5 Maths Gems #152

Welcome to my 152^nd gems post. This is where I share some of the latest news, ideas and resources for maths teachers.

1. Equivalent to One

Thanks to Amie (@alcmaths) for sharing two activities to expose students to how different one can appear on the surface. Great stuff.

Amie also shared a surds version of this activity. I love this!

2. MEI's Deeper Maths
MEI has launched a range of free Deeper Maths resources. This suite of resources is designed to support excellent practice in the teaching of secondary maths. Their carefully crafted materials focus on deep and sustained learning. So far there are packs available for angles and trigonometry, with algebra on the way too. Each topic pack includes an overarching commentary, units of work that map sequences of lessons, lesson plans, physical manipulatives, dynamic images and printable study packs.

These packs are similar to what I've tried to do with my Topics in Depth project, but way better! If I had time (if I wasn't a full-time teacher!), I'd have tried to produce something like this. It's great to see this high-quality project coming from MEI to support teachers at Key Stage 3 and 4.

3. Maths Challenge Preparation Courses
Thanks to Kevin Olding (@mathsaurus) for sharing a set of free preparation courses for the MA and UKMT maths competitions: 

• Primary (9 - 11)
• Junior (11 - 13)
• Junior Olympiad (11 - 13)
• Intermediate (13 - 16)
• Senior (16 - 18)

Although registration is needed, the courses are totally free to access and there are no adverts. Each course consists of a challenge paper walk-through, with video hints and solutions. 

At my school we invite all students to try the UKMT challenges if they wish to, and we don't make the entire top set do it - it's totally voluntary. For the upcoming Intermediate Maths Challenge we have had fifty students sign up from Year 9 and 10. I've recommended that these students practise over the holidays using Kevin's course. We'll also run a couple of drop-in practice sessions at school in January.

4. Maths Video of the Week
Thanks to Emily Rae (@ECR_Maths) for sharing her "Maths Video of the Week" idea. She sends a weekly email to her A Level students to expose them to fun and interesting ideas in maths. She has two years' worth of videos ready to go - the list is here.

5. Order of Operations
It's worth checking out this thread from Jemma Sherwood (@jemmaths) on the order of operations. She's shared a number of great resources and ideas that provide food for thought on how to approach the teaching of this topic.

I particularly like her explanation of how brackets 'break' the order of operations:

Jemma's thread includes loads of great exercises, including this task which is from Dan Draper's blog post on the order of operations:

Events in 2022

There are a few maths events coming up in the first half 2022 that I'm involved in. 

First up, there's a #MathsConfOnline on 21st January. I've submitted a workshop proposal for this, so hopefully I'll get the chance to speak about the little bit of research I've been doing on 'deep dive' feedback. If you've recently been involved in a maths deep dive, please complete my survey to help out with this. I'm interesting in identifying any trends in what maths departments are being told to improve. I think there may even be a few myths that need addressing!

I'm doing a talk on 29th January for the London Branch of the MA and ATM. This 2.5 hour workshop is from the series of talks I've been doing over the last year looking at curriculum and pedagogy. The focus will be on providing challenge without acceleration, and we'll discuss how to teach maths in depth without rushing from topic to topic. You can register here.

On 3rd March I plan to hold an event at my school... information will be released in January - watch this space!

Shockingly for me, I can't attend #mathsconf28 as the date has changed to 12th March (I have tickets for a postponed Bridgerton Secret Cinema on this date and have already bought my regency fancy dress!). It's going to be weird for me to miss a mathsconf because I think I've attended more mathsconfs than any other delegate. And I've spoken at nearly all of them, because I think it's hugely important for females to speak at maths events. I'm gutted I'll have to miss one. Hopefully I can make the summer term mathsconf.

Over Easter, the MA Conference will be online for two days, followed by one day in-person. The programme has now been released and tickets are available to book. I'm doing a keynote on the second day - I hope you can join me.

Update

What a relief that the Christmas holidays are here! The end of term was insanely busy at work as always, but I had the joy of teaching quadratic simultaneous equations to my Year 10 class. This made me really happy. There's nothing quite so wonderful as teaching maths that you love to a class that you love.

My heart goes out to all of you who are unwell with Covid over Christmas. I went through that last year and it was so horrible. I hope you recover quickly and manage to get some rest and recuperation during the break from school.

Speaking of Christmas, it occurred to me yesterday that I should have promoted my book as a good Christmas present for maths teachers! Oops, too late now. But if you get any book vouchers for Christmas, then do consider buying a copy of A Compendium of Mathematical Methods. I think it would make a nice gift.

There are currently a number of job opportunities at my school with start dates of September 2022, so if you're based in South London or Surrey (or looking to move!) then do check them out. We're a growing school (we'll have Year 11 for the first time next year) and a fantastic place to work. Behaviour and attitudes are excellent - it's a pleasure to teach maths to such wonderful students. Positions include Head of Year, Assistant Principal and Maths Teacher. Do email me (resourceaholic@gmail.com) if you want to chat about the school or the roles.

It's too late for me to share Christmas resources as we've all broken up from school now, but thanks to Tom Bennison (@DrBennison) for making his annual Christmas Calculated Colouring resource for A level mathematicians.

Finally, I'd like to wish Rob and Leonie a wonderful wedding day today. Many of my readers will know Rob from mathsconf. I'm so happy for Rob and Leonie and wish them a lifetime of happiness.

I'll leave you with this gorgeous colour-coded trig function table, which is from this tumblr and was tweeted by @mathladyhazel. It might make a good activity for Year 13 - perhaps give them a blank version to complete.

Merry Christmas to all my readers. 

5 Maths Gems #126

Welcome to my 126^th 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

5 Maths Gems #121

Welcome to my 121^st gems post. This is where I share some of the latest news, ideas and resources for maths teachers.

1. Linear Graphs

It's always good news when Paul Rowlandson publishes a new blog post. His latest post looks at various ways of presenting information that leads to the equation of a straight line. If you're teaching this topic I really recommend reading this and making use of the tasks and ideas featured.

Related to this, check out this awesome task shared by Tim Honeywill (@HoneywillTim).

2. Knowledge Organisers

It looks like some maths departments are being asked to produce knowledge organisers as part of a whole school policy. It's not clear whether they are as useful in maths as they are in other subjects, but if you're in a school where you've been asked to produce them for every maths topic then you're faced with a mammoth task. To avoid duplication of effort across schools, you might find this set of knowledge organisers a useful starting point. Also, check out the set of  Year 7 and Year 8 knowledge organisers shared by Delta Trust, and these lovely knowledge organisers shared by Nicola Whiston (@whisto_maths). Nicola will continue to add her knowledge organisers to this folder as she makes them. They are designed around the White Rose scheme of work.

These resources can be used in numerous ways - even if your school doesn't have a policy of self-testing using knowledge organisers then you still might find this resource helpful for revision.

Nicola Whiston (@whisto_maths) has also made a learning journey for the White Rose Scheme of Work - schools following this scheme of work will find this helpful, and even if you're not following this scheme of work then it is interesting to see the way the maths curriculum has been mapped out.

3. A Level Maths Activities 
The Mathematical Association has just published a book, written by David Miles, which contains photocopiable activities for A level lessons. It's selling very well - you can order now from the MA shop for £6.30 (members) or £9.00 (non-members). I will also be selling these books from the MA stand at #mathsconf22 in Manchester.

Although it's already available to buy, this book will be officially launched at the MA Conference in April, along with a couple more exciting new publications - Geometry Juniors by Ed Southall and Hooked on Mathematics by Jenni Black. Do come along to the book launch if you're at the conference.

4. Etymology
Caroline Spalding (@MrsSpalding) shared a picture of a poster she saw in a science lab at her school. It shows etymological roots of science vocabulary.

This prompted Ben Gordon (@mathsmrgordon) to make a maths version of this which he has shared here. Thank you Ben!

Following this, Sudeep (@boss_maths) shared an amazing resource to help relate maths terms with key words from other subjects or words in everyday use.

This large (and growing) collection is outstanding. I love Boss Maths resources - they are always high quality.

I love featuring etymology in my lessons. It's great to see resources like this to help teachers develop their subject knowledge.

5. New Resources
There have been lots of new resources shared on Twitter recently. Here are some examples.

Don Steward has published lots of new tasks, including fraction shading and order of operations with expressions.

Do scroll through his blog to see his new resources - there are many!

Andy Lutwyche (@andylutwyche) regularly shares new resources. Check out his newest Transforming Shapes Codebreaker which is bound to be popular with students (and not just because of the terrible joke!).

As always, all of these resources will be listed in my resource libraries for easy access.

Chris McGrane (@ChrisMcGrane84) shared an interesting task on negatives numbers that really got me thinking.

Emma McCrea (@MccreaEmma) tweeted about a couple of openmiddle.com tasks. I have blogged about this website before but haven't had time to explore all the tasks. I particularly like this one on index laws.

Mr Russell (@mathsDRL) reminded me about Jon Orr's (@MrOrr_geek) Polygon Pile Up activity. I know I saw it a couple of years ago and I was sure that I'd featured it in a Gems post, but I can't find it so maybe I didn't. Here it is - read the accompanying blog post for the resource, discussion, and a more difficult version.

Update
Here are my recent blog posts in case you missed them:

• Rule of Three
• Know Your Workings

On Monday I visited Sheffield to record another two Topics in Depth video CPD podcasts with Craig Barton. You can check out our indices and angles in parallel lines videos if you missed them. Hopefully the next two will be published by TES soon.

My book is still getting good feedback - I am always delighted to receive tweets from teachers who have learnt something new from it.

I was also chuffed to see my book shortlisted for the Chalkdust Book of the Year 2019. You can read the Chalkdust review of my book here and vote for it here (though to be fair, all these books are awesome and deserve more votes than mine!).

I'm looking forward to two big events that are coming up soon. On Pi Day I will be in Manchester for #mathsconf22, presenting a new talk from my Topics in Depth project: Surds in Depth.

In the Easter holidays I will be presenting at the MA Conference. I can't wait for this: two nights in a spa hotel with loads of amazing workshops and plenty of entertainment.

At the MA we're really pleased that our new conference format has been so well received. Over one hundred delegates have already booked their place. There aren't many full residential places left so book now!

I recently passed a milestone of 30,000 followers on Twitter. I'm not sure there are many other females on EduTwitter who have done this and are still teaching. I'm pleased people find my account useful, and I really appreciate the support.

Finally, did you see the Joanne dress from Popsy? If, like me, you enjoy going to work (and maths conferences) in mathematical attire, then you'll like this one...

5 Maths Gems #99

Welcome to my 99^th gems post. This is where I share some of the latest news, ideas and resources for maths teachers.

1. Non-Examples Quizzes
I blogged about the new website nonexamples.com from Jonathan Hall (@StudyMaths) back in Gems 95. There are now some great new features on the website including Frayer Model templates and Multiple Choice Quizzes.

The multiple choice quizzes come with a QLA allowing instant identification of misconceptions.

On Twitter Bernie Westacott (@berniewestacott) described how he used the multiple choice quizzes with an intervention group:

enabled ps to reflect on their errors, ask me anything and then requiz themselves. Scores typically went from 5 or 7 to 10/10 with much whooping and high fiving. We were able to cover about 8 topics in a short space of time, Requiz next week to look for retention then go deeper.

— bernie westacott (@berniewestacott) 23 November 2018

2. Sum Fun
I had an email from a maths teacher looking for books by the author of this A level resource:

It turned out the original books are out of print but Twitter came to the rescue and thanks to Hans Stroeve (@stroevey) we now have the full collection of books scanned in and available to download here. They remind me of Maths with Pizzazz resources and I know they won't appeal to everyone! They include resources for topics from Key Stage 3 right up to matrices and polar coordinates! Warning: always check that the joke is appropriate before using these resources with students.

3. A Level Questions by Topic
Thank you to Chris Ansette (@mransette) who has collated old Exexcel exam questions for Pure and Mechanics and organised them for the new A level. You can download them here. These well formatted collections of exam questions with answers are really helpful for A level maths teachers.

4. Calculator Poster
In Gems 97 I featured a link to a poster of an A level calculator. Casio Maths (@CasioMaths) have also shared a set of high resolution posters of the fx-83GT Plus, which is commonly used at GCSE. You can download the posters from the Casio website.

On the subject of calculators, read this thread from @literallyjustq for some calculator tips.

5. Times Table of the Week
I see a lot of Year 7s really struggling in lessons (on topics like multiplication, division and fractions) because they don't know their times tables. I have long been a big fan of Times Tables Rock Stars to help fix this. I like @DynamicDeps's idea for a times table fact of the week. The suggestion is to use the Times Table Rock Stars heat maps to identify a multiplication fact that students struggle with, and to put up a poster of that fact everywhere in the maths department, and in fact all over the school.

Bruno Reddy has now made a set of 'Times Tables of the Week' posters for all multiplication facts which you can download here.

Perhaps maths teachers and form tutors could regularly quiz individual students on the weekly multiplication fact. Given that there are only 21 facts to memorise (assuming students already know their 1, 2 and 5 times tables), you can easily get through the whole lot in a school year if you do one a week.

The 21 Facts from Kangaroo Maths

Update
I had an absolutely wonderful time at the MathsJam Annual Gathering last weekend. Thank you to the organiser Colin Wright and to everyone else involved. I absolutely love everything about the weekend and would really like to run a maths education event with the exact same format. Maybe next year!

Me, Mariana, Ed, Tim and Joe at the MathsJam Annual Gathering 2018

If you like the idea of social puzzling, do check out the monthly MathsJam events, and also Puzzled Pint's monthly social puzzle event in pubs all over the world. You can download Puzzled Pint's awesome puzzles for school maths clubs too.

I had another article published in Teach Secondary this month. It's about order of operations, and opportunities to interleave this topic with fractions, decimals and algebra. It comes with a free algebraic order of operations resource!

I also presented on order of operations to Harris Heads of Maths this week. The idea was to show that 30 minute CPD sessions on specific topics that are coming up on the scheme of work are a good use of maths department meeting time.

Hannah Fry has agreed to become the 2020 President of The Mathematical Association, which is very exciting news for all MA members.

Next month I will publish my 100th gems post (I have some cracking gems lined up!) and will record a celebratory podcast with Craig Barton. Craig will be asking listeners to get in touch with him in advance to share their favourite gems from over the years. So if there's something you use in your teaching that you found out about through a gems post then do let Craig know! Check out my gems index to see the whole collection!

I'm not normally one for motivational posters, but here's a quote that I'd have up by my desk if I had a desk. Often attributed to CS Lewis, this is a great message for a Year 11 class getting mock papers back. Thanks to Jen McMillan at Harris Greenwich for this!