Some foldables

I've had a pdf about different foldables to use in Maths for a really long time, waiting in a large "To Do" pile, and recent blog and Pinterest readings have inspired me further. So I've had a go at it a few times. Here is the only one I have a picture of so far:

I put the index law name and question type on the front then the rule inside with an example, so they can work like flashcards. I love seeing the students go back and check these as we do questions.

Explaining where to write everything was probably the hardest part!

This one is by a student who rarely does their work, but asked me to keep this in my folder for them because they didn't have their book that day and thought it would get ruined in their bag. So that was a nice bonus! Hopefully she brings her book sometime and actually glues it in!

There will be lots more to come when I collect some books and take some more photos.

Paddlepop Stick Angles

I was inspired by a pin of a poster of angle types made from paddle-pop sticks.

Rather than making a poster each I decided to finally make some use of the string across my room. So they made one definition each and I made a title.

This was done in our first double-period on this topic, which was spent mostly reviewing types of angles, learning naming conventions for angles, and estimating and measuring angles. Oh and complimentary and supplementary angles. It was a busy time. We will probably add more diagrams when we do angles in parallel lines.

Thoughts for next time:

• Leave more time. Craft always takes longer than I think!
• Have more glue. It is hard to share around two glue bottles among 20 kids.
• Punch holes in card first, so the holes don't go through their writing.
• Do a demonstration one, largely to point out what size to write so that it is visible.
• Check spelling!

Another Pin down!!

A Growing Addiction

The time that Pinterest is absorbing in my life continues to grow, so I need to resolve to actually use some of these ideas. I want to acutally use this pinboard as a working space of teaching ideas. Add things, but also use them and remove them. I'm determined to do what I can and adapt lots of the fun primary ideas I find to my classes.

Of course some great ideas just don't come at the right time, and will have to wait. I won't teach symmetry or time again until next year, for example. 

So I have started by printing out the comics I'd gathered, laminating them and adding them to the comics section of my classroom.

Year 7 start "Angles and Shapes" next week, so I think I'll get some paddle-pop sticks and have a go at these as posters:

Year 10 after their exam next week will be doing some algebra that includes indices (I think - I haven't planned that far ahead!). I've been considering with some classes that we do too much teaching that is one topic per lesson then move on rather than frequently returning to the ideas and mixing things up more. I'm considering adapting this idea to index laws:

The centre could be a term in index form, and the categories could be multiplication, division and powers of powers (where they write a question that gives that answer) and expanded form. Maybe if the powers are lowish they could also have a substitution category where they pick a value for the pronumeral and evaluate the term. Then we could do one per lesson as we finish the topic and then later when we are revising.

Teaching and Pinterest

I've recently become addicted to Pinterest. For crafts and cooking and similar things, it is incredibly good for getting lots of ideas quickly. For teaching I feel that as a very visual sharing method, it isn't as obvious, but I'm still keeping an eye out. A lot of things under Education (if they relate to education at all) are just titles linking to "40 great teaching ideas" or something, and frankly, if I wanted to read, I wouldn't be on Pinterest. Searching for "math(s) teaching" or "classroom decoration" or other more specific things is better.

Things I have found pinterest useful for:

Maths jokes/comics

Inspirational quotes (now that I have Stitch to do this job, I need lots of quotes)

Lower level numeracy ideas such as pairs to ten (primary school teachers are great at colourful fun stuff)

And a few other fun ideas.