5 Maths Gems #191

Welcome to my 191^st gems post. This is where I share some of the latest news, ideas and resources for maths teachers.

1. Building Blocks
There are loads of resources available for teaching high attainers but relatively few resources that are specifically designed for teaching secondary school students who find maths very difficult. 

MathsPad is already one of the best sources of tasks for students who need extra scaffolding - their curriculum booklets come in two levels: core and support. But for those students who find the support resources too challenging, I'm delighted to see that MathsPad have started a new series of booklets called Building Blocks. These are designed for secondary teachers to use with students who need additional support to address key gaps in foundational knowledge. The first Building Blocks booklet is now available to MathsPad subscribers and includes topics such as 2D shapes, place value, number bonds and even numbers. Here are a couple of extracts:

2. Dr Austin

Lots of new resources have been published on draustinmaths.com since my last Gems post in May. Examples include a Reading bar charts match-up and Frequency tables and bar charts fill in the blanks.

There are also some Further Maths A Level resources covering Sums of Series and Roots of Polynomials

Thank you Amanda!

3. Recurring Decimals

Catriona Agg posted about a lovely Don Steward task on recurring decimals. I've never used this task before because it contains fractional indices which I don't teach until Year 10 (I teach recurring decimals in Year 9) but she reformatted the task to remove the fractional indices. As is often the case with Don's tasks, there's a lovely pattern in the answers.

4. AS Level Statistics

Last term I used some of the excellent resources from the 1st Class Maths A Level Page. These are really high quality and incredibly useful. 

I've added all of these to my A level resource library. 

5. Reasoning with Quadratics

I like this Quadratics Always Sometimes Never task from Nathan Day. Thanks for sharing Nathan! 

Update

As it's the summer holidays and I've had (slightly) less school work to do, I finally got round to making a GCSE Statistics Resource Library - read more about this in my previous blog post. 

In July I had a wonderful day celebrating the end of term with my lovely team. We said goodbye to Hang - he's been at my school for five years and is now off to teach in Malaysia. We will really miss him - he's a legend! I'm excited to welcome three new maths teachers to my team in September.

Next week I have my school's first A level results day (we opened seven years ago so this is our first Year 13 cohort). I'm rather nervous about this! I feel particularly uneasy because unfortunately we use Edexcel at A level which means we've been affected by the issues with their papers - read more here in this very detailed and helpful account of what has happened. 

I'm looking forward to #mathsconf39 which is taking place in St John's Wood in London on 11th October. I have a policy of never repeating the same mathsconf workshop twice so I need to write a new presentation for this one but don't have any big ideas - get in touch if there's something specific you'd like me to present about. Unusually, I won't be staying in a hotel on the Friday night for this conference so won't be at pre-conference drinks, but I will be around for post-conference drinks on the Saturday night if anyone is up for it - all welcome! 

If you enjoyed this Gems post and you have some spare time over the summer holidays to look for maths teaching inspiration, you can find another 190 Gems posts here! 

Thanks for reading - enjoy the rest of your summer break.

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 #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.

5 Maths Gems #150

Welcome to my 150^th gems post. This is where I share some of the latest news, ideas and resources for maths teachers. 

1. Tasks

I've spotted several great tasks on Twitter recently. Here are three of them:

@TickTockMaths shared an introduction to bounds calculations.

@canning_mrmaths shared a trigonometry task, based on an idea by @DanielPearcy.

 

@jontheteacher shared some tasks designed to introduce the concept of 'like' terms. 

2. Mrdaymaths.com

@nathanday314 shares fantastic resources on Twitter so it's great to see that he's launched a website where we can find them all in one place. Check out mrdaymaths.com to download his displays, tasks, resources and presentations. 

Nathan always has great ideas and presents them beautifully. For example, in this thread he explains how he designed a sequence of lessons that took Year 7 from substitution through to solving equations. The resources featured in this thread are available to download from his website.

I also love Nathan's 'No More Primes' game. Read his post to see how it works.

3. Angles and Ratios Interweaved

Thanks to @blatherwick_sam for sharing a lovely couple of tasks interweaving ratios and angles.

4. Quadratics Questions
I love these clever quadratics questions from @boss_maths. 

5. QLA Workbook Generator
@PiXLMattTheApp is always sharing free tools and resources for maths teachers. His latest is an online tool which allows you to create a student workbook from a QLA. 

I recommend that you watch Matt's video if you want to find out more about how this works.

 
Update
Over half-term (which feels like months ago!) I wrote three blog posts:

• Thinking about Misconceptions
• 5 Maths Gems #149
• Curriculum Sequencing

I also updated my conferences page which lists national maths education conferences. Please let me know of any additional events that I should add to this page.

Note that the MA Annual Conference is now open for booking. I'm one of the keynote speakers at this conference and am really looking forward to it.

Speaking of the MA, did you see that they have made the latest issue of their journal Mathematics in School freely available to read online? I'm a big fan of this journal and always look forward to receiving my copy in the post.

It was a busy week for me at work last week. One of my big responsibilities is to run the Key Stage 4 Options process. I launched it last week, running events for both parents and students. At the same time, my school was treated to a MAT review (basically a Mocksted, though we're not meant to call it that...). This was stressful, mainly because we're all 100% sure that our school is outstanding - in every sense of the word - and we really wanted to make sure that the inspectors saw that. The entire maths department made me immensely proud, as did my Year 9 class (I was observed teaching them some experimental ideas that I picked up at the last mathsconf... It was a bit risky for me to go ahead with that lesson but thankfully it went well! Phew).

Milestones
This is a milestone blog post for me. When I wrote my 50th gems post I was presented with a special cake at a conference (thanks Julia et al!). When I wrote my 100th gems post I recorded a special podcast with Craig Barton, and Chris Smith sent me a trophy which I still proudly display on my bookcase. Today I've reached 150 gems posts. Have you read them all?! You should! There's a gems index here. 

By the way, I know people love the gems posts, which are packed full of other people's great ideas, but I do also blog about my own ideas too! In fact I've written 274 posts which aren't gems posts, and the full archive is here.

Another milestone I recently passed (but failed to notice at the time!) was my ten millionth website visit. Thank you to all my readers for their support. I am immensely happy that my resource libraries save people time, and that my blog posts provide teachers with inspiration and ideas. Teachers who visit resourceaholic.com tend to do so on a regular basis, so I must be doing something right.

Finally, a personal milestone for me - my eldest daughter turned ten. A decade of parenting. 💖

I'll leave you with this tweet which made me laugh. I wonder what my students would write down if I asked them the same question.

On yesterday's quiz, just for fun, I ended with the request "in the spirit of Halloween, show the scariest math mistake you can." I wasn't disappointed by some of the student responses! pic.twitter.com/LV50BpE1us

— Chris Luzniak (@cluzniak) October 27, 2021