Made up Maths Words

I'm a big fan of creative literacy, generally with a maths focus.  What I'm worried about is whether it may do more harm than good.

Some examples; from recent lessons, to things from a while ago...

Shape names:  I asked a class if they knew the name of a 12 sided polygon. After a sea of blank faces presented itself, I prompted "it begins with D".  Dozenagon was the answer offered.  So, for the rest of the lesson we used Dozenagon alongside the proper name.


Same lesson, outterior angles.  Opposite of interior, in case you were wondering!

I've also used squillimeters and squentimetres for sq mm and sq cm.  This helps avoid the centimetres squared problem. Many students don't appreciate the difference until I tell the (both true) stories of the tech teacher who ordered 10 metres squared of turf for his 10 sq metre garden, and the one (from the telly I'm told) who ordered 5 metres cubed of concrete to be poured on to the floor that required 5 cubic metres.  They certainly know the difference.

I've also verbised words.  Y12/13 in particular use the verbs To Pythagorise and To Trigonometrise to describe what to do to a forces or vector triangle.  Bracketising is something I use as a synonym for factorising.

The question is does it matter?  I am always careful to use the real word too, but I feel it is part of building up a good relationship for learning with pupils, and a few years ago some of a class startd keeping a list of made up words in the back of their books. I tried to get them to create a wiki for it, but the VLE didn't make it easy enough, which is a shame as it would be great to have a full record of words over the year.

All thoughts always gratefully received!

Me and Google+

There has been quite a lot written about google+, and how it is the same / different to twitter / facebook / blogging / everything else.  This is just my attempt to clarify in my mind how I might be using it in the future, and how it fits for me with all of the above.

Let just start  by saying I don't facebook.  I've never felt the need to particularly.  On the whole I stay in touch with real friends by email phone and text, so have never really seen the point.

I could ramble on for ages, but this is how i see things panning out for me...

Twitter will continue to be the main form of sharing ideas and engaging in conversations. I like its openness, and that many people will see - you may get responses you don't expect and that challenge your thinking, and that is a good thing.

For me, circles are the usp for google+. I envisage using it as a collaborative tool at school, using circles as a way to direct and focus conversations.  Assuming I can persuade enough people to sign up (and I've already got our new eLearning coordinator on side, which is a good start) here is how I hope it might look soon.

A Maths circle, containing my team. We already use GDocs readily, but a forum we can discuss things could be really powerful

A Year team circle. If all Y11 tutors and our HoY belong to a circle then issues discussion points etc can be raised in between meetings.

A maths management circle of me with my TLC's.

An eLearning group circle.

Some might (will) say that this can all be done through forums on our VLE, but circles offers something different to this. If I am discussing Y11 exams with the maths circle I can post it to the Y11 team also.  The VLE doesn't support this (I don't think). 

To summarise...

Facebook isn't (currently) for me
Twitter is for open chat, albeit with a professioanl focus.
Blogging is for reflection, a place to publish thought out and slightly more polished thoughts.

Google+ is for collaboration, both in real time (with huddles, which i haven't played with yet) and as a forum that allows cross pollination between circles.

I would love to hear other peoples thoughts on all of the above.

Do what you like...

An extract from this weeks Monday Morning Maths Memo (shortened to Monday Notes, or M⁴)

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For the rest of this year, with year 9, our proposal is “Do what you like”.

Seriously.

No one is suggesting term 6 is filled with DVD lessons or colouring.

Obviously.

Lessons need to be Learning Goal led, and jam packed with good mathematical learning, but we would like to give you the freedom to teach everything and anything maths like. For me a useful catchphrase for this is “Excite, Engage, Enthuse”. In quick conversations, we’ve come up with the following ideas…

Lalage—Playing with numbers. For example learning cancelling shortcuts when multiplying fractions, but also interesting facts like 111111111²=12345678987654321

Steve—Functional Maths—Using the OCR and Edexcel functional papers as learning activities.

Chris—International lessons. I’ve still got diosplay on my boards from an old top set y9 from “The Swiss Challenge”, including critical path analysis, and complex numbers, doing work based on Euler. We have 18 of these lessons.

Monday’s entire meeting agenda is set over to discussions of all of the above, and every Tuesday briefing will be “what are you doing with Y9 this week” to encourage sharing ideas.

A Lesson on Voting reform

Some days the best lessons just happen unplanned, and the numbers drop out beautifully.

I was going through exam papers with my Y11 last week, and a number of the class weren't there, due to Dance, PE, and Art exams (its that time of year). Some of those left were asking about next week's referendum, and commented that AV wasn't fair and was too complicated.

So we did it.

We modelled the situation, running a vote for where they would like to go on their end of year trip. They suggested the following places...

• Alton Towers
• Bournemouth Beach
• Chessington
• Legoland
• Thorpe Park

I asked them to vote, and the votes came out at...

3 for Alton Towers, 11 for Bournemouth, 3 for Chessington, 1 for Legoland and 5 for Thorpe Park. The general consensus was that clearly a trip to Bournemouth was out and out the winner. Then I pointed out that while 11 had voted for a trip to the beach, 12 had voted for a theme park trip.

We then AV'ed the vote, by physically moving around the room to redistribute the votes. As it happens Bournemouth did win, as some people wanted as a first choice to go to a theme park, but couldn't face the long coach trip to Alton Towers.

They weren't all convinced by the argument that it was a better system, they did at least understand how it worked, and why some people see it as fairer.

Again, I was lucky - the fact that the numbers added up so well to 11/13 for the fptp system was something of a gift - something you just cannot plan for.

This is similar to the video on youtube by "Dan Snow", if you're interested, but I got lucky the numbers worked out the way I wanted!

Referendum on voting as a lesson

I'm planning to use the referendum on voting (FPTP vs AV) as a lesson on sampling etc.

I'd really appreciate it if people would fill in my survey, and then we can compare my sample with the final result. I realise that there is significant bias built in to my sample / sampling, but thats kind of the point!

My 1st Android App

I've written my first Android App. I'll be honest, I have cheated, but it's my app nonetheless.

I had been good, and downloaded the right software from google, but then I got lazy. I didn't want to work through a pile of tutorials that makes a picture of a cat miaow.

So I googled 'android app templates' in the hope I could find someone had some the techy bit for me. I ended up at www.appsgeyser.com; which almost does it.

It takes a url or bit of a site, and turns it into an app with a custom icon and everything.

Then, once you've downloaded it to your phone, the app shows a more mobile friendly view of the website.

It's not really what I want, but it was fun to set up, and run. It doesn't work offline at all. I'd like it to still run off line with the stored history, and update data when possible. I may have ot make the cat miaow after all!

If you have android then there are 2 qr code links below. 1 to my school blog, the other to the app for that blog. Compare & contrast, and then coment here please!

Web blog

App link

Portable Visualiser

Some of you will know I got all excited last night when I discovered a new trick with my phone.

I found an app in the Android Market place that lets me use my phone as a wireless webcam. Its called ipwebcam, and can be found on the right.

Its dead easy to set up. Install, choose image size, refresh rate etc, and click run. You need both your phone and PC connected to the same wireless network.

It really is that easy. You then point your browser to the address at the bottom of the screen, and choose how you want to view - I used the "browser built in viewer" with Firefox.

Here are the results...

As you can see, not bad results.

I had issues at school. It didn't work (I was gutted). Turns out the proxy servers can't cope. Fortunately a friendly ICT teacher found a solution. Turn off the proxy. Now (at school) I have Chrome for the internet (all proxied up), and Firefox with proxy turned off for the webcam.
Edit:  It seems to just work now, updated school network possibly. May 2013

My Dept eLearning rep is @Maridavies82, and while she is a brilliant teacher, she is team apple! There is an iPhone app that does much the same thing - called Mini Web Cam, I believe. All the setting up and proxy issues are the same.

Sadly as a portable visualiser it doesn't really work - the resolution on the camera, and the lighting is not really up to the job. That could be a function of my phone (ZTE Blade btw) as much as anything else.

I have however, enjoyed playing with the gadgetry, and reckon there is scope for using this in other ways. It'll support sound, and as it will work anywhere in the school's wireless bubble it could be a lot of fun...

I'd love to hear if anyone uses phones in this way.

Edit: May 2013:  I now have a better phone with a flash (Samsung Galaxy Ace 2), as well as a tablet (Asus 300) and a Samsung Galaxy camera.  This all works much better now thankyou!  

DreamTeachers, not a Dream School

Jamie Oliver's Dream School caused quite a stir last week. I didn't watch it, but I didn't feel the need to - there were enough tweets about it to get a general feel. Many comments were along the line of "Why don;t they get good teachers, not celebs".

Then I got this email...

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Hello Chris Smy,

Did you see Jamie's Dream School on Channel 4? Did it leave you seething or surprised by the celebrity experts’ approach to teaching? To allow teachers to have their say Jamie Oliver and You Tube have launched a parallel campaign, Britain’s Dream Teachers. Their aim is to promote real teachers who are doing it right in the classroom rather than celebrity experts doing it for the TV.

Britain's Dream Teachers is looking for teachers to video and upload their best approaches to teaching tough GCSE and Standard Grade topics. There will be seven 'Dream Teachers' judged by a panel of past National Teaching Awards winners and the seven teachers will win £3k for themselves and £7k for their school.

The Maths topics teachers are being asked to tackle are:

· How do I rearrange complex algebraic formulae?

· What is Pythagoras’ theorem and where does it apply?

· What are vectors and how do I work them out?

Have a look at http://www.youtube.com/dreamteachers and for tips on creating a short film and to upload your entry. Do also encourage your colleagues from other subjects to get involved, there are topics to be answered in Physics, Biology, Chemistry, Geography, History and English Lit.

The deadline for entries is 5 April.

Thanks

Nicola

Nicola Hern

Hern Communications

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My only worry is that it turns into #xteacher. Lets just say I won't be applying.

Square of Area 10

This is another one from my PGCE; all those years ago now, but continues to be a favourite little investigation. I take no originality credit! I'm posting in response to @mathsatschool comment on #mathchat that students don't accept that "diamond"s are squares.

I say little, it can be anything from 1 lesson to a week or fortnight's worth.

Resources: Square spotty paper and lots of it.

1. Draw a square of area 1. Easy enough to start. I get peculiar looks at this stage...
2. Draw a sqaure of area 4. Have a look around, you get some 16's at this stage.
3. Draw a square of area 9. They are starting to think either "This is going to be easy" or "He's up to something" depending on how well they know me.
4. Draw a sqaure of ares ... wait for it (they'll be storming ahead with 16 if they're anything like my usual lot).... draw a square of area 10.

At this point you tend to get the stunned silence, followed by some frantic scribbling. Some clever so and so will root 10, and try to do that. "Exactly 10" usually stops them.

It's worth a play, but here's my offering - and indeed I usually have to show them the answer...

I find I need to show them the 'proof' of its area. My usual method is the Big Square around the outside, take away the triangles....

A = 16 - 4 * (0.5 * 3 * 1) = 10.

I find having a notation for labeling squares handy. This one I'd call 3_1. (To move long an edge you go along 3, down 1, etc).

So - what squares can you draw? Area 20? Area 14? Are there any you cannot do?

Whats great is that you can check their answers really quickly. You'll either see the answer really instantly, or you'll do the algebra with square x_y, and go "Oh - yeah".

Enjoy. Good for Shape / Area work, and for Algebra.

Homework & blogging

As many of you know I set up a school departmental blog last week (thanks to everyone who helped give me dots all over my globe). Kids response has been broadly positive, but I still want them to write more and me to write less.

Ukedchat last week was about homework, and I also went on our County Maths Subject Leaders day. All of that conspired to set up the activity below...

I used the new Bowland PD module (The new resources look brilliant) about sharing, setting up the activity in a very similar way to the teacher on the video (but I had 30 children, not 14!).

Here's the activity...I then set the homework bearing in mind some of the comments from Thursday's UKEdchat.


(We use www.plannerlive.com for all our homeworks).

Here are the results...



I'm reasonably happy with the results. If you want to comment on my pedagogy, feel free to comment here.
If you want to comment on their results, Y9 would be so chuffed. That blog is at www.jbsmaths.blogspot.com

Teachmeet Bath Spa

My first teachmeet was such buzz.

There's too much going on in my head to properly blog it all, but what a lot of ideas!

It was great to meet so many people that I feel I know but had never met (Sally, Nicky, Emma, Donna, Clare, & bet I've missed someone here). It was great to see colleagues I had persuaded to come along to see ideas, and I'm looking forward to talking about how to use all these fab resources.

I also presented - twice. I think it went down reasonably well, I talked about how fab twitter is, and in a separate demo showed how to use a webcam as an effective visualiser.

Would I go again? Definitely. Would I present again? Absolutely.

I will struggle to get too far afield, with school and family commitments, but will keep my eyes open.

For a much better summary of the content, I'd suggest Emma Asprey's blog from the evening.
http://mustardlearning.com/2011/02/07/teachmeet-bath-spa-university/

For those interested, here is my prez...

Twitter @ School

I presented (albeit 5minutes) at our eLearning group tonight. My brief was to talk about how I use twitter. At the end of my bit (I had to shoot off - an 8 year old's birthday - more than my lifes worth to be late) I promised to send some links around about what I'd said.

I've now decided to send one link - this blog - with all my ideas in it. This is primarily for school people, but may be of interest to others.

My personal use of twitter.

1, Why I tweet. An early blog post of mine. It's at http://chrismaths.blogspot.com/2009/12/why-i-tweet.html

2, How to set up a PLN (Personal Learning Network). Also on this blog. http://chrismaths.blogspot.com/p/how-to-set-up-your-pln.html

3, #Ukedchat (see http://ianaddison.net/?p=288 or http://ukedchat.wikispaces.com/ for details

4, Networking. I'm the only timetabler in school, so where do i go to talk to other timetablers. It's also a place to talk to teachers from other phases - primary, tertiary, etc..

School Use.

1, I've got a school twitter account. It's at http://twitter.com/JBSMaths It's the one I share with students.

2, I have strict (but positive) guidelines on how it is used. All of this can be found by going to my new dept blog - http://jbsmaths.blogspot.com/p/twitter.htmltml

Hootsuite lets me see what students write, when and only when they @mention my acc. So far this has been a very successful technique. Below is an exmaple of what I see on hootsuite...

Whilst I could read all their tweets, i really have no desire to!

Anything I need to add?

My favourite Maths Android Apps.

I recently got an android smartphone - I didn't get what I really wanted - an HTC7, or Desire, but went for the cheaper San Francisco from Orange - apparently the same as the ZTE Blade (or so I'm told).

It's camera isn't stunning, and it has a slightly irritating tendency to drop its wireless at the drop of a hat, but it does the job. I can make and recieve calls, and texts, and it can run everything i've downloaded from the Android App market.

Once I got the games I wanted sorted (Angry Birds is maths / physics based - honest) I've started to think about how I can use it as a classroom tool - for me, and how students can use their phones (at home more than at school) to help check their work. As you can tell from the fact that I balked at paying for a better phone, I don't really want to shell out more than I need to, so most of these will be free apps.

Here are a few of my thoughts.

1. Quickmark. A nice straightforward QR reader. Will also create them (All the codes on this page were created with it) and store the history of searches. Nice simple interface, and easy to use. I do realise there is an irony in the adding of a QR code link to a QR reader... I'm still slightly unconvinced about QR Codes, above and beyond gimmick value. I'm going to continue to use them and develop their use in school. Our Head of Transition and I are working on a QR trail for open evening this year, to enrich the whole process. That'll be a seperate blog.
2. Algeo. I've only recently discovered this particular gem. I was trying to demonstrate non linear simultaneous equations, and why they have more than one pair of solutions. Usually I use Autograph or Omnigraph on my laptop and Smart board, but I was not near it. Algeo is a graph plotter - up to three graphs at once, with zoom. It's only y=f(x), so circles etc an issue, but trig graphs work (and it defaults to radians). You can zoom, pan, and even trace. It won't work out intersections, so you'll need to zoom close enough to have a look properly, but it illustrates things nicely, and will help students with double checking their curve sketching.
3. Integration and Differentiation. This really is a student app. It's a self assessment app that puts a few questions on the screen, and students differentiate or integrate them. Click on the question, and it gives the answer. From a quick play it seems to cover a fair bit of the A level maths specs as they currently are.
4. RealCalc. A scientific Calcultaor. Better than the built in calculator, but still not what I really want. It is oldfashioned in that you do "70 sin" instead of "sin 70", and there is no fraction button. I guess what I am after is something more like the casio that most students seem to have these days. If anyone finds one, drop me a line!
5. Solver. Solve's quadratics equations. Does what it says on the tin. Even copes admirably with complex solutions.
6.Triangle Solver. Solves traingles. Put in the three bits of info you know (combinations of sides and angles) and it tells you the other three (and even produces a nice little sketch). Only needs a combination of Sine and Cosine rule, but again, useful for checking answers (for me and them!)
No discussion of maths apps would be complete without a discussion of Wolfram|Alpha. When the iphone app was first produced at an astronomical price tag (£50 rings a bell, but I'm not 100% on that) I couldn't imagine needing it - the mobile web version is still free and simple (ish) to use. Then I bought it in a sale (79p) for my ipod touch. It is brilliant, as you get a much richer keyboard, for symbols integrals etc. The price is currently about £1.20 on android, and so far I've resisted. I suspect its only a matter of time though.

What Apps have I missed. What should I (or my students) not be without to make our mathematical lives simpler?

QR Codes - phase 4.

We had our Year 11 into Year 12 evening last night. An opportunity for year 11 to really find out about the choices they can make going into our sixth form.

It was an opportunity for me too. I've given up on pictures on display boards - I'll leave that to Art, and the other visual subjects. I've taken to using my big wide screen monitor on a shelf, and a flyer. We're always a popular subject - the maths sells itself.

Here's my slide show(I must get more into Prezi - this could look so good in there )...



The QR code just links to our VLE, where there is another copy of the presentation.
As you can see there is a little code in the corner of each page. We also produced a flyer with similar information on it for students to take away with them - this too had the same QR code, and (potentially controversially) the address of my school Twitter Account.


As you can see so far the QR code has had 7 hits - not a landslide response, but on the other hand, it may be 7 people accessing information that would not otherwise have done so.

Whole Staff Algebra

As you may be aware from my twitter feed last week, I rather foolishly vounteered to do some maths with the whole staff today. There was a reason for this. In the past we've done starters as part of sessions that involved cutting and sticking poetry, and dnigbats - more word games. As a department we felt that we should be able to come up with some maths that was accessible to the whole staff.

I got my plan as a result of the most recent subject leader day - a session on algebraic thinking. My cut down version of the NCETM slideshow is above.

What Went Well. Although I only had 5 minutes, the staff engaged quickly. I didn't do much different to I would with a class - just faster! There was some interesting debate, and I could see people asking questions of their neighbours. When I gave my answer (deliberately wrong) of 40, people were confident enough to call me wrong (although interestingly less confident than students are of calling me wrong!). My final challenge slide went down well, and I had an email within a few minutes of finishing speaking (from an AHT's iPhone!).

Even Better If. I'd have liked a little longer. Mainly I'd have liked longer to discuss wrong and right answers, and ways of counting. Obviously with a class I would have!

Outcomes. From discussions with other staff (not just maths) including SLT and other Middle Leaders I think more people may volunteer to run quick sessions on TD days. Our head of Languages has said she may do some Russian or Latin (Gove would be so proud).

Was it worth it. Yes - without a doubt. It raised the idea of Algebraic thinking (as opposed to simply doing algebra) with all staff - maths and all. It was also a different way to do a bit of learning on a TD day.