Resources!

Aine kindly wrote this list of where resources can be found - thanks!

This is a list of the various different websites that I have found that have a good collection of resources and ideas to use in the classroom. Hopefully you find them useful too :)

http://www.tes.co.uk/maths-secondary-teaching-resources/

http://www.mrbartonmaths.com/

http://www.suffolkmaths.co.uk/

more specifically in suffolk maths, click on teaching materials then KS3-4 resources.  Once in this part of the website you can link all the resources to your dropbox folder which is quite handy as once they are updated on website they update on your computer too!

http://www.greatmathsteachingideas.com/

This has lots of different ideas and links to great resources, videos etc. They also have this page which is a link to lots of other math teaching blogs

http://www.greatmathsteachingideas.com/2010/08/25/probably-the-best-blogs-by-maths-teachers-around-the-world/

in case you ever need all the edexcel past papers on your ipad!

http://www.greatmathsteachingideas.com/2012/11/17/all-edexcel-past-papers-in-one-free-app/

the standards box!

http://www.greatmathsteachingideas.com/2012/03/22/the-standards-unit/

This can be useful if you want a novel way of thinking how to describe things, it is really aimed at KS3 but strangely there is also some KS5 stuff in there too.

http://www.mathsisfun.com/

Again just another collection of resources

http://www.mathedup.co.uk/

This is quite good as when you click into a topic it will give you a lesson plan, a practice/work book thing and extension activities or investigation activities.

http://www.cimt.plymouth.ac.uk/projects/mep/default.htm

this is exactly what it says on the tin!!

http://www.math-blog.com/2008/09/20/13-useful-math-cheat-sheets/

haven't sent a lot of time going through this one but it seems like it could/should be useful

http://www.mathtutor.ac.uk/arithmetic

 this one I do quite like. The blog is interesting and has links to their most popular resources and when you go into the resource part you can filter it right down to a key stage, strand and then topic

e.g. Key Stage: KS3, strand: algebra, topic: equations

http://www.numberloving.co.uk/

real life mathematics

http://www.yummymath.com/

I have a dream...

Last week one of the pupils in my tutor group ran a 'Dreams and Aspirations' session.

Staff joined in too:

We then asked the class what we could do to help us reach our dream. One of the ideas was for the pupils to select their own learning buddies.

So I gave it a go! They filled in who they wanted to be their study buddy on a live form.

and thought hard about who they would learn well with - some surprising choices came out! I've had one lesson in the new arrangement so far and it's gone well - fingers crossed it continues!

Algebra Tiles

In Anne's Algebra sessions we were introduced to Algebra Tiles.

Using algebra tiles to express (a+b)(a+b)

The templates for these can be found here. Acadia list a number of ways that they can be used, which can be accessed here. A few applications are found below:

COLLECTING LIKE TERMS

EXPANDING BRACKETS

X	2R	3
R	2R2	3R
2	4R	6

UPDATE: 22/05/2013 Having used these with a Year 9 class where the general teaching style is less exploratory and more methodical, I received the following feedback (food for thought!)

• confusing because they weren't labelled
• didn't need them
• gave me one more thing to remember
• distracting for some students
• helped me a little but confused me compared to the way I already knew it
• they helped me solve equations
• I could literally see the equation and understood it better
• gave me a visual way of doing the sum
• interactive and helpful to get started with the grid method
• easier to understand the method we were using

New Year Algebra

We were advised to look at Anne's paper on Algebraic Reasoning.

The key ideas of algebra were decided to be:

• relationships
• representation
• generalising
• communication
• mathematical objects

"If you always do what you always did, then you'll always get what you always did"

In defining a variable (for Barry!):
2y + 1
Get students to put in values for y and see what happens when something is a variable.

Begin algebra by using it to express things they already know, and use "non-calculation arithmetic", e.g.
2 + 8 = 8 + 2
therefore ....
a + b = b + a

A dance routine was used to see how like terms could be found, or more importantly, what like terms actually were!
[dance routine]



We were advised to be careful with tables when asking students to create them in order to find a formula - rather checking that the formula that they had fitted the structure of the problem.

e.g.  matchsticks

The formula:

3n + 1

Only makes sense because you are adding 3 matchsticks on each time, however a quadratic or sinusoidal curve could equally fit the results if only these situations are considered.

The activity involving ordering algebraic expressions with each person choosing an appropriate value for x was also very interesting.

Dan Meyer has some interesting ideas about algebra in mathematics:

We were also advised to read

The Equation, The Whole Equation and Nothing but the Equation