5 Maths Gems #186

Welcome to my 186^th gems post. This is where I share some of the latest news, ideas and resources for maths teachers.

1. 1st Class Maths

One of my favourite websites, 1stclassmaths.com, has published a new set of practice papers - Higher and Foundation Paper 1 in the style of both AQA and Edexcel. More papers will be added during this summer's exam season. 

I love the quality of all the 1st Class Maths practice papers and resources. The questions are all original - these are not just collections of past paper questions. At my school we always make good use of these resources in our GCSE revision lessons. 

To give you an idea of the quality of the 1st Class Maths papers, here are a couple of the more challenging questions from the AQA-style higher paper:

2. OCR Puzzle of the Week

Every Friday OCR share a maths puzzle on social media using the hashtag #OCRMathspuzzle. I last featured these in a Gems post three years ago (Gems 154). Here are some recent examples.

By the way, if you're new to my blog then you might want to take a look at my back catalogue of gems posts. These posts are packed full of inspiration for both new and experienced maths teachers - they feature over ten years' worth of resources and ideas.

3. Dr Austin

Thank you to Amanda Austin for continuing to share so many new resources on draustinmaths.com. Her latest resources include tasks for quadratic inequalities, set notation, algebraic proof, equations, completing the square and proportion.

4. Guess the Angle

Thanks to @StudyMaths for sharing a new angle estimator.

 

This is one of many useful tools available on mathsbot.com - there are lots to explore. For example I recommend using the Sports Day timer on a phone to record race times on Sports Day. The Blackboard is very helpful if you're live modelling and you need a timer and calculator to hand. I also make a lot of use of the GCSE Countdown and the Grade Boundaries. The customisable graph paper and axes are also very helpful. 

5. Lessons from Dr Frost 

The team at Dr Frost continue to work on upgrading the PowerPoints on drfrost.org. These PowerPoints and accompanying resources can be downloaded for free and cover a wide range of topics from primary through to A level.

My friend @PaulRodrigo2718 is on the team of authors - his excellent set of lessons on bearings was recently published. His slides are full of clever explanations and animations. This slide on airport runways does a far better job of explaining runway numbers than I've done in the past (download the resource so you can see the animations).

If you visit the Dr Frost resources page then you'll see a list of lessons recently published. Here are a couple more extracts: 

From Properties of a Number Based on Prime Factorisation

From Adding and Subtracting Numbers in Standard Form

A level resource

For use in my recent Year 12 lessons I created a booklet for teaching Binomial Hypothesis Testing. There's lots of scaffolding in this. You can download it from TES or find it in my Statistics Resource Library.

Mathsconf37

I'm really looking forward to #mathsconf37 on 15th March in Sheffield. If you've not been to a mathsconf before then this would be a great time to try it out. It's always very inspiring to spend the day with maths teachers. Come to my workshop 'Fun with Factorising' if you like a bit of algebra. 

Speaking of conferences, I attended the Harris Federation Maths Conference on an Inset Day last week. The excellent Emma McCrea did the keynote, and I enjoyed a session on A level problem solving with Sinead Vaughan from the AMSP and a session on the Large Data Set with Jocelyn Stockbridge from Edexcel. Here's a photo of me with the members of my wonderful team who attended the conference.

I'll leave you with this graphic, created by @elephanteating. I knew that a pie chart was a Camembert Diagram in French but I didn't know about the rest! I love this.

5 Maths Gems #177

Welcome to my 177^th gems post. This is where I share some of the latest news, ideas and resources for maths teachers.

1. MathsLinks

I discovered the website MathsLinks through TES. It's run by maths teacher Kenneth Stafford. He has collated lots of resources in one place. For example, on his GCSE Questions by Topics page he has included links to websites such as Corbett Maths and Maths Genie for every topic.

He has produced numerous other resources including Grade 1 GCSE Maths Questions where he has combined the first two pages of Foundation GCSE maths papers, and a set of questions on Reverse Mean. 

Check out Kenneth's TES page and website for more.

2. Oak National Academy
It's good to see the collection of maths resources at Oak National Academy has grown since I last blogged about them in Gems 175. Here are a few extracts.

From Problem solving with factors, multiples, squares and cubes

From Angles on parallel lines traversed by a straight line

From Problem solving with polygons

3. OAT Maths

Thanks to @jemmaths for sharing some new algebra units published by OAT Maths: The Cartesian Grid, Introduction to Sequences and Linear Inequalities. Check out the carefully sequenced slides and booklets.

4. Etymology Update

One of my favourite resources of all time is @boss_maths' amazing vocabulary resource. It aims to relate mathematical terms to key words from other subjects that share the same etymology. It has recently had an update.

5. Tasks

Here are a few nice resources I've spotted on Twitter recently.

A prime puzzle from Sarah Farrell, suitable for Key Stage 2 or 3:

A task on solving quadratics by factorisation from @DrStoneMaths:

An area task from @brynspiration in which students have to find the area of the polygons, where no perpendicular lengths have been given:

@ChrisMcGrane84 shared a really nice logs task:

Update

I've not posted much on my blog recently but I've very been busy in the background. Thanks to maths teacher Alastair Mundy, who kindly offered to help out and has been an absolute legend, I've finally got my Key Stage 3/4 resource libraries in order. I've fixed broken links and added some new resources - everything is now in much better shape. I still have work to do: my next step is to fix my A level pages.

I also published a post on GCSE revision resources and one on A level resources. 

The start of 2024 saw a very well-deserved MBE for my brilliant friend Chris Smith (congratulations Chris!).

I'm looking forward to conference season. I will be at #mathsconf34 in Yate (near Bristol) on 16th March presenting on 'Ten Strategies for Good GCSE Results'.

Over the Easter holidays I'll be at the Joint Conference of the Mathematics Subject Associations in Stratford-Upon-Avon. I'm running a nice long session in Pythagoras so we'll have time to get stuck into some fun maths.

I have a couple of vacancies on my team, so if you're looking for a change of school in September then do come and join us. We're based in South London. Here's my fabulous team at the Christmas party:

One of our two vacancies is for a mechanics teacher. We currently have a thriving Year 12 cohort (we are by far the most popular subject in the school, with three A Level Maths classes and one A Level Further Maths class). Most of the A level teaching is done by me (statistics specialist) and my colleague (mechanics specialist). Sadly my colleague is relocating in September so I need to replace her, preferably with an experienced A level teacher. For the right candidate we'll be able offer a timetable where the vast majority of classes are A level (Year 12 and 13 Maths and Further Maths). The Year 13 Further Maths module they'll be teaching is Further Pure 1. I think this is a really appealing job - my school is lovely, and teaching A level is a delight. If you have any questions about the role, or you want to visit prior to interview, feel free to contact me (resourceaholic@gmail.com). The closing date for applications is 26th February 2024.

I'll leave you with these lovely magic squares from Chris Smith. Did you know that Don Steward had an entire blog of magic square activities? Check it out at medianmagicsquares.blogspot.com.

5 Maths Gems #176

Welcome to my 176^th gems post. This is where I share some of the latest news, ideas and resources for maths teachers.

1. 1st Class Maths

1stclassmaths.com has always been full of incredibly high quality resources, and the recent additions are no exception. The GCSE revision resources (designed for both Edexcel and AQA) contain original GCSE-style questions which are very well written.

I also love the question frequency data on the Topic Appearance page. There's so much interesting analysis here!

2. MathsBot Games

I'm enjoying @StudyMaths' revival of old Flash Maths games. For example Find the Primes is really fun and easy to use. I enjoy playing this with my Year 7 daughter! It's a bit more accessible for her age than IsThisPrime? which is also awesome. 

Also check out Beat the Clock for times tables fun.

I was always a big fan of Flash Maths back in the day. My favourites were Shape Shoot and Memory Maths, which visitors used to play on Open Evenings at my last school. 

3. Tasks

Here are some great tasks I've seen on Twitter over the last few weeks:

An angle chase with bearings from @mrwatkinsmaths:

Scaffolded resources on loci and constructions from @draustinmaths:

A Venn Diagram task from @MrSMaths11:

Ratio questions from @MrDraperMaths:

I really recommend this excellent blog post about task design: 'Task Writing – Unintended Consequences' from Dan Draper.

4. Dr Frost

It's great to see lots of newly improved resources being published by Dr Frost's team. For example @nathanday314 has created excellent slides and exercises for angles in parallel lines. 

Follow @DrFrostResource for updates on all the new resources being released. 

5. Function Machines

PolyPad from @mathigon has a brilliant new function machine tool. It's very easy to use and a fantastic way to illustrate composite and inverse functions. Have a play with it. For me it's perfectly timed as I'll be teaching this topic to Year 11 next week.

Maths Week

We ran a Maths Week at my school last week (not in the same week as Maths Week England, because that clashes with Anti-Bullying Week). It was a very successful event with loads of engagement from students across all year groups. We designed it to be high impact without an excessive workload, with lots of opportunities for all students to earn House Points (not just the best mathematicians).

• We ran a Teacher Treasure Hunt using the fantastic resources created by @missradders. We had over 170 entries and it was wonderful to see the level of enthusiasm amongst students. They loved it! We will definitely make this an annual event.
• We ran a daily puzzle, which we displayed around school and in tutor time notices. We were delighted by the level of engagement. It was such a joy to see students crowded around puzzles in corridors discussing their ideas and solutions. There's an example below (many students and teachers struggled with the third sequence, though it's wonderfully simple when you spot it - I got it from a Complete Maths conference!).
• We had a Sparx XP competition and we were shocked by how much Sparx usage increased as a result!
• Our wonderful librarian set up a special display of maths books in the library and promoted them throughout the week.
• I delivered an assembly to each year group on 'How I Fell in Love With Maths', the idea being that one day they'll find something that they are so passionate about that they want to talk about it all the time. My assembly centred around Fermat's Last Theorem, which I think is a story everyone should be told. I also wore a different maths dress for each assembly!

Update

• If you didn't see the news about this - GCSE teachers should be aware that Year 11 might get the formula sheet in their exams this summer. This comes as a surprise, but a good one - even though I think the design of the formula sheet is poor, I'm in favour of formulae being provided with exams (every year, not just in 'covid years'). The consultation closes on 30th November.
• Sunday 26th November is your last chance to submit a proposal to speak at the Joint Conference of Mathematical Subject Associations 2024 which takes place in the Easter holidays. 

Finally, as Christmas is coming I thought it might be a good time to mention that my book A Compendium of Mathematical Methods makes an excellent present for a maths teacher. 

Have a great week everyone!

5 Maths Gems #164

Welcome to my 164^th gems post. This is where I share some of the latest news, ideas and resources for maths teachers.

1. Worked Examples
@JakeGMaths shared a large bank of worked examples. It's free to use and contains over 400 examples. Each one is several slides long, guiding students through a method in a series of steps. Then there's a printable part for the students to complete, then the solutions. The PowerPoint has clear instructions on how to use these resources in lessons. Here are a couple of examples of the student tasks:

If you haven't yet read it, I recommend Michael Perhan's excellent book Teaching Math with Examples which inspired this work.

Also check out Jake's other projects which I blogged about in Gems 158.

2. Operations with Negative Indices

I really like this set of questions from @karenshancock. It's a good idea to do something a bit different with negative indices, to help develop fluency whilst interleaving other skills like fraction arithmetic.

Karen kindly typed this up and shared an editable version here. I've added this to my resource library under indices. 

3. Gif Generator

@PiXLMattTheApp continues to develop his website with an incredible range of features. His latest addition is a gif creator which allows teachers to very easily create a recording of a modelled example.

I wrote about opportunities to use animated modelling in my post The Power of Modelling and Exemplars.

4. Bearings

Thanks to @DrPMaths for sharing a task linking angles in triangles with bearings. This is a building block which prepares students to be able to answer trigonometry problems with bearings - something that students often struggle with. His resource includes a few example-problem pairs and a set of practice questions with solutions.

5. Starting Point Maths

@ChrisMcGrane84 has published loads of excellent new resources on startingpointsmaths.com recently. I featured some in my last gems post, and here are a few more. 

First, a task to try before learning how to differentiate: Developing Indices Skills for Calculus.

Second, a task which has a mix of linear equations, quadratic equations, equations which look quadratic but are linear, and a sneaky cubic. Mixed Linear and Quadratic Equations is all about strategy selection, so students become better at spotting quadratics.

And finally, Odd & Even Numbers – Additive Structure - a lovely task which might be useful in primary or secondary. Read Chris's description of the task to see how he used it.

Update

At school we've all been unwell lately - it's that time of year - and our Year 11s have been in mocks so we've been doing lots of invigilation, which is pretty dull. On a more positive note, I've been teaching some of my favourite topics: Year 7 have been learning about prime numbers which is always a joy, Year 8 have been solving equations, and Year 10 have been doing quadratics.   

I'm delighted that #mathsTLP made a return last Sunday. It was an absolute pleasure to behold an hour of teachers enthusiastically sharing resources and teaching ideas. Don't forget that this now runs every Sunday at 7pm, hosted by @MissNorledge and @BrookeEHunter. You're very welcome to join in: see my blog post about how to get involved.

Here are some things you might have missed:

• The MA is calling for submissions to lead a session at the joint subject associations conference next Easter. This two day conference at Warwick University will be the highlight of the year for maths teachers. If you're an experienced teacher with something to share, please do consider speaking. I particularly encourage female speakers, who are always underrepresented at maths education conferences. Complete this form by the end of November to offer a session.
• Realising my Equating Coefficients in Identities task ramped up in difficulty too quickly, I made a revised version of this resource which is shared on TES. 
• @MrDraperMaths wrote an excellent post about transformations of functions which featured a really interesting approach that had never occurred to me before.
• @sxpmaths shared an excellent summary of the different sampling techniques covered in A level maths.
• @missradders shared a lovely Teacher Treasure Hunt that could be used during Maths Week.
• Everyone loves the classic Standards Unit resources from the legend Malcom Swan. The 'Traffic' program was originally written in Java as part of the Standards Unit but @MathsTechnology has recreated it in GeoGebra.
• @nathanday314 shared some of his excellent starter activities plus a thread that explains how he uses them. The thread is well worth a read. 
• @draustinmaths continued to add new resources to draustinmaths.com, including this new task on forming quadratics which I've added to my resource library.
• The wonderful mathematical magazine Chalkdust published Issue 16 - you can read it online or order a paper copy.
• Did you catch my recent blog posts? I wrote a methods post called 'Easy Multiples' and I wrote 'Some Things We've Tried' where I described some of the things I've been up to at school since I became Head of Maths. 
• La Salle shared the dates and locations of its next three in-person conferences:

I'll leave you with this tweet from @dodecahedra about different ways to prove the sum of a geometric series. I'd only ever thought about one way of doing this before, so I enjoyed seeing the alternatives.

Four takes on how to teach/discover/prove/understand summing the terms of a geometric sequence. pic.twitter.com/TaYTITpaWF

— William Rose (@dodecahedra) November 11, 2022