resources for topics such as iteration, Venn diagrams and systematic listing - I cannot recommend them enough.

MathsPad's resources are very well designed. Their activities are engaging and clever, and are easily printed onto A5 or displayed on an interactive whiteboard. Answers are always provided too. I want to show you dozens of examples, but in order to keep this post to a reasonable length I will just share a handful of snapshots, starting with those for new GCSE topics.

New GCSE Topics
I taught 'systematic listing and the product rule' to Year 11 last week. It's an odd topic - it seems like it should be straightforward and logical but some of the sample GCSE questions are quite tricky. I usually write my own lessons but this time I delivered directly from MathsPad. They've produced three interactive whiteboard tools which I used for delivering the teaching, and three worksheets for student practice. My top set students were really engaged throughout this lesson, and suitably challenged. These resources can be found here.

Another topic where MathsPad have come to my rescue is Venn diagrams.

Their resources for this topic are excellent and include some lovely challenging activities. For teachers who are unsure what they need to teach for conditional probability, Worksheet Pack 2 provides great questions.

MathsPad's latest resources are on iteration, and again these are excellent. For the interactive whiteboard they have a clever root hunting game, and they also have a pack of four iteration worksheets. I'm teaching this topic next term and will definitely be using these worksheets in my lessons.

It's hard to find resources for the new scatter graph GCSE content (causation, extrapolation, and outliers) but MathsPad have a lovely (free!) True or False activity. 

Teaching graph transformations? GCSE students no longer need to know how to do stretches (eg f(2x)). They still have to do translations and reflections though. If, like me, you're under so much time pressure in Year 11 that you only have time to cover topics that are listed on the GCSE specification, this means that a large number of graph transformation resources and past GCSE questions are now obselete. Never fear though - MathsPad have kindly produced a lovely graph transformations activity for translations and reflections only.

This is one of the things that James and Nicola do well - they're producing resources to use in their own GCSE lessons so they're very familiar with the new GCSE specification. I could show you loads more examples of awesome GCSE resources, but now let's take a look at some resources that are suitable for Key Stage 3.

Key Stage 3

My Year 7s adore code breakers and puzzles. I'm constantly using MathsPad resources with them. For example, earlier in the year they enjoyed the Place Value Puzzles.

They also enjoyed this Substitution Code Breaker...

... and they found this Factors and Multiples Mystery Grid quite challenging (they got rather excited about it).

I love MathsPad's angles resources so much that I can't wait to teach angles again!

A level

I sometimes use MathsPad's resources at A level too - for example their rationalising the denominator activity is great. When teaching differentiation to Year 12 recently I used this activity to check that their understanding of fractional indices was sound (it wasn't!):

I know that readers of this post won't necessarily be able to access all the links I've shared (most require subscription), but do browse through the website because there's plenty of free stuff there. And try to convince your Head of Maths to subscribe! If your students have access to tablets in lessons then they will benefit from the interactive student tasks too.

You can also sign up for email updates so that you're informed of the new resources they add each month - this is worth doing so you don't miss anything. I recommend browsing through all the previous months' updates here - you'll see loads of fantastic resources.

Huge thanks to James and Nicola for all the time and effort they put into creating such well designed resources. Long may it continue!

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 Balance, Rounding 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...

5 Websites You Should Know... #2

I'm writing a new series of posts about five maths teaching websites that you may not be familiar with. My previous post was about the brilliant Corbettmaths.com.

The second website that I'm featuring is relatively new. I first wrote about MrCarterMaths.com in Gems 55 back in April 2016. Since then its content has grown considerably, though the website has retained its lovely sleek design.

The best thing about this website is how easy it is to use, which makes it perfect for busy teachers who don't have time to login and search through complicated websites to download resources. It has two simple menus: Differentiated Topics and Worksheets.

Differentiated Topics
The writer of this website is Darren Carter, a maths teacher from Sheffield. He has created bronze, silver and gold questions for a large number of topics.

Each page of questions follows the same simple format. Here's an example for changing the subject:

and here are a couple more examples: factorising quadratics and surds with brackets.

The questions are designed for fluency practice. There's no adverts and no clutter so these are suitable to display in the classroom using a projector. The menu system is so straightforward, the questions can be accessed instantly during a lesson when required. There are two simple buttons: one to generate new questions and one to reveal answers.

I tend not to use bronze, silver and gold questions in my lessons but I still find this website incredibly useful. I was recently planning a lesson on quadratic inequalities for Year 11 and wanted to give them five factorising questions as a starter, so I visited MrCarterMaths.com and did a quick screenshot of five questions and answers. This website is a great time saver in many ways.

New GCSE
Darren is adding new topics all the time, and even takes requests for topics through Twitter! What a star. It's great that he has started adding new GCSE topics - check out iteration, functions and quadratic sequences... and keep an eye out for more topics over the coming months.

Worksheets
The second section of MrCarterMaths.com features worksheets. These are useful if you don't have a projector or if you prefer students to have questions printed out. You select a difficulty level and a topic then print off a worksheet straight away. Again, these are straightforward, sensible worksheets for fluency practice.

The beauty of this website is its ease of use. It has quickly become very popular amongst teachers on Twitter, and word is now spreading further afield. The range of topics covered continues to increase all the time - follow @MrCarterMaths for updates. Huge thanks to Darren Carter for putting so much effort into building a lovely website that is such a time saver for teachers.

5 Websites You Should Know... #1

I recently presented at a MathsMeet organised by Paul Collins. My presentation was entitled '5 Maths Teaching Websites You Need to Know'. My aim was to share five excellent sources of maths teaching resources that attendees may not have been familiar with. I plan to write a series of posts sharing the contents of that presentation.

The first website I'm featuring is Corbettmaths.com. You're probably familiar with this website, but have you explored it lately? Do you know everything it has to offer...?

The writer of Corbettmaths is John Corbett, a maths teacher based in Somerset who shares an astonishing volume of resources. His website has been around for quite a while - it was established in 2011, and over the years has accumulated thousands of free resources which are now used by teachers all over the world.

Quizzes
I thought I knew this website pretty well but when I was exploring it in preparation for this presentation, I found some stuff that I'd not seen before. For example, the Class Quizzes section has caught my attention. This is a new section of the website that is still being developed, but there are enough resources here to get started.

The idea is that these quizzes are given to GCSE classes to help them memorise key facts, formulae and processes. Students write 1 - 10 in their books and the teacher reads out the questions. I really like this idea and plan to start using this with my Year 11s from January. I think my students may also find these useful for self-quizzing at home during the final countdown to their GCSE exams.

Condundrums
John writes great maths puzzles and shares them in the Conundrums section of his website. These problems are challenging yet accessible.

5-a-day
John's 5-a-day resources are widely used. Each sheet features five quick questions from a mixture of topics. This allows students to revisit previously taught topics on a regular basis ('interleaving').

The range of resources here is impressive - there's a whole year's worth of 5-a-days for new GCSE at five different difficulty levels: numeracy, foundation, foundation plus, higher and higher plus. There's also a set of 5-a-days for A level (Edexcel Core 1) and later this year a collection of primary 5-a-days will be added to the website.

Some teachers use these resources as daily lesson starters, others have a corridor display where students can pick up their 5-a-days. John has blogged about the various approaches here.

Videos and Worksheets
John's videos and practice questions are a big part of the website. I find these particularly useful if I have a student who has missed a lesson or struggled with a homework - I email them a link to a Corbettmaths video (I like it that these can be accessed without the need for a login). Each video comes with a booklet of exam style questions and a textbook exercise. John has a blog post about how to use his videos and practice questions here.

John has started adding new GCSE topics to his collection, for example he already has videos and questions for quadratic inequalities, Venn diagrams, quadratic sequences, functions and pressure. Teachers who are nervous about teaching these topics for the first time might find John's videos useful in lesson planning.

Textbook Exercises
The textbook exercises are incredibly helpful. Most exercises provide both 'workout' and 'apply' questions with answers. I've used these for teaching algebra to Year 7 recently and have found that they provide a good quantity and breadth of questions. Here's an example of the 'apply' questions from 'Collecting Like Terms':

Revision Cards
Higher and Foundation GCSE revision cards are now available to buy from Corbettmaths.com. They cost £8.99 per pack (discounts are available for bulk orders). This is a good use of pupil premium budget. These have been very well received by teachers on Twitter. They have the unique feature of a QR code on the back which takes students directly to a video for each topic.

If you didn't already know all the features of Corbettmaths.com then do explore. Hats off to John Corbett, a hard working teacher making our lives easier and helping students over the world.

Look out for the next post in my '5 Websites You Should Know' series, coming soon!