Why did I want a laminated parrot? I’d decided that to try to get my students learning about angles… parrot fashion [...]]]> Asking a colleague if they would laminate a parrot was probably asking for a silly response. It certainly got one. Is it dead? Is it a Norwegian Blue? Is it pining for the fjords?

Why did I want a laminated parrot? I’d decided that to try to get my students learning about angles… parrot fashion

A lot of students struggle to solve angle problems. They find it difficult to see the patterns in the diagrams. Rules that sound simple can hide misconceptions (exactly which angles on a straight line add up to 180◦? All of the angles – or just the ones at a particular point?) When it comes to the final exam, questions that require students to “give reasons for your answer” usually cause real problems.

Working with spaghetti had helped them to start to see some patterns, but the patterns aren’t enough – they need to know the relevant vocabulary as well. This probably has more to do with passing exams than it has to do with understanding angles, but the exams are important; my students want a qualification at the end of their course.

Part of the problem seems to be that students don’t like learning and repeating angle facts parrot fashion, which gave me an idea.

We started by drawing some diagrams to illustrate what they knew about angles. We then wrote some statements. I put every statement that a student suggested in a speech bubble. We spent some time discussing these and correcting/redrafting as necessary – we didn’t move on until every statement was correct.

I then pointed out that students might be expected to demonstrate their knowledge of these statements and produced the parrot – just a piece of clip art that I’d cut out and had laminated. What do parrots do? They repeat things.

The laminated parrot on its own probably wouldn’t have had much of an impact. I’d also made some parrot stickers which proved to be effective at getting students to ‘give reasons’. We were working on a traditional find the lettered angles, giving reasons for your answers type of exercise. I gave them strips of parrot stickers which they used when answering the questions: we drew diagrams, worked out answers, then the angles parrot gave the reasons in a speech bubble. Having all the relevant statements in speech bubbles on the board really helped with this. The students obviously thought about what they were doing, with lots of discussions about which angle facts applied to each question.

The class seemed to really enjoy this activity. Amazingly, they needed no reminders about writing reasons, they were all very keen to use the stickers and add the speech bubbles. You can see a couple of examples of their work below. I’ll be using the angles parrot again – it seems to be having the effect I was hoping for.

A few parrot pictures:

Download the resources:

• Parrot (A4) size [doc format]
• Parrot stickers (for Avery mini address labels L7651) [doc format]

I’ve also started a display with some reasons in speech bubbles, I’m going to challenge the students to produce diagrams to illustrate these. We’ll add the best ones to the display.

• Speech bubbles used in display [docx format]
• Large speech bubbles used as display heading [docx format]

Main photo: Parrot by fatedsnowfox on Flickr. Used under Creative Commons Licence.

Other photos by Lois Lindemann

Here’s what we did:

Sometimes, particularly [...]]]> Remember the Milk has been my task list of choice for a few years now. It integrates with my calendar, has easy to use apps for both my iPod Touch and Android phone and will run on my desktop using Remember the Task. It’s easy for me to keep organised. Well, mostly organised.

Sometimes, particularly when planning a major piece of work, I create a list with multiple tasks. Obviously it’s a lot simpler to upload the whole list in one go, but I’ve never had a list that was long enough to make it worth taking the time to find out how to do that – until today. It’s so easy – I wish I’d learned this sooner!

Here’s how to add multiple tasks to a Remember the Milk account:

• Create a list of tasks, with each task on a new line. I included dates (use the ^ symbol, eg ^6 May 13), the list where I want the task to appear (use the # symbol, eg #errands) and priorities (use the ! symbol, eg !1):

Buy milk !2 #errands ^6 May 13
Read Hammersley paper !1 #at-home ^6 May 13
Online tutorial !2 #cpd-study ^10 May 13

• Go to Remember the Milk, log in, look in Settings, then click Info and find the import email address for the account (NB: this is not the normal inbox email address – the import option has a separate email)
• Copy and paste the list of tasks into the body of the email
• Finish the list with –end- to avoid email footers getting added as tasks
• The instructions suggest using the list name as the email subject, but I left the subject line blank because I had included the list for each item using the # symbol. Seemed to work fine!
• Send the email. In a few moments, the task list auto-magically updates

It worked perfectly apart from two tasks which had very long descriptions – the instructions suggested disabling automatic line breaks in emails, but I think I’ll just write shorter descriptions in future.

Instructions from: https://www.rememberthemilk.com/services/email/#import

More info on using symbols/Smart Add with Remember the Milk: https://www.rememberthemilk.com/help/?ctx=basics.smartadd.howdoiuse

Photo: Milk Bottle by Lois Lindemann is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial-Share Alike 2.0 UK: England & Wales License.

Here’s how it’s done:

Now that I’m working on the final module of my MEd, I found myself wondering what advice I would offer myself if I could travel back to the start.

I was expecting a standard book of quotations, but was pleased to discover that this wasn’t quite what I had anticipated.

There are, as the title suggests, around 100 mathematical quotations from people as diverse as the hoopy frood Douglas Adams, Nobel [...]]]> I like maths. I like quotations. Obviously this book appealed to me.

I was expecting a standard book of quotations, but was pleased to discover that this wasn’t quite what I had anticipated.

There are, as the title suggests, around 100 mathematical quotations from people as diverse as the hoopy frood Douglas Adams, Nobel Prize winner Richard Feynman, the statistically inclined Florence Nightingale and the 11-rated visionary that is Nigel Tufnell. The book opens – as perhaps all maths books should – with definitions, before taking us on a tour of geek pride, perseverance, failure, the universe and even a spot of careers advice.

The quotations themselves are an interesting mix: some are serious, some humorous, some flippant, others profound. Each quote comes with a brief (and often tongue-in-cheek) biographical description and commentary. By the end of the book you will have met David Hilbert, infinite hotelier and nodded sagely at Alfréd Rényi’s assertion that “a mathematician is a machine for turning coffee into theorems”.

This is not a reference book that you would cite in a scholarly manner. It is a very entertaining read. If you like maths and quotations – and you can cope with a few rude w*rds – then I think you’ll enjoy it.

The only disappointment is that 100 quotations makes for a fairly short book. Hopefully there will be a sequel. 2n Mathematical Quotations perhaps?

My verdict:

4 out of 5 stars – really liked it

This review also appears on Goodreads.com, Amazon.co.uk and my personal blog.

Photo: Book 8 by Brenda Clarke on Flickr. Used under Creative Commons Licence.

I’m much more organised with tasks, deadlines, planning and resources now that they are electronic. Getting great ideas and inspiration from colleagues around the world via social media, webinars and Teachmeets has become normal. Technology has certainly [...]]]> In some ways, newer technology has revolutionised my teaching – but it hasn’t done this for everyone.

I’m much more organised with tasks, deadlines, planning and resources now that they are electronic. Getting great ideas and inspiration from colleagues around the world via social media, webinars and Teachmeets has become normal. Technology has certainly enabled those changes – but the success of the social web depends on the people who are participating: the ones who find and share interesting resources, or who organise webinars and meetups, or answer a question when someone else reaches out. There are many colleagues in education for whom the social web has had no impact at all on their working lives. These people have the same technology available to them, but a different attitude towards using it.

In some ways, newer technology hasn’t changed that much.

Hardware needs to work – a lesson wasted on sorting flat batteries and obstreperous computers that won’t boot is never going to be a great one – but shiny new hardware isn’t automatically going to create a great learning experience. It is the software that is critical. When I worked at a school that invested in a set of iPod Touches I was disappointed to realise that, mathematically speaking, some of the programmes that I used over a over a decade earlier with BBC Acorn computers were far better than many of the apps that were on offer. That’s not the only example: there’s some great new stuff out there, but also plenty of things that look awfully familiar. At last year’s BETT exhibition, an enthusiastic rep showed me a revolutionary new learning system that looked exactly like the one I had used (unsuccessfully) over a decade earlier, but with better graphics.

New isn’t automatically better. As a teacher, I need to find the best ways to support learning. That means embracing technology, but selectively. It’s the learning that matters. Not the shiny newness.

Photo: iPod touch 1.1.3 (main screen) by chrisdejabet. Used under Creative Commons Licence.

It was November that motivated me to start my mathematical calendar project. I really like using Rangoli patterns to teach symmetry, but somehow I never seem to do that in time for Diwali. So it’s a little frustrating that November’s calendar of [...]]]> September, October … er – just a moment – what happened to November?

It was November that motivated me to start my mathematical calendar project. I really like using Rangoli patterns to teach symmetry, but somehow I never seem to do that in time for Diwali. So it’s a little frustrating that November’s calendar of events simply didn’t happen – I was too tired, too busy and something had to go. Several things actually, but that’s life. There’s always next year.

Anyway, for December I’m doing something different, before getting back on track for January.

December’s calendar is a an advent calendar, with a puzzle for each day. I’ll be printing off the puzzles on lurid coloured paper, doing a quick bit of cutting out  then sticking them up (probably a week’s worth at a time) on a display. The puzzles are all printed on stars or baubles. I’ll be cutting out some green backing paper to look vaguely Christmas tree shaped. You can guess how that will look – I’ll add a photo once I’ve started the display tomorrow.

Update: here’s week one – more puzzles to be added on Friday, ready for next week:

Download the files:

Help yourself to the files and feel free to change them to suit you. The puzzle for December 9th refers to Dronfield (where I work), but everything else should suit most people.

Advent calendar 2012 (Word 2010 format)

Advent calendar 2012 (PDF)

I am not what you would call a ‘morning person’. Waking up unnaturally early is not something that comes naturally to me. So it’s somewhat surprising that over the last few days I have woken up well before my alarm plays its [...]]]> Perhaps the strangest thing I did today was wake up at 5:21am.

I am not what you would call a ‘morning person’. Waking up unnaturally early is not something that comes naturally to me. So it’s somewhat surprising that over the last few days I have woken up well before my alarm plays its merry morning tune. My early start may be surprising, but it is a good sign. A couple of months ago I realised that I had gone way beyond normal teacher tiredness; in fact I seemed to be showing signs of professional burnout. Sleep has been a priority.  It seems I may be able to declare myself to be back on form.

Perhaps the strangest thing I did today was get up an hour early and get some work done.

I may not be a natural early bird, but hey, I was awake. An unexpectedly productive morning  means less marking to do this evening. Which means time to write a blog post. Result!

Perhaps the strangest thing I did today was ignore my students. And I did it deliberately.

I had set some challenging, but perfectly manageable, work for a group of very able Y8 students. What happened next? Within seconds the room was a vista of raised hands. That’s a lot of students baulking at the first sign of difficulty. Now I’m happy to help, but I want my students to show some resilience. Asking for help shouldn’t be their first response.

I encouraged the students to try to self-start whilst I submitted the register. Submitting the register took approximately 10 seconds. The hands were still up. I encouraged the students again. Then I did something that felt a bit deceitful: I sat at my PC, looking busy, pretending to be doing something with the register whilst I waited… and waited…

… until slowly the hands started to go down as one by one the students who were ‘stuck’ got started. That was my cue to get involved in the lesson again.

I may have ignored my students. And I may have done it deliberately. But I didn’t do it for long.

Anyway, that was my day. How was yours?

September seemed to have a lot going on – probably too much – so I’ve reduced the number of events in the calendar for October. (The calendar itself is still a work in progress. It’s an ongoing project [...]]]> October arrived a little later than planned. I’ve been a tad busy – but haven’t we all?

September seemed to have a lot going on – probably too much – so I’ve reduced the number of events in the calendar for October. (The calendar itself is still a work in progress. It’s an ongoing project for this academic year.) Most events have a linked mathematical activity and something for display. I didn’t get as much done as I’d hoped, but here’s what I did get sorted for October (see all the files at once by following this link):

• 1st – China Day:
  • There’s obviously lots of interesting maths to do here: multiplication, Chinese method for simplifying fractions… but I didn’t get my act together on this one. Oh well, there’s always next year.
• 1st – 7th – Children’s Book Week. My plan was to run a children’s book challenge: research a story, then create a short book that tells the story. I’ve done this before, but this one was another victim of a busy September. Anyway, there are lots of great stories from the history of maths that should inspire budding storytellers, here’s just a few:
  • How John Napier fooled his servants into thinking he had a cockerel that could read minds – or how he got his neighbour’s pigeons drunk
  • How Carl Gauss annoyed his teacher with some amazing mental mathematics
  • or if you fancy something a little more gruesome, maybe find out whether one of Pythagoras’ students was murdered for something irrational
• 4th – National Poetry Day (in the UK):
  • This year’s theme is stars or, as we maths teachers like to call them, polygons
  • Challenge students to write a poem – some examples from a previous challenge are here, bits and pieces for display are here and here.
• 10th – Powers of 10 Day:
  • When typing this one up I found myself putting Google and Googleplex instead of googol and googolplex. I’m sure that says something about me, but I’m not sure what. The prompts for the display are here – and some spurious 1s and 0s that contributed to the prettifying of it are here.
• 16th – Dictionary Day:
  • We’ll be looking at Jenny Eather’s maths dictionary and creating a maths dictionary of our own for display in the classroom. Most of my classes will be creating A4 dictionary posters for display as their homework.
  • Bits and pieces for an introductory display are here
• 21st – Gathering for Gardner:
  • A good opportunity to have some fun solving puzzles. I’ll be encouraging students to suggest puzzles to challenge each other. The materials for display are here.
• 25th – Évariste Galois born (1811):
  • There’s a nice podcast here, the materials for display are here
• 31st – Halloween
  • We’ll be designing masks for Halloween. There’s lots more symmetry next month in the form of Rangoli patterns for Diwali.

Here’s my display (I’ll try to get a better picture when there’s some daylight available):

Vikki’s October display is looking good too.

Download the files:

If you would like to use any of these for yourself, please do. Some of the images are subject to Creative Commons/commercial licences, so please respect those, but feel free to edit and adapt everything else to suit yourself.

At the moment they are all docx files.

• The calendar (on A3 paper)
• See all the files for October (each one includes captions for the display and some brief teachers’ notes, most have other resources too)
• Download all the files for October in a zipped folder

I’ll upload the files for subsequent months as I complete them – I’m aiming to get everything done by the middle of the preceding month.