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.

Plausible Estimation Quiz

One of my favourite end of term lessons is a Plausible Estimation Quiz. I've written about it on the NCETM website, and there is a spreadsheet there to download for scoring too.

In principle it is a quiz, where every answer is a number. Each round is 5 questions, with (ideally) all the answers in that round being the same order of magnitude. At the end of the round all 5 answers are added, and that number is the teams submitted score. The difference between the real answer, and the submitted answer is worked out, and then points awarded according to who is closest.

Usually I use Wolfram|Alpha to find answers, for random questions that pop into my head, either as I'm planning, or as I'm actually doing the quiz. Frustratingly I don't have a record of questions I've asked! I'd like to harness the power of twitter to get more questions.

1. Please suggest some questions! If you have the answers too, so much the better.
Click here to Launch the Form

2. Feel free to use it yourself. Click here to access the questions.

QR Codes. Phase 2

I've started phase two of my attempt to get more teachers to know what QR codes are, and how they may be useful.

We have ID badges that we have to wear. Most schools do. All I've done is create a QR vCard, made it small, and stuck it to my badge. I've spoken to a few people about it (including around eSafety), and they like the idea. If parents ask for my contact details (at subject evening etc.), they can access them from the code.

If anyone would like to check that it works and email me!


Phase three also in the pipeline; using them in the community.

QR codes Phase 1

I was a little slow on the uptake with QR codes. I don't have a smart phone (yet), so was not at the cutting edge of having a clue what this was all about. Once I realised, I decided "that sounds fun, and useful, lets have a play".

I needed to be wary. Mobile devices are not banned in school, as such, but they are not allowed to be out at any stage, and certainly not in lessons. I agree completely with this policy; at the moment and on the whole the disruption they cause when visible outweighs the benefits. As and when we change the rules, I'll make sure I'm very involved in the details. That however is another issue.

I put together this poster.
For those of you without QR readers, I downloaded (for free) Quickmark, which seems to work well with my webcam. I put the posters in Y10 tutor rooms, in which students are unsupervised at lunchtime. I hoped they may read them during these times they were less likely to have their phones confiscated.

Apparently not. According to my bit.ly tracking there were not dozens of hits, unless the tracking doesn't fully work.

Phase two is to more legitimately engage parents throug the newsletter. Details to follow...

Helping students less.

I don't like helping students with their maths.

That's probably controversial (and probably not true either), so I'd better qualify it.

I don't like helping student's with their maths, until they have made an effort to help themselves.

That's better. The question is how to best help them do that! It's all about independent learning and learning to learn. Here is one way I've developed in my classroom, that is now all around my department, and starting to spread, as I've spoken with at least one other Maths Subject leader about it...

Maths Posters. Seems simple enough. I've downloaded and printed the "Maths Facts" posters from here. I printed them onto different colour card - green for shape, yellow for data, blue for algebra and pink for number, and had them laminated.

I did have them around the back of my room, but my LA advisor suggested moving them to the front.

Now, whenever a student first asks for help, all I need to say (much of the time) is "there's a poster about that", and they go to find it. If they're still stuck then of course I'll help.

It's getting to the stage where the question is not "Which one is the mean again?" but becoming "Where is the poster about the mean again?"

Yes, I let them get up during a test to look - after all tests are formative as well as summative. I also get them to write down on their test paper which posters they needed to look at. This gives them a starting point for their revision for their exams.

Rocket Science - no.
Simple and effective - yes.BTW -apologies for the fuzzy photo; I want a better phone...

Mathemagic

My favorite card trick! I posted it on youtube a while back, for an ncetm thread, and sudddenly thought I could post it here.

Enjoy.

Newpage - how to set up a PLN

I've set up a new standalone "How to set up your PLN page". Please tell me what you think and what I've missed...
The link is on the right. I'd welcome comments here...