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My Blank Canvas

August 27, 2013, 4:54 pm
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Today I went to start setting up my new [school] home. I start at a 'new' school in September and have my own classroom, which has recently been re-plastered, painted and carpeted. I feel very lucky in this respect as it gives me a blank canvas to work from and make my own. It also gives me a fresh start at a school I used to work at as a Cover Supervisor.

My new classroom is already well underway and I will post all the pics once I have completed setting it all up. I'm currently waiting on the display boards and curtains being put back up, which are being done tomorrow. Here's my new room as it was this morning when I got into school...

 The view from the front of the room where my desk will be going. There's almost a room aside of the room, which I'm hoping to make into a 'breakout' area for my LSAs to work with selected students. I'll also have some storage over there so I can work either in this part of the room, or at my desk.
The view from the back corner of the room. I've got a massive whiteboard (very similar to last year) and an IWB, but I'm not sure that the IWB is fully functional yet - I need to get the IT boys to have a look at this as the previous teacher didn't use it as an IWB.
You can just about see the old display boards in the corridor - these are being replaced by newer boards by the very helpful premises team!
 The view into the (what I'm calling) 'room off of the main room' room. As you can see it's quite a large space, but you can't really use it as additional space for the class desks as the students sat here won't be able to see the board and would be a bit 'hidden' from the rest of the class.
View from the class door. My teacher's desk will be going in this corner - it makes sense as the leads to the IWB and my computer will have to go via the sockets in this corner (there aren't any elsewhere). My desk will go up against the wall rather than cornering off the corner. I feel this way I'm more able to support students that want to come up to the desk for help, it creates more space in the room and allows me to see the whole class clearly.  There will be a fair amount of space at the front of the room for students to come up to the board - something I want to encourage this year by getting students to write their solutions to problems or mistakes to problems that we can discuss as a class. I'll be working on 'number sense' with my KS3 classes this year a lot more than I have before based on the 'How to Learn Math' course I am currently studying - more on this to come.

This is the view from the door to the back of the room. As you can see there are plenty of windows that make the room quite light. The room looks out to the front of the school. When the curtains go back up it will naturally stop a fair amount of the light, but by no means will it be dark in the room.
In the top left of the picture you can see I have a beam that goes across the middle of the room. The ceiling is quite low and so I won't be putting up a 'washing line' display. Instead I plan to put the Nrich puzzles on the back of the beam that faces the students. On the side that I'll be facing I'll put the class clock etc for my own benefit.

I love how 'new' the room looks. It allows me to make the space my own and will hopefully give students a bit of a shock when they come back next Thursday (especially if they were taught in the room before as it was bright yellow and looked a bit 'bruised and battered').

Things I have learnt today:

It is surprising how exciting it is to get your set of keys for your room, dept, stationary cupboard etc
No matter how much preparation you put into getting everything ready to put up on display you still forget things. I had a list of things I still needed to print out and laminate before going back in tomorrow.
Wrapping paper makes excellent backing for display boards.
Moving tables, chairs and filing cabinets about is hard work!
It's surprising how much you deliberate the smallest of details.

I'll be posting the pics of the completed room over the next couple of days. I have a few new ideas in addition to using some of my existing displays that I used over the last few years. Watch this space...
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Starter Displays

August 29, 2013, 8:38 am
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I'm in the process of setting up my new classroom and when thinking about what displays I wanted to have up in my new room I was trying to think about what has worked best for me in the past. The displays I think work the best are those that you can either use or refer to in lessons. In the past I have used the '4 4s' problem, my '2 0 1 3' display and my 'Mathematical Concept Wall' displays in class as starter problems to pose my students; their answers then go up on the displays for all to see.

You can view my blog posts on these displays by clicking on the below links:

4 4s --> http://mrcollinsreflectivejournal.blogspot.co.uk/2012/03/4-fours-challenge.html
2 0 1 3 --> http://mrcollinsmaths.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/2-0-1-3-challenge.html
Mathematical Concept Wall --> http://mrcollinsmaths.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/mathematical-concepts-wall-for-want-of.html

All of the above displays will be used again this year at some point. I already have a space marked out for the '4 4s' problem and a wall in mind for the 'Mathematical Concept Cards'. However, I wanted some displays that I could use on a daily basis. Displays that would allow me to direct students and then allow them to get on with a short task that we could then discuss the results to as a class. So, with this criteria in mind I have created the following...

'Number Cruncher'

This starter activity is often found in daily newspapers and comes under many different names 'Brain Gym', 'Mental Maths' etc etc. I downloaded a resource from dwatson802 on the TES website last year which had an interactive version of this starter task (http://www.tes.co.uk/teaching-resource/KS3-KS4-Mental-Maths-practice-Numbercrunch-Starter-6120840/). The ppt has 2-3 of these puzzles that are displayed on the board with a minute timer counting down before revealing the answer. I used this and my classes liked it, however there were too few of these to use on a regular basis and I didn't really want to spend loads of time creating a mega ppt of 'numbercrunch' puzzles. A reason for this is that I regularly forget about all of the starter tasks that I have used in the past/created - there's just too many ideas I have used. So, in order to forget forgetting about this one I have made a 'number cruncher' display. The display is simply a set of laminated arrows and start/finish circles that I can write on and change as I feel fit.
I have put the display above my IWB so the class can see it easily and as soon as they enter the class be getting on with it whilst I do the register and other adminy things.

Here it is...

The start number will go to the far left then the students will follow the operations on the arrows until they get to the end shape where the answer will be written when going through the workings as a class after they have enough time. I may even start from the 'finish' shape and get students to do the inverse operations to get back to the 'start' number.





The thing I like about this starter is that I can differentiate by my classes by changing the operations on the laminated arrows, the 'size' of the starting number, the type of operations on the arrows etc.

I may even write the 'start' and 'finish' numbers and then the workings in between each arrow before asking students where the mistake(s) are and to correct it. This will be one of the ways I try to get my classes to think about the mistakes they make in Mathematics, that it is OK to do so and how they can go about correcting them.

I will change the operations on the arrows as required depending on what class I choose to do this starter with and how often. By no means will I do this starter with every class every lesson. But it is there as and when I need it!
I'm hoping my students will get into the habit of doing it so much that they'll want to do it?

The number of the day is...

Another starter display I have made is a 'the number of the day is...' display. Here it is...

I made this using the www.magicwhiteboard.co.uk products I use all the time when putting up displays. I just put one of their A1 magic whiteboards on the back wall of the classroom (visible to all students) and on it I put half of one of their green A4 magic whiteboards.

Simply, I will just write a number of my choosing on the green magic whiteboard sheet and get students to answer the 7 questions written below.
The 7 questions range in difficulty and are suitable for most, if not all, classes. Some lower KS3 classes may not be able to do the 'product of prime factors' question but all the others are doable by all. Some of the questions are quite open too and have multiple entry points which helps the 'growth-mindset' I'm trying to induce in my students. For example, if the number of the day was 24 students could answer 20 + 4 or 12 + 12 for the first question. They could answer 8 and 3 or 6 and 4 for the 3rd question and question 7 allows them to pull out any other fact about the number. It could be that it is the square root of 576!? It's up to them.

Again, this display can be used as and when I decide (or my students desire). It won't be used every lesson with every class but is there when I need it. I can already see certain days of the week/year being used as 'the number of the day'. For example, Pi (3.14....) can be used on Pi day, 13 for Friday the 13th etc. I can get other teachers to guest on the display and choose the number of the day, perhaps in the style of Sesame Street where 'Today's 'the number of the day is..' is bought to you by...Miss Moore'. Perhaps my Twitter followers would like to suggest some too...

I'm hoping that both these displays will take off from the 1st week back. It will hopefully create a bit of intrigue in my students and will get them wondering what the 'number of the day is' or what the 'number cruncher' will be (I can only hope). If nothing else it'll jog my memory of two tasks that I can pull out of the hat at the last minute if necessary!
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Top 10 Tips for NQTs, PGCEs and ITTs

August 30, 2013, 2:39 pm
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Over the past few weeks there have been plenty of blogs providing tips and advice for new teachers starting their 1st roles this year. It got me thinking about what my 'top 10' tips would be to perhaps my former GTP/NQT self and what would be useful to know before starting these training years. So, under no illusions that I'll be able to do a better job than the likes of the already written advice to trainee teachers, here are my two pennies worth (in no particular order)...

1) Find out how you work best and stick to it

This is a bit of a strange one to start off with but essentially finding a routine that suits you is vital to surviving the sheer amount of paperwork you'll have to deal with over the course of the year. Some schools may expect certain planning requirements - on one of my placements I was expected to hand in lesson plans 24hrs in advance of the lesson. This for me didn't work as I got into the habit of pretty much planning my lessons as I went; I wouldn't plan a class' lesson until their last one had been taught. I found that preparing lessons too far in advance caused me to forget what I had previously planned and it was no longer fresh in my head.
There will also be times where you'll be invited/asked/required to joint plan with other colleagues, it could be that they share a similar group to you or are teaching the same topic. This is something that I've personally found more time consuming than anything else and would much rather plan certain lessons individually and share.
Essentially, whatever works for you, stick to it and don't be afraid to do what's best for you. Over the last two years I very much left school as soon as any after school commitments were fulfilled and I did my work at home. I was pretty much the only teacher in my department that did this and everyone else stayed at school until 6pm+ planning their lessons for the next day/week. I felt bad in the first few weeks for looking like I was leaving ASAP and going home, but they soon came to see that I must have been doing just as much work at home as I would have been at school. Whatever works for you is best!

2) Have 3-4 'go to' starter/plenary activities

By having a number of 'go to' starters and plenaries your planning time will be shortened considerably. I'm guilty of jumping on board of every new starter idea I see on Twitter/TES and usually get creating new resources as soon as I see them and try them out the next day. However, I have a set of activities that I reuse on a regular basis; I 'swap' the activities around between classes and lessons so the activities do not get 'stale' with the students. These activities help you when you get stuck for ideas for lessons, you'll get to refine your skills at delivering them and your students may even like the 'routineness' of having similar activities.

3) Set up individual class folders in your school e-mail Inbox

The amount of e-mails sent round schools on a daily basis is ridiculous. You'll be sent e-mails from your house team, year team, department, NQT/PGCE trainee manager, your mentor, your assessor, all staff e-mails and e-mails from maintenance/reception asking if someone has lost a blue pen with a cat sticker on it. The best way I've found to 'manage' all of these e-mails is by having class folders set up in your Inbox. This way, any important e-mails that get sent from your students, or from other staff requesting information on your students, can be added to the individual class folder and found easier at a later date. I also have a folder for 'Mathematics' (any departmental resources/info), 'NQT/PGCE' (training dates and meetings) and one for your form too. I also get into the habit of, if I'm sat at my desk when the e-mails come in and I don't need them, deleting them there and then. I also have my school's e-mails set up on my iPhone so I can keep track of them at home without logging in externally on my computer - beware --> if you do this you will be constantly checking them, it works for me, but is it something you actually want?

4) Get feedback from your students on you and your lessons

Some of the most useful feedback I've had over my training years has been from my students. You'll find they are brutally honest at times and tell you exactly as they see it. If something isn't right they'll usually make this known to you. This, for the weak hearted can be shattering to your self esteem, but when approached in the right way you can use the feedback to improve your teaching and your students' learning. How I gather the feedback is by using a quick, simple survey on www.surveymonkey.com. I set up a short (7-10 questions) and send it round to my classes via e-mail to do for 'homework'. I make all responses random and include a question 'anything else you'd like to comment on'. I keep them random to try and get as much honesty out of my students as possible. I'd ask them things such as: do they like where they are sat, do they feel they get enough 'teacher time' in class, what activities do they like best, is there anything you particularly have/haven't liked so far this year, do you feel you are making progress in Mathematics, what can Mr Collins do to help you improve further etc.
Don't be afraid of what might come back; if it's negative - do something about it!

5) Reinforce your expectations regularly

I would recommend reinforcing your classroom expectations (in line with your school's behaviour policy) after every half-term. Do this with EVERY class, regardless of whether there your golden top set or the dreaded set 5 class. It'll make a massive difference in terms of the consistency of the behaviour you get in class. I found this out the hard way in the 2nd half of my 1st term with a few classes and it was tricky having to stamp my authority again in the new year. I've heard before that 'once you've lost them it's hard to get them back'. This is true, not impossible, but true.
I've attended a fair few training sessions on behaviour management over the past 4 years or so (including the time when I worked as a cover supervisor) and the one thing that kept coming up was to have your expectations on display in your room. These need to be in a prominent area of your room, that all students can see, and can be used on a daily basis to refer too. Go through these expectations at the very start of the year and ask if any students have any problems with them, if so discuss and re-empthasise why the rule stands, if not bring the fact that there were no issues with them up when a student tests the boundaries.

6) Record details of ALL meetings/duties

There will be loads of meetings throughout the year. There will be house/year/department meetings that all staff will be required to do. On top of that you'll have NQT/PGCE/ITT meetings and then you'll have duties to do to. When push comes to shove, the duties get easily forgotten and you'll get to the end of the day and will suddenly realise you forgot to stand in the playground for 25 minutes. However, the SLT member that randomly checks throughout the year that everyone is where they're supposed to be won't forget! They are important and you don't want a naughty e-mail sent to you asking where you were! Meetings will need to be recorded in your planner and the duration of them too. There's nothing worse than turning up to (what you believe to be) an hour meeting to be told that it's actually 2 hours. I suppose it's all about being mega organised!

7) Do something extra out of the ordinary

This to a lot of people will sound ridiculous given the 'normal' workload that is expected being more than enough to manage during your training years. However, by doing something extra out of the ordinary at your school you will gain the attention of your peers and your students and they will appreciate it. The kind of thing I am talking about doesn't have to be radical or completely insane - I don't mean setting up an 'extreme ironing club' (my University had one of these, and no...I wasn't a member). I set up a TeachMeet at my school last year and although it was a lot of extra work and caused me to liaise with a lot of other members of staff it was well worth it to see what the staff that attended got out of the evening. Other suggestions could be setting up a lunchtime/after school club that hasn't been run before, setting up a class blog (bear in mind safeguarding and child protection) or a blog for a school trip (I did this for our Spanish trip and it was very successful). It could even be organising a car boot sale or fete for the local community. Whatever it is you do, get help doing it and put yourself out there!

8) Communicate with parents and the local community

Parent's evening, in my opinion, is not the first time you should have contact with your students' parents. Ring them (especially your form groups' parents) at the start of the year to introduce yourself. You might be lucky enough to have a 'back to school' parents meeting in the first few weeks - get e-mail addresses from them to provide another means of contacting them. I've found that when you try to ring parents (during the school day) 9 times out of 10 they'll be at work or out. You leave a message and then rarely do these get returned and you end up forgetting what it was you were calling about in the first place. So I've found e-mailing is more successful. Something I wanted to do this year was use www.remind101.com to increase parental engagement, but it's not available in the UK, damn!
An extension to parents is the local community. Like it or not, when in your local area, regardless of what time of day it is or what day of the week, you are a teacher. If you get seen by parents, students or members of the community that serve your school (I'm mainly thinking the local newsagent owner or petrol station staff where you fill up on the way to work) speak to them. Be nice, smile and refer to them by name (if you can remember), you'll be surprised at how much it means to students that you know who they are still outside of school! Above all though...BE POSITIVE. There's nothing worse than moaning about your day or what you have to come that day; you don't want to be creating a negative impression of your school, its students and staff. You'll be surprised how quickly news spreads across your local community and the little 'hellos', 'how are yous' and 'thank yous' go a long way.

9) Cherish your TAs/LSAs

Other than your students these are the most important people in your school - your teaching assistants or learning support assistants (whatever they are called at your school). They have the ability to provide you with an unparallelled amount of support with your students, and mostly your most difficult students. Get to know them, what they like/don't like etc and get them involved in your lessons. This starts before the lesson if possible - show them your lesson plans or talk to them about what you intend to do and what you'd like them to do to help you out. Ask them if they have any suggestions, anything they've seen in another class/school etc. If you're getting the students to do a competitive task, add your TA/LSA to the mix - your students will love trying to beat their score/performance. Use them to model tasks to be done in class and call on them to be the 'volunteer' for the lessons examples. Of course, do so with their blessing - if you know they don't really want to be involved that much and they'd much rather just go and support your students when they're working then give them this choice.
Lastly, thank them regularly. In fact after every lesson. Oh...and get them some chocolates/wine (whatever they like) at Christmas and the end of term - they deserve it.

10) Be there for your students through their tough times

Now this last one may sound obvious as there would be no point in you wanting to teach if you didn't care about the students you teach, but I'll tell you why I've included this...

Regardless of all the training sessions and meetings you'll have to prepare you for your teaching career nothing can prepare you for the 'human' side of the job. Nothing can prepare you for the death of one of your students. Nothing can prepare you for dealing with your students lives and difficulties they face on a daily basis. Nothing can prepare you for these situations. So...all you can do is be there for your students. Let them know you are there if they need you and offer the support you can. Obviously here we have to remember all the child protection training on disclosing information and not being able to keep students 'secrets', but the role of a teacher includes caring for your students. If you know of a student having difficulties at home or at school, whatever it is, be aware of it and, without directly bringing the situation up, be there. A lot of students won't want to talk about things that are troubling them, but will want to talk to someone about anything else, whether it be how many planes of symmetry a cube has or why Arsenal still haven't bought any players in the transfer window!
They'll appreciate you being the 'relief' from their problems, however short that 'relief' may be.


So, that's my top 10 'tips'. I hope they are useful to someone out there besides me. Best of luck to all those about to start their teaching careers, or those starting new roles or new schools - here's to a great year.
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F13 - My New Classroom

September 1, 2013, 4:21 pm
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Over the past week I've been setting up my new classroom ready for the new school year. I've spent 2 and a half days getting it the way I want it and putting up all my displays etc, I figured it's worth putting in the effort now as it will save time later in the year when I'll undoubtedly have other things to worry about. As you may know from seeing my previous post 'my blank canvas' http://goo.gl/WuvqcV  my classroom (F13) was redecorated over the Summer holidays and so I had a fair amount to do...cue before and after photos...

Front of the classroom

Before


After

I've kept a lot of the front of my room the same as I had it last year in my NQT year. I have my 'Mathematical Alphabet', laminated letters of the alphabet made using www.tagxedo.com to have all mathematical words beginning with each letter of the alphabet made into the shape of that letter of the alphabet. I have a big number line above my whiteboard that I downloaded from teacher resources on line (see my 'go to' resources blog post for the link to this site and my others http://goo.gl/NczZoB). Above the IWB I have one of my new starter displays for this year - my 'number cruncher' (see http://goo.gl/3s16aR for more information). To the left of the whiteboard I have a selection of the 'Minds at Work' posters available from www.sparkyteaching.com as well as a self indulgent 'Mr Collins Maths' sign (I could, so I did) :)
Behind the class door I have one of my 3 display boards that were put up on Thursday when I wasn't at school - I was so happy on Friday when I came in and they were up, as well as the curtains). I backed this using some bright wrapping paper I got from Ikea. Below the board is a bookcase with some textbooks that were in the class last year. I'm not sure If I'll make much use of these this year, but they're there if needed, or for students to use if they get stuck whilst I'm helping others. I also have some '1, 2, 3' pots (also from Ikea). I'm going to use these in a very 'Primary School' style way...they will be filled with mini whiteboard pens and rubbers for use with the mini whiteboards, I may also put other equipment in them for each table as the lessons dictate. I will then plan to have these on the tables for groups of students to use from 'the off' each lesson. One thing I found last year is that I wasted a fair amount of time handing out resources (especially the mini whiteboards). So, to minimise this 'downtime' I will have the resources ready on the table for my students much like they do in the Primary setting. I'm expecting to have to make my expectations very clear with these as I can see them being 'fiddled' with when not needed if not instructed as to their 'proper' use. We'll see how this works (or not).
You will also see the nrich posters displayed on the beam going across the centre of the classroom. I have picked challenging puzzles that all my classes will be able to attempt, some are harder than others, but each class will be able to do at least 3 or 4 of them. See my 'go to' resources post for the link to their posters page of their website - they're great!

Back of the Classroom

Before














After

Tables and Chairs! These were one of the last things to go into the room as I was trying to leave the premises team space to get to the walls to put up the displays and the curtains. Also, I wasn't really sure how or where I was going to fit them all in. I'm still not 100% sure they will stay like this, but for now I have 4 groups of 6 and then 4 individual tables each seating 2 students. So, as my reflections on my seating arrangements from last year gave me I have gone for a mixture of 'rows' and 'groups'. To see my reflections on all my seating layouts last year see my blog post here --> http://goo.gl/Y65XL8. You can then just about see another of the display boards on the right of the picture - again, the wrapping paper to back them was from Ikea and I used my department's borders to finish it off. In between the windows at the back of the room I have a selection of displays that I (and my students) will use over the course of the 1st term. I have: my 'the number of the day is...' starter display (see http://goo.gl/3s16aR for more information), my Twitter board, my 4 fours challenge and some 'why do I need maths' posters and revision posters from http://www.mathscard.co.uk/ (free and rather good, I'm going to order their revision cards for students soon too).
Lastly, above each window there is a cover to hide the curtain rails. So, on each of these I have put a formula that students are required to know for the Mathematics GCSE examinations. I have: Pythagoras' theorem, area and circumference of circles, sum of interior angles of a polygon, SDT and DMV. I also have a website url for my YouTube channel above my desk's window and I plan on putting a Manga High/MyMaths login/password reminders up too once I've got the details.

Here's my Twitter board...for my 'tweets plenary'...

I've used one of www.magicwhiteboard.co.uk's A1 whiteboards so the post-it note tweets can be better 'stuck' to the wall as they don't stay on the walls for long for some reason? Plus, for my smaller classes they can write their tweets straight onto the whiteboard! I bordered the display with some Twitter images and a few #s.











My 4 fours challenge display...

I've done this a few times over the past few years and it has always worked really well and it keeps amazing me how many students are keen to find solutions to the target numbers 1-100, especially when there are only a few left!

The best thing about this is when I'm not teaching in my room (this will happen very rarely this year due to my full timetable now I'm no longer a trainee/NQT) and other classes/students do some of the target numbers.








Other views of my room...

The view from the back corner of the room looking towards the 'room of the room' room. The table for 2 that is right in the corner will only be used for my class of 32, otherwise it will be a 'free' desk for anybody that will visit my room this year.
This is the view from in the 'room off of the room' room. As you can see I have my dartboard (see my '180!' blog post for more information http://goo.gl/hN6h4e), a magic whiteboard ready for a round of '501' and...'Mathematical Mario', see other picture below for more on him...
This is the view from the centre front of the room. On the pillar in the middle of the class I have the 'Fail Safe' resource posters I downloaded from www.sparkyteaching.com. I'm hoping these, and other displays will help build an environment where students won't be afraid to make mistakes.
You can then see my CD player/stereo on the windowsill. I'm my school's resident DJ and have used certain types of music (not to mention my Maths DJing) in class to help students focus. So, I'll use this at points throughout the year as required...and it'll be there for me to chill out to after school when I'm planning, marking etc. I'm hoping to do more work at school this year and less at home so this will hopefully allow me to create a similar atmosphere to that I'm used to working in at home?

My class door...

I love my 'Mr Collins' on the front of the door. I used an Origami app I downloaded for free on my iPhone and made each of the letters from a piece of Marvel wrapping paper I managed to find in Primark of all places. I've also backed my 'room divider' in this - it looks pretty cool. I then put a F(sq rt)169 on the door so everyone knows what room it is (there's an F(2^2 + 3^2) on the back)!










Mathematical Mario

Inspired by a YouTube video I saw where someone made a stop motion video of Pacman and Mario using just post it notes I have created my own post-it note Mario character. I found out the hard way that the post-it notes I got (PoundWorld) didn't stick to the wall for long so I laminated them and 'blutacked' them to the wall. I plan to write key formulae and words on each post it note. It's more of a 'WOW' factor display than anything else. Much like my Space Invaders window decals I had in my classroom last year I hope it brings out a bit of my personality.

I'm also thinking of jazzing up the wall outside my classroom door by having a post-it note Tetris display using the same sort of method as I have here. I'll see if I get enough time, otherwise it may be left until I can find some time.



So there it is...my new classroom. I'm really happy with it and already feel right at home in my 'new' school. I'm looking forward to seeing the reaction of my students (and colleagues) to my room and can't wait to get started. We have 2 INSET days on Tuesday and Wednesday this week and then all the kids start on Thursday. Here's to a great year...
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Year 2: Back in the Habit

October 27, 2013, 1:42 pm
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Well here I am, the eve of the first half term of the school year and what a half term it has been! Much like the sequel to the popular film 'Sister Act' I am now well and truly 'back in the habit' and as my absence from blogging indicates I've been a very busy Mr Collins indeed. It seems like an age since I was writing my blog post about my new classroom and the set-up for the start of the year and now, 7 and a half weeks down the line, it feels like the Summer period never happened. Here are my reflections on the past half term...

As you will know from reading previous posts I have started teaching back at the school I once worked as a cover supervisor. It was 2 years ago this school year that I left to go and do my GTP and then subsequently my NQT year at 2 different schools in the local area. I've just received my 'induction' certificate from last year and with this came the realisation of what has perhaps been missing this half term...the teacher training meetings and ongoing evidence collecting. Now, don't get me wrong, the evidence collating I am more than happy to have disappeared from my weekly tasks, but I can't help but miss the weekly/fortnightly CPD that trainee teachers receive. I'm particularly talking here about those CPD events that are held externally, whether they be part of your Universities training programme or events held at local schools that your school have partnerships with. I like these days away from the classroom where you get to reflect on your teaching, meet colleagues that are in the same position as you, learn new techniques, ideas and gather teaching resources and essentially keep learning. I've noticed that without these sessions this year it really is just about getting down to it and getting on with the job of teaching. However, there may be something new on the horizon, which I'll write about at a later date.

So, without the trainee teacher element of my job what's changed? The main thing is the timetable...and all experienced teachers will know exactly where I'm about to go with this...my teaching time has rocketed! Last year I had my NQT time,which allowed me at least 6 free periods a week in a 25 period week. This year, without the luxury of the NQT time, I have only 3 free periods a week and this has made a sizable difference in my teaching time, planning time and (of course) marking time. Couple with that the challenges of starting a new school (albeit a school I know very well) and it's no wonder I've not been able to keep up with the blogging!

Now, I know my school very well having held my previous post as a cover supervisor for 2 years. However, in the time where I have been gone learning how to teach at other schools a lot has changed. Also, as I worked as a cover supervisor before and not a teacher, all the procedures that teachers are expected to follow and I suppose all those little things that differ between schools have had to be learnt, remembered and followed through. For instance, the behaviour policy and procedures are far 'tighter' than the schools I have previously worked at, and this is all for the better in terms of the teaching and learning that takes place in the school. This means that now, unlike in the past, there are behaviour points to log, reward points to log, phone calls to log, warnings to log, postcards to write, uniform letters to send etc etc. All these little things that are different take a while to embed in your daily routines.
The easiest part of being back at the school I previously worked at is the relationships I have with the kids and my colleagues. I am lucky that the classes I have in KS4 all knew me before I walked into our new classroom. This has allowed me to pick up on relationships I had already built up and take it from there. I have some fantastic classes to teach and this has made the 'settling in' period easier than I could have hoped for.

The one thing that has taken a while to sort out this half term has been the ICT in my classroom. I have persevered over the past 7 and a half weeks with trying to get everything the way I have had it in previous years. This has mainly centred around getting my interactive (SMART) whiteboard working. Now, by no means would I say that I have become dependent on my SMART board, but as I have made so many resources using the SMART notebook software it did have an affect on my teaching in the first few weeks of term. I had to find other resources to teach from, it took me longer to plan my lessons and I didn't feel as confident as perhaps I would have done. It also frustrated me as the IWB was there, but wasn't usable. I even started referring to it as the 'potentially interactive whiteboard to the kids'. However, all good things come to those who wait, and with the help of the ICT team after week 6 we were able to get the software working with the new Windows 7 laptop I had been given to 'trial' as a new member of staff. I even purchased myself some new SMART board pens/eraser to fill the gaps that were previously homed by a glue stick, board pen, blue tack and pen. Here they are in all their glory...

 For the past week or so I have been enjoying having the use of the SMARTboard back and I feel loads more confident, I can use all my resources I spent the time creating last year and the reaction from the kids is brilliant. I don't actually think there are many other working SMARTboards in the rest of the school that teachers use. This, for me, makes my proficiency with the IWB a tool I can use to my advantage as everything seems new for my students. When I first wrote on the board they seemed shocked, when I drag objects across the screen it feels like magic and as for the trick of rubbing out a circle and then tapping in the middle to erase everything inside the circle...I've become the new Dynamo! The only thing I then needed was some sound...as there were no speakers in my room I got some of those too and now I can use YouTube videos (from my channel or otherwise), the Chris Moyles Quiz Night videos for short starter tasks - my current students have loved these the past week, and of course...and yet to be introduced to my new students...Maths DJing :)

The above goes some way to summing up the challenges and differences of starting at a 'new' school this year. In addition to this there have been a few events that I have helped out with this half term. The biggest of these were the school's Open Evening and the Y6 Problem Solving Day. The school's Open Evening was fantastic and was one of those events that I was looking forward to. The reason behind this is that I love the school I work at, I went to the school as a kid and having worked there previously and now being back, I couldn't be happier. So, I'm keen to make sure that future students, our local primaries and our community see all the good things that I have and do at the school. So, at open evening I helped the Mathematics department ensure we displayed all the good work our Year 7s had been doing in the first 3/4 weeks of term (something the department have always done). Then in a separate classroom we had two activities running, one that the department have done in past involving measuring arm span and height and seeing the 'Mathematical perfectness' of a person. The other was an idea my colleague and I came up with and was to have the good ol' horse race probability task big scale on the class floor.
We created a 12 by 6 grid out of masking tape, had my numbered tiles in the 'starting squares' for each 'horse' (Y5/6 child, parent, uncle, aunt, Y9 prefect etc), we had the Y9 prefects rolling my large foam dice and encouraged visiting parents and children to take part in the horse race. For each race we explained the rules of rolling the dice to generate the numbered horse who would then advance down the grid. The winner being the first horse to reach the 'finish' square. The activity was a great success with children and adults taking part, healthy competition building between relatives and (of course) some good mathematical reasoning, language and logic being applied. It is something that we will look to do in future evenings.

Then, another idea I have for future evenings came about after speaking to my HoD about other tasks we could have going on around the room whilst the 2 main activities were going on. I suggested doing the 'frogs problem' and then said it'd be great to have a large version of that too and if only we had some large frogs! I have of course done this in the past using the students and chairs, but wanted something tangible for the children to pick up and move/leap. Cue my HoD's knowledge of another of our colleagues whose hobby of knitting stuffed animals could come in handy. She is brilliant and 5 more of the below little beauts will be made after she has finished knitting Christmas presents for her nieces and nephews...

How cool is he! I've named him Freddo.

As for the Y6 Problem Solving Day I'll be writing about that in a separate post as there's far more I'd like to say about that and resources to link.













Finally, a list of other notable events/things that have occurred this half term...

the staff vs staff football match against a local school (we won 1-0, undeservedly so)
the strike day, school was open for Y11, I was there
3 INSET days
Y9 'enterprise day', the less said about this the better
5 of my Y11 top set being entered in Nov and getting them prepared
regular staff football on Fridays (I've missed this)
Y11 invitation only parents' evening
the Y7 Fresher's Ball (I was the DJ)
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Mathematical Concept Cards 2: The New Batch

October 28, 2013, 1:02 pm
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Having been recently reminded about an activity I did in class last year by Mr Cavadino (see his blog post at wp.me/p34gWb-3c) I decided to try out the activity with some of my new classes in the last week of this half term.

To see my original post on the idea and discover the origins of it click on the below link:

http://mrcollinsmaths.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/mathematical-concepts-wall-for-want-of.html

So, here's the new display, with the best of the concept cards selected to go up here...














And here's some of my favourites that have been created this year by my students...

 I think this has to be my favourite one?
 Must be a fan of Dead or Alive?

I thought this one was hilarious - especially when Miley made an appearance!
 Maybe some confusions here as to what 'expressions' are, but the effort was commendable. Most other students in this class chose 'volume' and drew speakers etc
 Being a Marvel geek I loved this one, if only there were some Loci examples around it to go with it though...
 Nice use of both words here

 I wonder why the 'hundredth' was the one that was working out?
 Inspired by the examples I showed the class from last year.
 The best pie shop in the world...3.14 (brilliant)

 Hilarious!
 This one definitely thought outside the box













I am impressed with the creativity that came out of the classes I ran the activity with. There are a few I am waiting on with my Year 10 class too, so there may be some more to follow. Watch this space.
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#blogsync Marking: WWW, EBI & INT

October 28, 2013, 2:59 pm
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This month's blogsync topic is all about marking and all entries can be seen by going to http://blogsync.edutronic.net/. There are already some fantastic entries, none of which I will try to emulate here, but I will give my account of the marking expectations at my school and how I have gone about this task over the past half term.

Follow the #blogsync conversations on Twitter using #blogsync.

On arrival at my school this September I was presented with my very own stamper to use when marking my students' exercise books/work. It is very similar to my own stamper I bought from www.primaryteaching.co.uk last year and used when marking...with one slight difference. It wasn't just a What Went Well (WWW) and Even Better If (EBI) stamper but also an 'I Need To (INT) stamper. Here it is...

The significance of the INT part of the stamper is to ensure there is input from the student as to how they are going to action their EBIs that I write based on their work that I mark. The theory is that you get to see a conversation in the students' exercise books where a continuous loop happens with feedback being given, students responding as to how they're going to action their EBIs, evidence of this progress being made in their subsequent work, future feedback on their work with further points to action and so on.









It has taken a while to get used to this system and it is something I have had to not only train myself with, but also my students. When returning students marked work (mainly their homework tasks) I will ask them to look over their WWW and EBI comments and then get them to fill in their INTs. Now this has meant a lot of prodding and guidance as to what constitutes a good 'INT statement' and what is merely copying the EBI that I wrote. For instance, if I have said that a student has added and subtracted fractions well and it'd be EBI they could multiply and divide fractions their INT shouldn't say 'I need to multiply and divide fractions', but must say something along the lines of how they are going to action the EBI. For example, they could put that they are going to look up the topic on mymaths or Manga High. They could say they will stay behind after school on Friday and go to the 'Maths Club' to ask for help. They could look up the topic in one of my YouTube videos, they could ask their tutor (if they are lucky enough to have one). They could ask me for help in/after a lesson. They could look up the topic in a text book etc etc.

Here's an example of the stamper, my WWW and EBI (on a mixed C/B grade h/w sheet) and the students INT comment.

After the students have filled in their INTs 2 things then happen: The first is that when I next take their books in I will check their previous stamp and initial their INT if I feel it is appropriate. If I feel it is not full enough I will suggest something they could do, or provide a bit of extra guidance. For example...

In the below students' h/w he wrote that he needed to look up converting between squared units - fair enough. However, between this time and the next h/w sheet there was no evidence of him having progressed here. So, I wrote a few notes underneath his next stamp and then, following this, he made some additional notes in the back of his book and will look to get this area correct next time round.

This was the original h/w sheet. Here I mark the questions and just tick them if they are correct, cross if not. Sometimes I'll write the correct answers into those that are incorrect, time depending.
I then feedback using the stamper. We are told to try and make the WWW and EBI as objective specific as possible, for example WWW: you are able to add and subtract fractions [grade/level], EBI: you were able to multiply and divide fractions [grade/level]. However, in practice, sometimes this is difficult and I end up putting more vague comments like 'well done, you've got everything correct'. It's these times (when a student does everything well) that it is hard to find an EBI and hard to list everything they did well.

You can see here though that the student identified the need to 'learn how to convert between squared units'






In a following h/w I noticed, having looked back at previous stamps and comments, that the student still hadn't got the converting between squared/cubed units question correct. So, in addition to my usual comments I added a bit of extra feedback and guidance to support the student further.


What resulted was their own notes in the back of their book...



(I'm fully aware this pic is upside down, I have changed its' orientation and tried to insert it multiple times now, but still it wants to stay this way up...Grr)

I'm now awaiting the next h/w sheet to see if they have made progress with this question...fingers crossed.






The 2nd thing that happens after I have done my WWW and EBI marking and the students have done their INTs is that they use their fortnightly computer room lesson to independently go through, look up, and research topics that they need to work on. This could be using mymaths, Manga High, my YouTube channel, BBC bitesize, google, Wolfram Alpha, textbooks etc etc. These fortnightly lessons are used really well to get students to focus on their INTs so they don't merely write them and forget about them.

As a teacher, I am expected to mark each class' books once a fortnight and so each of my class' books have now got somewhere between 3 and 4 stamps in, depending on which week I take them in to mark. Now, I do quite like marking my students books, without it I wouldn't have anywhere near as clear a picture as I do of their work and progress to date. I find it can be therapeutic, but also quite stressful when time doesn't allow you to go through the WWW and EBIs as I'd wish. In order to combat this I have tried to get my students to do their own WWW/EBI and INT feedback. However, there are some students that do not do this so well and so this becomes almost a waste of time, plus I don't get to look over that particular bit of work as much as I would have if I marked it myself.

Plus, there's the same problem when they get full marks...what do they put for their EBI and INT?!












Personally, with the expectations on marking and the inevitability that a member of staff will come into check the books of the class that I perhaps haven't marked as much as others, I feel getting into marking routines is the only way around the workload. It's taken me the best part of the 7 and a half week half term to get into this routine and I now take in each class' books when they have handed in their h/w to me. I take the class' books home that night, mark them, and return them the next day. This means that I mark 3 evenings a week, usually for an hour each time, and then the rest of my time is spent planning lessons/resources etc.

However, there is one 'curve ball' to this routine...my Year 11's past GCSE papers. Since the start of the year our Year 11s have now completed 2 GCSE past papers in class as assessments that we use to track their grades and progress. They have had 1 non-calc and 1 calc paper and these, of course, have needed marking too. These papers are marked question-by-question, a total given, a grade and then students fill in AfL sheets in their feedback lesson. In addition, to support my students further, I have been trying to create 'solution videos' for the questions on these papers and sticking them on my YouTube channel. All this takes time, but in the long run (I hope) will be beneficial to my students.

All the marks and grades from these h/w sheets, papers, marked work etc go into my teacher's planner and I keep track here of how my students are doing, the progress they are making and I can see from this where interventions are needed. I'm quite traditional in the respect of using my planner as my markbook, but I'll also use an excel spreadsheet for past GCSE papers so I can analyse question-by-question how my classes have done on the papers and certain questions.

Here's a pic of one of my Year 11 classes markbooks so far this year...



You can see here the 5 h/w sheets the class have already had (all out of 20) and the 2 GCSE past papers they have sat.

The h/w sheets I use are all mixed C/B grade topics that I give out each week on a non-calc/calc rotation basis. These sheets allow me to ensure my students are keeping the basic skills to achieve each of these grades fresh, whilst we cover over topics in class. I am also planning on creating tutorial videos to go along side these to go up on my YouTube channel to give them another avenue for their INTs, i.e. INT 'look up question (x) on Mr Collins' YouTube Channel, do the practice questions and check my answers'.

If you would like to download these sheets they can be found on my TES resources at:

http://www.tes.co.uk/teaching-resource/Y11-Higher-C-B-Grade-Homework-Sheets-6353581/

I hope this post goes someway to contributing to the debate on marking. By no means do I suggest that this is the way to do it and that I am doing everything I should be. I'm fully aware there are things I can do better with my feedback being more specific at times and I still need to improve the use of the INT part of the stamps. In terms of checking students in class work this comes from my use of AfL and my plenaries. I do look over the students' classwork when I mark their books and if I see something of worth I'll add a comment, equally, if something is seriously wrong I'll comment on it too, sometimes using the stamper, sometimes just freestyling!



I still use my 'Mr Collins likes this' stamp too, when I can see a student has persevered or done a particularly good amount of work/made improvements (like the example shown).













Remember, check out the other posts in this months #blogsync by going to http://blogsync.edutronic.net.
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Year 6 Problem Solving Day

October 31, 2013, 8:36 am
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Right in the middle of the first half term of the school year I helped host, and organise, a Year 6 Problem Solving Day for my school's local primary schools. In all, we invited 6 of our local primaries and each brought with them 4 students and 1 member of staff. The day ran fantastically well with all schools feeding back positively on the day and in the subsequent online survey that I sent round. However, without the help and support of our mathematics faculty assistant and my fellow Mathematics teachers the day wouldn't have even gone ahead.

The only downside to running events such as these is the amount of organisation and planning the day takes. For this event we had to (in no particular order):

contact our local primaries, get the names of the students/staff attending
send out details of the day a week before the day itself
book the school's study centre to host the event
enlist the help of our Year 9 prefects to support the Year 6 students on the day
advertise the event in our school's bulletin/the website and in staff briefings
print and write certificates for each student who attended/prefect that supported the event
print out answer booklets for each primary school to use on the day
print off name badges for all involved
arrange parking spaces for the primary school's minibuses
arrange refreshments for our visitors
get a member of SLT to come and award the certificates at the end of the day
ensure everyone knew of fire and safety procedures should we have to use them
seek permission for use of photographs for the school's website
plan all the activities for the day
plan cover for the lessons my colleague and I missed due to running the day...

...and I'm sure there are loads more things that our faculty assistant did behind the scenes that I am unaware of!

However, despite the mammoth task of planning the event (and the time it took up) it was well worth while. I planned all the activities and I used resources I had found on the TES or from tweets that I had seen.
On the day itself the activities were arranged in 6 different bases, each with a different activity. Our primary schools then rotated round the bases in a carousel of activities type style. The schools had 20 minutes to attempt the activity at each base, they wrote down their answer in their answer booklets, reset the activity to how they found it and then advanced to the next base. Each school therefore got to attempt each activity and the results were collated at the end and points awarded for the successful completion of each task.
Each student was then awarded with their certificate at the end of the day and the winners were then announced.

The activities (with all links to the resources used) are listed below, with a brief description of each activity and how/where I found them...

The Factors and Multiples Puzzle
http://nrich.maths.org/5448 @nrichmaths

The Factors and Multiples Puzzle, from the nrich website is one that I have used in class before and set students as a homework task. Each time the students, regardless of age, have found the puzzle challenging and only a few have been able to complete it. The answer (seen in the picture inserted to the left) was uploaded to Twitter by @SmileMaths and they reminded me of the activity when i was looking for inspiration on my Twitter time line. Only 1 school managed to complete the puzzle in the 20 minutes allowed. For this 'base' I took a photo of each teams completed (or partially completed) puzzle and then worked out how many points to award based on the numbers being in the correct row/column. A total of 25 points available!


The Marshmallow Challenge
http://marshmallowchallenge.com/Welcome.html

The Marshmallow Challenge was the most popular 'base' of the day and was an idea I saw tweeted by @ArcherEdTech. The picture to the left was the laminated instructions I gave to the students arriving at the base. I had a lot of our Year 9 students positioned on this base to help measure and cut out 1m of string and tape and to ensure the structure was freestanding at the end of the 20 minutes with the marshmallow on the top. The height was recorded. The winning height was awarded 5 points, 2nd 3 points and 3rd 1 point.
 
Lost Labels
http://www.tes.co.uk/teaching-resource/The-Lost-Labels-6292871/
RSS Centre for Statistical Education

A resource I found on the TES whilst doing my usual resource reviews. When I was planning the activities for the day I wanted to get a mixture of activities that covered the 4 main areas of Mathematics (number, algebra, shape space and measure and data handling). However, the algebra activity was left out as the Year 6 students may not have come across much of this as of yet in their learning of Mathematics. N.B. the day was for any Year 6 student, not necessarily those that were 'gifted and talented' in Mathematics. So, the lost labels task asked students to complete the labels on the axes of a couple of bar charts, just based on a few clues. I like how this task leads to a lot of interpretation of bar charts, decisions as to the scale of the axes etc. 5 points were awarded for each successfully labelled bar chart (10 points on offer here in total)

Murder Mystery
http://www.tes.co.uk/teaching-resource/Murder-Mystery-Maths-3-6305825/

Another resource I found on the TES when doing my resource reviews and when looking for end of term activities at the end of last year. Now, this task was the only one where we had any sort of EBI feedback on. The activity just took too long and therefore not all schools were able to give an answer to this one and had to 'guess' based on the amount they were able to complete. So, in future, if I were to use these sorts of activities again, I would ensure that the activity was completed over 2 bases and therefore allowed more time. Nonetheless, I still think this is a fantastic resource, that I have used with Y7-10 students at the end of term. The task, in an hour lesson, has taken anywhere from 10-60 minutes depending on the ability of the group and the number of students in each group. I think I was hoping that with each school having 4 students and 1 member of staff that if each took one 'clue' and answered it that they'd be able to do it in the time allowed. I may have underestimated this a bit?!

Triangles Mystery
http://wordplay.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/05/13/triangle-mysteries/?_r=0

Another idea/activity I saw on my Twitter time line over the Summer, this time tweeted out by @stevenstrogatz. What I really liked about this activity is that it was in the New York Times and this, for me, gave the puzzle a certain gravitas that I feel the students/staff appreciated as they saw it as a puzzle that was trying to be solved elsewhere in the world, and not something I had just thought up/found for them alone. There is more that can be done with this task rather than just the simple nature that I presented it due to the 20 minutes allowed.
It could form the basis of a mathematical investigation to give to students in KS3?
 
Mathematical Treasure Hunt
Smile Cards http://www.nationalstemcentre.org.uk/elibrary/collection/45/smile-cards-by-number

The final activity that I included was one that had been used in the Year 6 Problem Solving Days done in years past. The day had previously been run by a colleague who retired at the end of last school year. I worked with her when working as a cover supervisor and she helped me loads in terms of allowing me to observe her lessons, help plan and run revision sessions for year 11s and I now teach in the room she vacated. I owe a lot to her in terms of my own development and felt that it was important that the day still had something of hers in it. She had left behind her boxes of resources that she used on the problem solving days (there's a year 2 one coming up later in the year) and from these I searched through and used the 'base' numbers she had on each table, the answer booklets and of course, this resource. The resource itself was one from the SMILE cards series, involving students going on a mathematical treasure hunt around the study centre, finding cards with mathematical problems and then finding the card with the answer to that problem on before attempting the problem on that card. The students wrote down the path between the cards and then were awarded points on the correct answer/path. The students enjoyed searching round the study centre for the clues and some of the year 9 prefects helped locate those that I put in obscure places.

In preparing the day I created this ppt with all the resources/instructions etc I needed to print/laminate for the day. If you would like to use them just click the link below (and of course the links above).

My resources --> https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/37694946/Y6%20Problem%20Solving%20Resources.pptx


As I have said above, the day was a great success. The day ran smoothly, mainly due to the organisation that had gone before it (especially on behalf of our faculty assistant). I was a bit nervy at the start of the day that everyone would turn up and the day itself would go to plan. These worries soon disappeared and the best part of the day was seeing the students attempting the puzzles, asking questions, posing questions to questions asked, talking to staff from our primary schools and enjoying the solving of the problems that were set. There was a definite 'buzz' around the study centre that morning and all students were fully engaged in trying to solve the puzzles/problems given to them. The day ran on time, awards were handed out by one of our SLT members and the winning school took home with them the remaining bag of marshmallows that weren't used in the challenge! They were thrilled!

Since the day itself one of my colleagues has held a meeting with all our local primary schools and the feedback he got on the day was great. He said that staff that didn't even attend the Problem Solving Day were speaking very highly of it due to the fact that the year 6 students that had been on the day went back to their respective schools and were clearly telling their other teachers all about it. This is not only fantastic news for those of us that helped run and organise the day, but also for our school as it puts out a very positive message about the school. We have now had requests for similar days to be run in the future, in addition to the year 6 and year 2 problem solving days we already put on. So, hopefully, it is something we can look to offer on a more regular basis, in different disguises, for other year groups in our primaries, or for groups of students that are enthusiastic about Mathematics.

I, despite the panic and stress of ensuring everything was prepared for the day, thoroughly enjoyed the event and would recommend running a similar event to anyone that is thinking about doing so. I like liaising with our primary schools, the chance to speak to the students who could well be coming to our school in September 2014 and the opportunity to do something 'different' for a few days in the school calendar.

Many thanks again to our faculty assistant (she knows who she is), my colleagues that helped run the day and those that came down (in their free periods) to see what was going on. To the year 9 prefects for supporting and of course to all the year 6 students and their teachers for attending and making the day as good as I could have hoped.
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New CGP Revision Guides

November 1, 2013, 8:07 am
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About a month ago, I was approached by the lovely people at CGP and asked if I would like some copies of their latest revision guides for Mathematics to try out with my students. Having used the books myself when I was revising for my GCSEs, and having seen students use them over the past few years of my teaching career, I jumped at the chance to see the latest revision guides on offer.


I was very kindly sent out a copy of their Higher Edexcel (other exam boards are available) revision guide for Mathematics GCSE, together with the accompanying exam practice workbook. In addition, I was sent 15 copies of the foundation tier revision guides to give to my year 10 students (and 1 of the accompanying exam practice workbooks too). This, I was very excited about, and I tried to think of how best to introduce the revision guides to the students and get their feedback on them, whilst ensuring they knew how best to use the guides.
In my experience so far, revision guides are offered to students by schools (for a small fee), but the students are not actually told how they should be using them to revise; they're merely handed out and assumed they know how to get on and use them.

So, I decided to create a short questionnaire to give to the students to fill in as they were given their revision guide; they filled in the questionnaire as they were familiarising themselves. The aim of the questionnaire is not only to get their feedback on the revision guides but also to allow them to see all the different aspects of the book, to get them to notice certain parts of the guides and suggest ways in which they could use them.

Here's the questionnaire I gave my students...



The questionnaire targeted certain aspects of the book, asked for their first impressions and gave them an opportunity to mention anything else they thought of when looking through the guides.













Before I gave the questionnaires and the revision guides out to my students I was completely honest with them as to why they were being given the revision guides and the fact they didn't have to pay for them. I explained about my Mathematics blog and that's why I was offered the books. This also covered the fact that other students may question why my students were being given them and they weren't (I also passed them by my HoD). Having spoken to my HoD she said that if my students took to them that they were something we could order in for other students if they wanted one too.

On handing out the books there was an air of excitement about the students (it's always nice to be given something for nothing). As I was removing the packaging from the books and handing them out to the students it was like Christmas had come early. The comments about the look and feel of the new books flew around the classroom and they were soon imprinting their names on the inside front covers to take ownership of their new revision guides. As they filled in their questionnaires my TA and I went around the room directing them to certain parts of the guides as per the questions given to them.

As I was creating the questionnaires I looked through the guides myself, picking out the key aspects of the books that students needed to be aware of in order to benefit as much as they could from them. I like the fact that next to each sub-heading/topic there is a GCSE grade so that the students know what grade they are working at. Each page in the revision guide has worked examples with short, precise steps to solving certain problems. The examples are clear and in a language that students can understand; there is no unnecessary jargon. At the bottom of each page there are exam style questions for the students to attempt, with a guide as to how many marks they would get for that question and again, a grade attached to the question. At the end of each 'chapter' there is a review section that allows students to answer brief questions on each topic covered in that chapter, and a useful 'tick box' for them to tick if they are happy they have covered the topic. At the front of the guides the contents have been upgraded to include (for the modular specification [going out]) what 'unit' the topic is covered on. The index does exactly what it should do. When speaking to my HoD, when I showed her the revision guides and spoke about what I had planned with the questionnaire, she commented on the fact that students don't necessarily know the difference between the contents and the index section and that it was a good idea to highlight both and how they could be used.
One key change from the guides I used when I was a teenager is the online version of the revision guides that you get free having purchased the physical form. On the inside front page (where the students were putting their names) there is a unique online code to use with the CGP online library (more about this later).

Back to my students...

Their 1st impressions were really positive, comments such as 'smells nice', 'its very professional', 'very smart, well laid out and easy to use' and 'very helpful' were amongst those given. When it came to the next 3 questions, asking them to find a page in the book using the contents page, asking if they liked the grades next to each question and whether the examples were clear (when asked to look at a specific one on a given page) all of my students responded 'yes' to each question. When it came to looking at the revision pages (see below for an example) the students commented on the fact that they were 'helpful to see if you get questions right', 'good because you can test yourself' and 'nicely laid out...and easily readable'. They found that the exam-style questions were good because they could see the grade for the question.
In terms of the exam-style questions the answers to these are in the backs of the revision guides, however for full solutions to these questions, with additional workings and guidance you have to register online and use the online version to see these, although once registered and having input your unique code, you can download (and therefore print out) a copy of these fully worked solutions.
Finally, when asked if there was anything else they wanted to say about the books, unusually the 1 key thing they thought should be improved was the fact that the page numbers should be at the bottom of the page and not the top! So, if that's the only improvement they think the revision guides need then CGP have done a very good job with their latest revision guides indeed.

Here are some examples of the inside pages from the revision guides (taken from the CGP website)...

On this example page (on circles) you can see the sub-headings are clear and have the grade next to them. The examples and key facts are highlighted in the usual CGP style. At the bottom of the page you see the 'exam-style questions' with grade and marks.
On the revision pages you see each topic in that 'chapter'/section tested, with a 'tick box' for students to use when they feel they have mastered the topic.















The online library...

Using the unique code on the inside cover of the revision guides allows you access to the revision guide content online. You have to register an account with the CGP online website, but this takes literally a few minutes and as of yet I haven't received any spam from having signed up to this. With each different revision guide/exam practice workbook comes a different set of online resources.

If you entered the code from one of the revision guides you get:

  • an online version of your revision guide
  • the exam-style questions full worked solutions - this is a pdf document that you can either view online or download, save and print etc

If you entered the code from one of the exam practice workbooks you get:

  • an online version of the exam practice workbook
  • practice paper video solutions - a set of online videos that take you through the past paper questions in the workbook
  • worked solutions to the questions in the workbook, rather than just the 'answers' that appear at the back of the book - similar to the above you can download these, save and print them.

In addition, when you open an account you get an online pdf that gives you examples/ideas of HOW to revise and go about your revision for your GCSEs. Useful for students. This is a pdf that you can download too.




 










What's happened since I gave out the revision guides?

Some of my students have taken their revision guides home and keep them there. However, the majority of the class either, just like they do with their exercise book, bring their revision guide to each of our lessons or they keep the revision guide at school on my bookshelf where I keep my classes' exercise books. I like the fact that they have the choice here and I was impressed by how many of them keep bringing the revision guides in each lesson without me saying so. I now see students looking up certain topics we are doing in class. For example, when the class enters and are getting their equipment out I usually have the title on the board. I have seen students flicking through their revision guides to look up the title (topic) so it's then there, ready, in front of them for the lesson, should they need a bit of extra support/guidance.

The cost?

The revision guides and exam practice workbooks are only £2 each when bought through the school. I've already spoken to my HoD and school shop assistant (who orders in the revision guides/workbooks for our students) and it is something that we may look to do when the 'exam season' looms closer.

My students certainly are impressed by their new revision guides, the fact that they are appearing in our lessons still, a month after they were handed out, suggests they are working and the students are using them proactively. Also, I have 5 students (in my top set Year 11 class) that are sitting their GCSE examinations in November and they are using the higher tier revision guide in class to assist with their revision for their examinations - they're all aiming to get their A*s in November!

I'm very grateful to the people at CGP for offering me these books. I didn't have to write this blog post about them, but feel that as the books were kindly offered, and my students were as grateful for them as I was, that it was only right I said thank you and spread the word as to the usefulness of the books.

So...CGP, thank you on behalf of my Year 10 students and, of course, me too!

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Mathematics Loyalty Cards

November 1, 2013, 8:55 am
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I've been inspired this week due to a tweet from @MissKMcD about her 'Learning Skills Loyalty Card'. Here it is...




 















As with every great idea, is has been well and truly 'magpied' (I hope she doesn't mind)!

Therefore, please find below the new 'Mathematics Loyalty Card' that I'm planning on using with my Year 11 classes after half term...

 This is the front of the card :)











As you can see the card has 6 symbols on it, all of which will need to be 'achieved' if the student is to earn themselves a reward at the end of it. Now, as to what this reward will consist of I'm not yet sure. I've thought about a trip of some sort for those that manage to complete them. Some sort of 'prize' of the students choosing be it confectionery based or otherwise, but the main thing is that the reward at the end of the card needs to be something that is sought of by the individual student, otherwise I can't see the effort and attention being given to the tasks on the card.

This is how the back of the card looks - explaining each of the symbols on the front.










My thinking with each of the tasks is that they should be tasks that are more than achievable, but at the same time require a certain degree of effort on behalf of the student. The tasks will also help support the student in their revision leading up to their examinations. Now, our Y11s already have a 'passport' they have to get signed off by teachers in order to go their Y11 'prom'. So this is something I wanted to be almost separate from that to encourage them to do more independent study in Mathematics. Of course, if they attend after school sessions there is nothing to say that can't count towards their Y11 'passport' and their Mathematics Loyalty Card. The two can run alongside each other however!
I'm hoping that with the tasks on the card that it will instill a further sense of motivation in my students without making them go completely out of their way to try and achieve each task. For example, they will have weekly homework to do anyway, however, if they manage to get full marks on their homework they can stamp off that achievement on their Loyalty Card. They will get set mymaths tasks each fortnight to complete in their computer room lesson (as independent study), so all they will have to do is ensure they get 'green' results on these tasks (at least 5 of them). They all know when the after-school Mathematics sessions are - they just need to turn up to them. Some students are making good use of these, others (perhaps because they don't see the urgency yet, what with the examinations being in June) could do with attending these.

Therefore, I'm hoping to use the Loyalty Cards as an added incentive. The tasks that require students to produce a piece of work to go on display and show evidence of having revised are the only 2 that may require them to go out of their way and do 'extra'. The 'level up' task is something that should happen naturally if all other tasks are completed and attempted.

This idea is very much in its infancy. I will pass it by my colleagues next week and see what they say and then introduce the idea to my students. I'll obviously be tweeting this link out too and hope to get some responses from my Twitter followers as to the 'reward' at the end of the card, how best to use them etc.

When I do give them out I will use my 'Mr Collins likes this' stamp to stamp each symbol when completed. Here's one I made (stamped) earlier...


The stamp fits perfectly in each symbol (when printed A5 size)
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59 starters (so far)

November 3, 2013, 8:23 am
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A month ago, whilst doing my regular resource reviews on the TES, I came across a resource that was that good I felt the need to blog about it...it's been a while since I had that thought, but now (having found a few minutes between planning lessons for going back to school tomorrow) I'm ready to do so.

The resource is from Richard Tock (@TickTockMaths) (tes username: richardtock) and is quite simply a jam packed ppt with loads of starters for your Mathematics lessons.

You can download the resource from the TES here --> http://goo.gl/aoFVYR

The ppt includes random number/letter generators, you can randomly choose a starter task, you can assign your own favourite starter tasks on the menu screen by dragging the relevant numbered starter into the 'drag favourites here' section and much much more.

Here's the main menu...




 
As you can see the starter tasks are all differentiated by the colour coding that has been assigned to each task (key in top right of screen). By clicking on the 'pick one randomly' you can get a random starter task (make sure you enable macros when the ppt opens).






Some of my favourite starter tasks from the '59 starters' resource:

Starter #1 - what is special about this grid? I won't spoil this by revealing the answer, check it out yourself!
It'd be interesting to see what students would come up with here, and how they would go about trying to find the 'specialness' of the grid!
Starter #29 - bananas. Very good for literacy links. It is also very generic which allows it to be used as the starter in almost any lesson/subject. This could be adapted for all subjects, and even keep 'a mathematical word' to get a bit of numeracy in other subjects.
Starter #14 - What is the question? I like these tasks, especially as you can create any question to which the answer is on the screen, for almost any topic too. Click the number in the centre of the screen to randomly generate another!
Starter #33 - 4 pics 1 word. I created some of these last year, check them out by viewing my blog post at --> http://goo.gl/wx0uBR& download them from the TES by clicking --> http://goo.gl/vWkZCP.
Starter #59 - What is the best number? Why? This links to the YouTube video clip of Sheldon from the Big Bang Theory explaining what the actual best number is. Cue debate from your students!





I also like all the Dara O'Briain's School of Hard Sums questions as I have seen, and shown these episodes in class on a few occasions. Some of the questions are quite tricky, but fear not...Richard Tock has included all the answers!

So, download this resource and it will essentially cover your starters for your lessons if you are struggling to find inspiration, or anything to specifically link in to your main lesson's topic/theme. The tasks I have tried out with students so far have gone down really well and it allows you to get lessons off to a quick start by having something to think about on the board as students arrive, you collect h/w in etc etc.

Thanks to Richard Tock for uploading this resource to the TES and making it available to everyone!
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Numeracy Across the Curriculum (ITT/NQT Session)

November 4, 2013, 8:12 am
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On Monday 4th Nov 2013 I delivered a 'numeracy across the curriculum' session for my school's ITTs and NQTs. I was only given 30 minutes for this as the other half of the hour session was delivered by one of my English colleagues on 'Literacy across the curriculum'.

For the session, I used the following Prezi and included a number of ideas for getting numeracy into other subject's lessons. These ideas I will explain further here to support the ITTs and NQTs at my school, and also for anyone else who is interested in those ideas that I presented...I hope they are of use!


*Feel free to flick through the Prezi I created for the session. Throughout the presentation: I referenced the National Numeracy Organisation; briefly explained what numeracy was; gave my colleagues a question to attempt and used this to highlight the different ways students will go about solving the same problem; suggested ways in which you could/should be using numeracy in lessons; provided examples of what could be used to help (data from SIMS and a guide to the levels in Mathematics [from another colleague in my department]) and then presented 12 ideas, all of which I will explain further here (due to having to whizz through them in the session)!*

Idea #1 - Scrabble Tiles
I wrote a blog post on these previously which can be seen by going to --> http://goo.gl/rxCbrK

The Scrabble Tiles can be used in any subject by getting students to find/create key words for the lesson. The numeracy element comes in by getting students to find the sum of the numbers on their tiles. They could then even multiply this by a 'number of the day'. You could get students to estimate the highest total score for a word in your subject, would it differ in other subjects? Why? You could award extra points to students if they come up with a key word for the particular topic you are teaching; you could even award a percentage of their score, for example students could get 10% extra if the word is related to the lesson.

Idea #2 - Use the Dates

This idea is particular useful in subjects like History and English where you have historical dates to refer to or historical figures/people to mention. Get students to work out how many years it has been since certain dates, since the death of historical people. In Geography you could ask students to find the number of years since an event happened. You could get students to work out the age of people who have died by giving them their year of birth/death; you could go as far as working out how old they were in years, months, days, hours etc and could discuss conversions between time here. You could ask students how many days it is until events in the future too. For example, in RE, religious festivals such as Divali, Christmas, Eid, Easter etc. In Design and Technology (or Art) you can get students to create Gantt Charts for their projects and work out the number of days allocated to certain aspects of their projects (this idea came from @kutrahmoore).




Here's an example of a Gantt Chart. These could be used for any subject where an extended project is used - or for revision purposes in terms of creating a revision timetable!






Idea #3 - Pie Chart of the lesson

This could be used to great effect as a plenary activity. Get students to draw a pie chart to sum up the lesson. This activity could be differentiated for students by either keeping the timings simple (i.e. half the lesson I...(half the pie chart), a quarter of the lesson I...(a quarter of the pie chart), an eighth of the lesson I...(a quarter of the pie chart) etc) or getting students to use smaller time intervals, i.e. I spent 4 minutes reflecting on my progress (so a 24 degree slice would be needed to represent this). In order to do this the students will need to divide the 360 degrees in a circle up accordingly; 1 minute of the lesson would be represented by a 6 degree slice of the pie chart.

Idea #4 - Graphing Progress

Again, as a plenary activity in a lesson, or perhaps even kept at the start of every new topic in their exercise books, students can create a suitable graph/chart to 'graph' their progress throughout a topic. Here they can practise their skills of drawing suitable axis, with a consistent scale, and plotting points on their graph across a given time period. You can discuss here with students the criteria that they'll put on their 'progress' axis, whether it be a grade, level or other scale. You could also discuss the benefits of one graph/chart over another.

Idea #5 - Top Trumps

I love top trumps cards and have used them in my lessons to help engage lower ability students in their learning. I have a particular set of 'animal substitution top trumps' cards that I use regularly when teaching the topic. How these can be used in other subjects is by using key people/events and getting students to create their own top trumps cards and assign people/events certain values based on some categories you/they decide upon. For example, in English, you could take all characters from a particular novel (lets say Of Mice and Men) and then get students to rate them on their: likability, nobility, strength etc. Students then assign each character a value for these categories based on what they have learnt about them by reading the novel and then they'd play the game of top trumps in the traditional manner. To make this even more numeracy related you could get students to create sums/calculations instead of just having a single number. This way students would have to first do the sum before deciding whose card was the winner. In Science, this can be done with the Elements, perhaps taking proton number, mass number, number of electrons etc as the categories.

Here's an example of the 'Animal Substitution Top Trumps' I use...

With these top trump cards you give students values for a, b and c to substitute into the expressions on the cards. I change the values throughout the activity (to negatives, decimals, fractions etc) and then award 'rewards'/'house points' for those students holding my favourite cards (the chicken, pig and hedgehog - just in case you were wondering).

You can download this resource on the TES by clicking on --> http://goo.gl/HTzasQ









Idea #6 - Line Ups (range, median etc)

This can be used in a number of subjects where your students have to measure anything. For example, if they need to measure their heights for a given activity, or perhaps their heart rates in PE. Get them to line up in ascending order and then ask the class to work out the range, median and mode of their heights, heart rates, hand spans, weights etc. In History, you could take this idea further to make a timeline out of students for a certain event, say World War I or II, hand out to them key events, or get them to create these themselves, and then get them to line up in ascending order. Then you could calculate time frames between certain events. I can see this working well in PE too for the speeds at which they complete certain events/tasks.

Idea #7 - Venn Diagrams

Venn Diagrams can be used to compare any 2 (or more) things. In English, they can be used to compare characters in a book. In Science, they can be used to compare elements, In PE, they can be used to compare sporting events. In History, they can be used to compare historical events. In Geography, they could be used to compare natural disasters. In Music, they can be used to compare songs/bands/artists. In Food, they can be used to compare recipes. And so on... . Venn Diagrams can be used as either a starter activity or a plenary. They can also be used for revision purposes if asked to 'compare and contrast...'.

I have a resource on the TES I use when introducing Venn Diagrams (or HCF and LCM) that acts as a starter activity to get students to compare...Batman and Superman or...Shrek and Donkey. Download and adapt them here... http://goo.gl/Qh7NuQ

Idea #8 - Calculator Stories
This idea stems from a resource I found on the TES, you can download that resource here --> http://goo.gl/1AJ80j

Here it is too...

As you can see by the image to the left, this involves using a calculator to perform certain calculations to which the answers can be read by turning the calculator upside down in the 'old school' fashion where kids would type 5318008 to spell out 'boobies'!

You can therefore take any piece of text, omit any words you can spell by typing in numbers on a calculator and then turning it upside down, and then create a sum for students to answer to reveal the word in the text. You could get students to create their own or prepare them for them as a short starter activity. This would get them reading some key information for your lesson whilst practising their calculator skills. Check whether your students have their calculators on them at all times or whether you'll need to borrow some; they should all have them with them in our school (as long as they have Mathematics on the same day as your lesson)!?

Idea #9 - Cash Reward/Behaviour Tax
an idea I recently read in @TeacherToolkit's #100ideas book...

The idea is that, perhaps as part of a behaviour management strategy, at the start of a lesson you give all students a certain amount of 'money'. I have some fake £10 notes printed out that I use with ratio activities, or you could use money from board games, print your own etc. Then, throughout the lesson, perhaps when giving out reward points or warnings (in line with your school's behaviour policy), you then issue a reward cash value or 'tax' to the students. This tax could be 10%/25% of the money they have at that time in the lesson, or could just be a determined amount, say £20; a discussion here about which would be the greater amount would be lovely! The students at the end of the lesson with the most money could then 'trade' them in for a small prize or even receive an additional reward point.
I have used raffle tickets in the past in this manner (give them out for good behaviour/work, take them away for poor behaviour) and then draw a ticket at the end of the lesson and that person wins a prize. Here you can discuss the probability of them winning, based on the number of raffle tickets they have!

Idea #10 - Bananas!
I have no idea why this activity is called 'bananas' but I love it nonetheless...it is an idea I found through @TickTockMaths''59 Starters' resource available on the TES. I blogged about it very recently at --> http://goo.gl/b9h5k1

Here's the idea...and this can be used in any subject...

You basically choose a few categories, related to your subject/lesson, and then pick any letter of the alphabet and get students to think of a key word for each category that begins with the chosen letter of the alphabet. How you get in some numeracy is that one of the categories could be 'a mathematical word' or 'a word to do with numeracy'. Get students to define their chosen word and say how/when they'd use it in their Mathematics lessons.

Idea #11 - Estimate the lesson

Estimation appears naturally in every day life. We estimate the amount of time it's going to take us to complete a journey, the amount of time we need to leave for certain tasks, the amount our shopping is going to amount to when we get to the check-out etc etc. For any subject there will be a number of occasions in your lessons where you can ask students to do some estimating. It could be the amount of time an activity is going to take them, a mark/score they believe they'll get on a test/assessment, the number of years since an event, the amount of an ingredient they will need for a recipe for a given number of people, an amount of liquid to use in an experiment, the length of wood to cut to make an object from etc etc. You could even, when asking students to estimate something related to your lesson, ask them to estimate the answer to a calculation i.e. estimate the answer to 34.98 + 23.1.

Idea #12 - Squares

I love squares. This is perhaps one of my favourite activities to do and there are so many variations of this activity that I probably need to write another blog post/book to explain them all...and even then they'll be other variations found too!

The activity 'squares' is based on a 6 by 6 dotted grid (or other square sized grid of your choosing) and players take it in turn to join two dots together, thus making 1 of the 4 sides of a square. The game continues with the other player taking their turn. Each time a square is created by having all 4 of its' sides complete the person wins that square.
How I make this more 'mathsy' is by having numbers in each 'square' prior to the start of each game, then, when a student wins a square they add that amount to their total. I've also done this when introducing algebra to get students to collect like terms (this would require letters and numbers to be placed in squares at the start).
This can be adapted for any subject by making a mega game of squares on the class whiteboard, or even better, on the IWB. Instead of writing numbers in the squares you can write questions for students to answer. So everytime they win a square they answer the question in the square they have won. The game is all about strategy and problem solving and is an enormous amount of fun!

Additionally, this can be done on a coordinate grid with a set of axes for students to call out coordinates before drawing their line (or their partners' chosen line). For example 'I want to join the points (2, 3) and (3,3). This variation could be used well in Geography when discussing maps and grid references.


Here's an extreme example of a 'squares' grid, write questions/numbers etc in the squares and each time a square is won the students answers that question or adds the number to their score!














So, that's all 12 ideas I presented (briefly) in my numeracy across the curriculum session. I hope it gives you a better idea of each and ultimately, how you can build numeracy into your lessons (if you were struggling to find a way to do so). There are loads of ways you can adapt these ideas to suit your subject/students/lesson etc I hope I've given enough examples for specific subjects? If you try anything out do let me know by commenting below or tweeting me at @mrprcollins.

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Advent Calendar Resource

December 1, 2013, 2:03 pm
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Earlier this year, in February, I found the following resource (by dannytheref [@dannytheref])...

http://goo.gl/X3oP5u

The only problem with this was that I was 2 months too late! However, having remembered the resource, I relocated it earlier this week with the intention of using it this month in the lead up to Christmas for some festive starter activities to kick off my Mathematics lessons.

If you haven't seen/used the resource before you can download it from the TES by clicking on the link above. Here's what the resource includes...

The home slide is complete with a festive jingle. You then click on the doors to reveal the starter task/activity to do.

I recommend reading the instructions and answers document that accompanies the resource to fully understand all of the different activities on offer. These could be done on a daily basis with your classes or just randomly depending on when/how much you want to use this in your lessons!

My favourites are:

The product game - the resource takes you to a website to play this
Heads or Tails - classic!
'One of these things is not like the other thing' - sung by the Cookie Monster...what's not to love!
Pointless - brilliant game
The boys vs girls head to head - the accompanying music is brilliant

I know I'll be using this in my lessons this month. If you do too let me know how the resource goes down and don't forget to leave a comment for dannytheref on his resource too!




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Communicating with your TAs (#TMEpsom)

December 1, 2013, 3:07 pm
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Last Monday (25/11/13) I attended the 2nd #TeachMeet held @glynschoolepsom (my previous school). After hosting #TMSurrey last year, I was able to relax this year and enjoy #TMEpsom that was hosted by Guy Jones @questionbeggar.

As part of the event, I decided to present on how we go about communicating with our TAs/HLTAs. I only presented for about 2 minutes and so I hope by writing in more detail about this here that some unanswered questions will be answered.

My presentation at #TMEpsom was really simple and revolved around the purple folders we use for each of our classes where we have TA/HLTA support.

I have one of these folders for each of 4 of my classes where I receive regular support for the students in my class.

The folders are managed by my TAs and they update the folders if/when we run out of daily sheets, when IEPs are updated and class details change. As a teacher, all we have to update in the folders are our seating plans and our schemes of work for that module/topic etc.


Each of my purple folders contain the following information:

Class List with all SEN details highlighted
Students Photos
Seating Plans
Schemes of Work
Current Levels/Grades for students on the Code of Practice
A Daily Tracker for teachers/TAs to fill in
IEPs
Reading Levels and other relevant data on the students

Before each lesson I have with the class, and when TA/HLTA support is given, I fill in the teacher part of the daily tracker sheets. The daily tracker sheet is a simple table with 3 columns, 1 for the date, 1 for the teachers' instructions for the TA and 1 for the TA's feedback. All I write in the table is the date/period of that lesson and then how I wish my TA/HLTA to support me with the class in that particular lesson. This consists of a few sentences explaining what we're doing that lesson, with whom I wish them to work (or withdraw from the lesson to work with in a small group) plus other details as necessary.

At the start of each lesson the idea is that my TAs pick up the folder for that class from my desk and look at what I have written on the daily sheets for that lesson. Then, at the end of the lesson, they fill their part of the daily tracker sheet in by commenting on how the students they worked with progressed that lesson and comment on any other things they picked up on in the lesson. This could be that certain students did/didn't complete certain activities, whether they noticed students struggle on a particular concept or had a common misconception etc.

The great thing about the purple folders is that it allows me to communicate with my TAs without having to find those 5-10 minutes in between lessons or after lessons to catch up on what you'll be doing or how things went; too often in the past I have tried to have these conversations at the start/end of lessons and rarely had the time to really let my TAs know what it is I'd like them to do or how the students they were working with got on.

By using the purple folders I now see, prior to each lesson, the comments from previous lessons and the progress of those students my TAs/HLTAs were working closely with. This then feeds into my planning for subsequent lessons and it may be that I ask my TA to work with other students they noticed didn't do so well in previous lessons, or take certain students out to catch them up on work they may have missed out on or need further support with. It also means my TAs can see what it is I want them to support me with before the lesson rather than having a couple of minutes notice of what they're expected to do. And, when there is a class where I am supported by 2 or 3 different TAs/HLTAs, they can be informed of how those students they are to work with have progressed in previous lessons.
Another thing I like about the folders is that I have all the class' IEPs and details of their particular SENs to hand. Usually these details are kept on the school's shared drives and finding such information can take a while. This way, the details are there when planning each lesson and they can easily be referred to when planning new activities and ensuring I am using particular overlays on ppts, grouping certain students together, changing seating plans and making sure those students that need to be sat in particular places can be etc etc.

The purple folders are something my school have been trialling since the end of last year, I believe, and so they are something I have been introduced to this year. As such, getting used to these have taken some time and remembering to fill them in as soon as possible for my TAs to access has taken time to get in the routine of doing. We have found some problems with them based around the fact that my TAs still don't always get enough notice prior to lessons as to what they need to be doing with the class, especially if they are asked to take a small group out. The prior warning needed for doing these 'withdrawls' means the TAs need time to prepare resources perhaps, or just find a room/space they can go with the students they are being asked to take out and work with. So, in addition to the folders, if I know I'd like my TAs to take certain students out I try to e-mail them the day before the lesson (at least) so they have time to prepare.

The folders are working to improve the communication between my TAs and I and they provide great evidence of the support and provision we are giving to certain students and my classes in general. If anyone whats any further information about our purple folders then get in touch by commenting below or contact me on Twitter @mrprcollins
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Santa's Reindeer Resource

December 2, 2013, 1:08 pm
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One of my favourite festive resources is this 'Santa's Reindeer' resource from Michael Sharman

http://goo.gl/iK8CyS

You can download this resource from the TES by clicking on the above link.

Here's a print screen of the resource...

The idea of the activity is that each of Santa's Reindeer make a series of noises associated with their number. Each noise corresponds to a number fact (multiples, factors, greater than, lower than etc) and students have to work out which Reindeer is which number between 1-16.

I also give my students a grid of all 16 numbers and the number facts they need to use to help them formalise their workings. They use the grid as a tick sheet to tick off whether the numbers adhere to the number facts or not.

This resource is one of many featured in the TES Mathematics 'Maths at Christmas' collection.

You can view the full collection at:

http://goo.gl/TeVQtX




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Search

#nurture1314

January 1, 2014, 8:46 am
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Having read many excellent blog posts over the last few weeks on #nurture1314 I've decided to take some time out of the festivities to write my own. I'm a strong believer in reflecting on what I do in order to improve and there seems little better time to do so than on New Years Day 2014.
So, here (in no particular order) are my 13 reflections on 2013 and 14 things I hope to achieve in 2014.

2013

1) Completing my NQT year. 2012-2013 saw me complete my NQT year at my previous school. I had fantastic support around me from my school, department, mentor and assessor and the year seemed to fly by with very few worries experienced along the way. Knowing what it's now like not having to be observed and collate evidence in order to prove that you are capable of teaching puts the year in perspective. I almost miss the fact that there's not someone constantly checking on your teaching and suggesting ways in which you could improve. It was very strange at the start of this school year when you're essentially left to get on with it and do the job you're now deemed capable of doing. I look back on my NQT year with fond memories and miss the free periods for planning etc and time to be able to observe colleagues.

2) #TMSurrey was a massive highlight for me as I (with the help of many colleagues) organised and ran my own TeachMeet back in May at my previous school. The experience of getting attendees/presenters for the event, sourcing some prizes, organising catering, booking the school hall, sorting out the ICT needed for the night etc and worrying that everything was going to go as planned and everyone would benefit from and enjoy the evening made the event worthwhile and is definitely something I will look to do again. I had the pleasure of then attending the next TeachMeet at my previous school (#TMEpsom) and sat back, enjoyed the presentations put on and even presented myself...all without the pressure and stress of organising the event myself! To read more about #TMSurrey go to... http://goo.gl/v8Rb5

3) I had my very first article published in the TES magazine on how I work with my TAs in class. Some of my resources had been mentioned in the magazine in the past due to my work on the TES Maths Panel, but this was the first time I had an article published personally in the magazine. I still have the issue here at home and was very proud to see my work alongside other professionals with far more experience and expertise. To read my article go to... http://www.tes.co.uk/article.aspx?storycode=6371685

4) Twitter. This continues to be the best place (in my opinion) to get resources from other teachers/twitter accounts. The support from people on there, even indirectly by just reading blog posts and tweets from other teachers, allows you to see, when having a bad day, that you are not  alone and there are plenty of people out there struggling and coming through difficulties they have faced. Some highlights from Twitter in 2013 have been participating in #blogsync, reaching 2000 followers (whatever that means I don't actually really know, but it's nice to know a few people are looking at my ramblings), finding out about Jo Boaler's 'How to Learn Math' online course and finding out about TeachMeets and other initiatives like #poundlandpedagogy.

5) Getting my current job teaching Mathematics at the school I went to as a kid. This was a big highlight for me this year as it is something I was hoping to get when I left the school a couple of years ago having worked as a cover teacher. I left to do my teacher training and was intending on returning when an opportunity arose and the time was right. That opportunity came up in February and in September I started my first year back at the school working as a fully qualified teacher.

6) Moving house. My partner and I lived in separate locations for the most part of the school year 2012-2013 as she was doing her ITT up in Luton and I was working here, where we now live. We moved into a 2 bed flat at the end of June and was one of the best things we did this year. We are both within 30 minutes of our schools where we work and close to our families so couldn't be better placed and happier where we are.

7) Delivering my 1st training session to ITTs/NQTs. I was asked to deliver the 'numeracy across the curriculum' session to my school's ITTS and NQTs this past term and thoroughly enjoyed this experience. I am aiming to be an ITT/NQT mentor in the future when I have a bit more experience to offer and have settled into my school and so this opportunity was one that has definitely given me the appetite to continue this aspiration. To read more on the training session I delivered and to see all associated resources go to... http://goo.gl/n8c7KT

8) Being part of the team that won our 5-a-side football league. I play in a 5-a-side football league with my brother and his colleagues from his place of work every Tuesday evening. This season, having been the 'whipping boys' of the league for every season prior, we actually won the thing having beaten our closest rivals on the last day of the season. To top it all off, I was awarded the 'player of the season' by the leagues' officials (I was shocked, but not as perturbed as my brother was that I was given the award)!

9) Resources. I have been inspired by many of the people I follow on Twitter and by the resources I get to 'review' on the TES as part of being on the TES Maths Panel. As such I have created/modified/stolen many great resources this year and have used them with my classes who become the guinea pigs to finding which ones work best and how best to use them. Personally, my favourites have been my Mathematical Concept Cards, Mathematics 4 pics 1 word and 2 0 1 3 display. You can see all these resources and their relevant blog posts by clicking the links above.

10) my 'Superstar Djing'. I don't do as much of this as I used to, but every now and then I have a leavers' ball/freshers' ball/wedding/party to DJ and having this hobby outside of the normal day job keeps me with something to look forward to. I usually do 1 gig every couple of months on average and are mainly for family and friends. It allows me to keep up-to-date with the charts and current music, strangely this gives you a certain 'kudos' with the kids!

11) The Y6 Problem Solving Day that I ran and helped organise. This involved 6 of our primary schools coming to our school for a day full of mathematical puzzles and problems. The day went very very well and all feedback since has been very positive. I am very keen to showcase how good my school is and this gave me the ideal opportunity to do this to the kids that will hopefully be joining us in September. I will be doing a similar day for Y2 students later this school year. To read more on this go to... http://goo.gl/DPLK7p

12) Our holiday to Lapland. We've just got back from 4 days away in Levi, Lapland and this was my far one of the best holidays we have had. We decided to take the time to relax and get away for the holidays and I'm glad we did as we didn't have a 'holiday' in the Summer (mainly due to moving house) and this gave us the break we needed. We did no work, I didn't look at my phone/e-mails (apart from to check the Arsenal scores against West Ham and Newcastle) and enjoyed the time skiing and seeing the sites of the snowy fell village.

13) Best of the rest (that I can remember)...my brother got married, I moved into my new classroom (F13) and enjoyed setting it all up (see previous blog post http://goo.gl/GV8FCh [the only one I managed in September]), I had the 'stickers' on my Mini Cooper S replaced and freshened up, lots of golfing over the Summer holidays and of course Arsenal finished the year top of the Premier League table...when Arsenal are doing well everything else seems to go a lot more smoothly and with a lot less stress/hassle...long may it continue!

2014

1) First and foremost to continue to be happy at home, at work, with family and friends and to be healthy throughout 2014. This will probably include eating more healthily and continuing to play football both on a Tuesday evening and on a Friday after-school at 'Staff Football'.

2) At the tail end of the past term I was accepted on an 'Aspiring Middle Leaders' course as part of my schools' partnership with local schools. This course starts on Monday 6th January at our 1st INSET of the year. Instead of taking part in my school's 'normal' INSET day I am going to have the 1st session of the course at one of our partner schools with the other teachers that are on the course. As part of the course I will be leading a working party at my school on 'Numeracy across the Curriculum'. I will have 4 colleagues working with me as part of the working party and hope this will be the 1st step on a ladder to taking on more responsibility in future. Watch out for blog posts (and reflections) on this course as it progresses.

3) I have also been put forward as my department's IT representative and as such am now on the school's IT development party and will be attending BETT2014 as our first 'task'. I'm very excited about going to BETT2014, the subsequent TeachMeet that will be held that Friday evening and finding out about all the different IT that could be used in my future teaching. There will undoubtedly be more on this as the year progresses!

4) Next school year 2014-2015 I hope to become an ITT/NQT mentor. I was considered for this this year, but was later told that I needed to be in my 3rd year of teaching (at least) to be eligible for the training for the role. Sep 2014 I will start my 3rd year of teaching and so hope that I will be able to undergo the training to then take on an ITT.

5) I would ideally like to blog more over the next 2 terms than I have been able to over the past term at school. I have found my workload go up considerably since completing my NQT year and starting my 100% timetable. The 6 periods of PPA I get a fortnight seem very few and far between and so I need to work smarter and not necessarily harder in order to find the time to do the blogging I have found extremely useful and rewarding.

6) I would like to continue to add to my YouTube Channel and the videos I have already put on there to support my students in the learning of their Mathematics. This is a time consuming job that I like doing, but just don't seem to find as much time for as I'd like. I know that my students benefit from the videos on there, and there have been specific requests from them as to the next videos I can produce for them - namely help with completing the square and quadratic sequences. So, I will aim to get the next lot of 'homework sheet videos' up by the Feb half term and then go from there.

7) Along the same route as the YouTube videos I have a plan for the 'numeracy across the curriculum' working party that I will be leading and hope to get my colleagues on board with the idea I have. There will be more on this in the future when I have ironed out a few things. For now, I'll keep the idea close to my chest and this point will serve as reminder for me in the future.

8) Begin to think about writing some sort of educational book. This is something that I really want to do. Having been inspired by the likes of @TeacherToolkit and @Maths_Master for their '100 Ideas for Outstanding Lessons' and 'The Magic of Pineapples' books respectively, I'd love to write a book about the teaching of Mathematics, ideas for lessons, perhaps a 'numeracy across the curriculum' book in line with what I'll be doing as part of the aspiring middle leaders course? If there's anyone out there of the book publishing kind that wants to get in touch you can contact me by commenting below or via Twitter: @mrprcollins (here's hoping).

9) Continue to improve my teaching of Mathematics for my students. This includes everything I do as a teacher: planning, marking, differentiation, assessment for learning, homework, communication, working with my TAs, etc etc. I will continue to use Twitter and the TES to source new ideas and resources. I will use the TeachMeets I am already planning on attending (TMBett2014 and TMSussex) to meet with other professionals and discuss ideas and, of course, I'll continue to work alongside my colleagues to improve the teaching and learning in our school.

10) Book a holiday for the Summer Holidays. Having enjoyed our holiday to Lapland so much we'll be booking a holiday for the summer holidays. This time...somewhere hot and probably for 10-14 days.

11) Try to get up to the Emirates Stadium to see Arsenal more than I have been able to over 2013.

12) Like Jo Boaler's 'How to Learn Math' online course I would like to take part in another course like this to improve my pedagogical knowledge and wider mathematical knowledge. Having signed up to Boaler's course over the summer of 2013 I now receive e-mails from Stanford University's online courses and have already seen a few that look interesting.

13) Organise and host the next #TMSurrey at my school.

14) Based on all of the above...be realistic and don't try to do too much! Focus on what is important and what is needed and prioritise the tasks I have to do with what I would like to do. I believe in having lots of aspirations, but I also realise the need to curb some enthusiasm and save it for doing the day job!

Well, that's that - I will ensure I look back on this post over the course of the year to remind myself of the aspirations I have set and the success I enjoyed other 2013. I hope this post has been of interest of others and hope to continue to share ideas throughout 2014 that may be of use to others.

Happy New Year to everyone reading this - I hope you have a great 2014.

Mr Collins
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2 0 1 4 challenge

January 25, 2014, 6:09 am
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Last year I did the following challenge with my classes that is based on the '4 fours challenge'... http://mrcollinsmaths.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/2-0-1-3-challenge.html

Before I'd even got the chance to start thinking about this year's one I saw the following tweet:



















In response to this tweet Clarissa Grandi (@c0mplexnumber) gave a link to her resource on the TES that she used last year to create her display - - > http://www.tes.co.uk/teaching-resource/Yearly-Maths-BIDMAS-Challenge-interactive-display-6323177/.

I have previously used Magic Whiteboard (www.magicwhiteboard.co.uk) to create the display, but this year I thought I'd have a change as I wanted to put the display on the wall outside my room and so downloaded Clarissa's resources (they're very good).

Here's how my display looks this year...














I have posed the challenge to my KS3 classes and my top set Y10 class (my Y11s have more pressing things to be worrying about)!

I have also sent round Clarissa's ppt to the rest of our department so it is more than just my classes' challenge.

Here's how we're getting on so far...





 1-10 are all done
 










11-20 all done too










21-30 all done too
 31-40 a few missing still











41-50 the latter ones still to do
 51-60 not many done








 the 60s are proving tricky
 and the 70s
 the late 80s are needing some thought
 not many 90s done either?










If you're doing the challenge too it'd be great to see how you're getting on. Tweet me @mrprcollins or comment below...

I don't know if all numbers 1-100 are achievable yet. I know there are defnitely more my classes could do. When I took my Y10 books in to mark the other day one of my students has started to go through all the numbers himself...pic to follow!
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Mr Collins Table Sheets (all in one place)

January 25, 2014, 12:01 pm
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Prior to starting my teaching career I was doing A LOT of private Mathematics tutoring in my local area and whilst doing so I created a set of 'Table Sheets' I used with my tutees to help them revise for their Mathematics GCSE examinations.

I first blogged about these on my GTP reflective journal blog at:

http://mrcollinsreflectivejournal.blogspot.co.uk/2011/08/mr-collins-table-sheets.html

Since then they were picked up by Craig Barton on the TES and were put into their own collection on the website. See...

http://www.tes.co.uk/article.aspx?storyCode=6172591

I have used these sheets in a variety of ways in my lessons and in revision sessions to help students revise for their examinations in a (hopefully) more engaging way than just giving them a past paper to work through.
I've had plenty of comments on the resources on the TES too and via Twitter from other teachers that have enjoyed using them and have even been getting students to create their own in class and swapping them around the room etc.

However, I have had a few requests for all the sheets to be available in one place rather than having to download each sheet individually. Most recently a request via Twitter asked if I had a Dropbox link to them. I didn't. I didn't even have the original files anywhere (that I could see). So, I've just gone through the collection on the TES and have downloaded them again so I have them for future use (I have them all printed and laminated)! I've now put them all in a compressed zip folder on my Dropbox account and you can access all the sheets here...

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/37694946/Mr%20Collins%20Table%20Sheets.zip

It might take a short while to download the compressed folder (I tried it a second ago), but then you should be able to extract ALL 34 files at once!

I hope this helps and with exam season looming hope they are of use when revising with your GCSE classes.
Let me know of how they have gone down with your students and how you've used them. Contact me on Twitter @mrprcollins or comment below.

For more ways I have used the sheets see:

http://mrcollinsmaths.blogspot.co.uk/2013/02/mr-collins-table-sheetsmatch.html
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Construct-a-Snowflake (much more than folding paper)!

January 25, 2014, 12:19 pm
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Over the festive period (the last week before we broke up for Christmas) I was looking for activities I could give my classes to do that would not only engage them, but also keep their Mathematics skills going.

I stumbled across @c0mplexnumber's (Clarissa Grandi) resource on the TES...

The resource gets students to accurately construct a regular hexagon to then create a snowflake from.

The reason I like this resource so much is that it uses a lot of skills:

Using compasses to construct a circle of a given radius
Using compasses to construct a regular hexagon within the drawn circle
Knowledge of key words like 'radius', 'circumference' etc
Knowledge of regular Polygons - you could then discuss interior/exterior angles etc
Drawing lines of symmetry
Understanding Rotational Symmetry
Reflections
using Tracing Paper

In my experience so far, students NEED to practise their use of compasses regularly as there's always a bunch of students in each class that seem to struggle with these skills. Additionally, the amount of students that seem to be unaware of how they can use tracing paper in their examinations to perform transformations always surprises me.

So, I ran the activity with my y8 and y9 classes. I demonstrated with the classes, both using my IWB/SMART notebook and by showing them on the table at the front of the class. The results were fantastic and have been stuck up on my classroom windows for everyone to enjoy from not only my room, but the school playground/reception area too!

You can download Clarissa's resource here:

http://www.tes.co.uk/resourcedetail.aspx?storycode=6377262

Here's how my students' snowflakes look...

 You can see how detailed they are!
I have another window full of these and they look great when outside looking up to my classroom windows!
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'Flappy Bird' and Data Handling Lessons

February 1, 2014, 4:19 pm
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This week I have been introduced to the latest mobile craze that is 'Flappy Bird', an infuriatingly addictive game/app that my students are all currently raving about.

The game is simple, yet ridiculously difficult. All you do is tap your Smartphone's screen to 'flap' the 'flappy bird' when you do this he flaps up and down your screen. The goal is to then guide your 'flappy bird' through a series of green 'Super Mario Bros'' esque pipes by tapping or not tapping to flap or not flap your 'flappy bird'!

Simple ay? Nope! You'll find yourself frustrated at your pathetic attempts to get through the gaps in the green pipes and furious when the bird plummets to his death each time he/she so much as brushes one of the obstacles.
This is what makes the game so addictive and is clearly the reason why my students are hooked and are trying to beat each others' scores.

My year 9 tutor group were the ones to initially show me the game. One of them tried to share his wisdom and suggest it's best to ensure you are below the gap before 'flapping', another bragged at their high score of 33, which the rest seemed to be determined to beat. Obviously, my feeble attempts at competing with this score were soon made clear and I retreated to my desk.

Later that evening I downloaded the app myself in an attempt to see if I could do any better in the comfort of my own home. It turns out that once every now and again I do actually get a respectful score. My current highest score is 32!

So, where am I going with all of this...

As I was playing the game (getting increasingly annoyed at my inability to do well) I started to think about what my average score was and whether or not I was getting any better the more I played. This then led to me thinking of lessons I had taught recently to my Year 9 class where they were working with frequency tables and working out estimated means. I thought that this could be an ideal opportunity to capitalise on the latest craze.

What I have done is filmed myself playing the game a number of times. The idea then being that I use the video to 'hook' students into the lesson. The students would be asked to, in a suitable table, collect the scores I get as the video is played to them in class and then afterwards work out averages from their table, represent the results on a suitable graph/chart/diagram etc. Or, for a lower ability class, just get them to write down the scores as I get them and then work out my average score using the mean, mode, median and range. As I was creating a notebook file to use for the lesson/s I then started to think about possible cumulative frequency graphs that could be created, box plots that could be drawn and compared, stem and leaf diagrams that could be drawn and back-to-backs compared. There's so much that could be done, just from the short videos I have created. In addition, on the notebook file I have put a few different plenary slides that can be used with a series of lessons. One of these focuses on our school's SMSC logos that we are currently using. I've also added in my Numeracy across the curriculum logo (more about this in another post).

I've uploaded my resources (2 videos and a notebook file) to my TES resources. I had to link the videos from my YouTube account (mrcollinsmaths) as the file sizes are quite large [too large to upload on the TES] - each video of me playing the game is roughly 7 minutes long.

To download these just go to...

http://www.tes.co.uk/teaching-resource/-and-39-Flappy-Bird-and-39-Data-Handling-Lessons-6398513/

Or, to access the videos directly click on the below links...

Video 1:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lxSSzgLDGpE

Video 2:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u3ZbUfggt0k

I'd be interested to hear of any other suggestions for how I could use the videos I've created. Just comment below, on the resource on the TES, or by tweeting me @mrprcollins.

Happy Flapping!
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