Apologies for the um’s and ah’s, the blatant lie about when the end is near and the part where I begin to say something, stop and say the same thing again.  I fear that editing will detract me from the purpose of this post and hope that you can forgive my mistakes as, indeed, my pupils have to every day.

In case it doesn’t work – here’s the YouTube link.

Credits of a sort:

Royal Bank of Scotland – Facing Up To Finance;

I cannot find details of this package online any more. The link above is to their equally useful Moneysense site.

Bowland Maths;

Bowland provides project based maths lessons that can be used for introduction of new topics, consolidation of units or just as good old fun and problem solving.

AiFL – Black Box publications

These booklets have always been a great source of ideas about how to use formative assessment in the maths classroom – a great place to start, I often pick these up again to remind myself of new approaches.

HUGE THANK YOU’S to my whole PLN and particularly:

@mvass, @atstewart, @relativism, @jimhenderson, @daveterron, @islayian

for putting up with my endless pleas for advice and help.

Ok so we’ve been working on this for a while now and I’m aware that it all went a little quiet for about 3 or 4 months.  The motivation factor of using the DS’s in class wore a little thin – or rather the class got used to them and started finding ways to ensure they managed just enough work to be allowed them.  The game became more of a toy than a learning tool and I had run out of ways to use the results of our races with the tennis stars so they were locked away in the cupboard for a time.

Very slowly our charts began to fill up as individuals were allowed to play games as a treat or reward.  We also made it through 2 sets of assessments, Christmas mayhem, a whole school evacuation – not a drill – and several snow days.  It was now the middle of winter term and time to ditch the project or resurrect it.  3M7 have a lot to thank my PLN and Twitter for because it was comments from you guys that moved me forward.

As I mentioned our class races had come to a natural end.  Looking forward I wanted to use the information that we had collected in the individual races.  From the beginning we had been writing down the total time for the race and the fastest lap for each game.  This in itself proved to be a learning  experience as some struggled to identify the best lap and most struggled with the format of the time.

First task was to get the information onto something more usable in the classroom than the posters that were being completed on the wall.  So we had a class discussion about the format of the times and then split into pairs.  Each pair was allocated a character and given 4 coloured cards – one for each of the cups.  They wrote their character name on each card and moved around the classroom completing the race times on the cards, working together to ensure the format was indeed correct.

Race Cards

Finding Times

Next we collected all of the character’s cards for each cup together, split into 4 groups and used them as an ordering game – fastest to slowest.  After this was completed and the misconception that the highest number was the fastest had been shot down by the pupils and confirmed in a less confrontational manner by me we did the exercise again using 2 sets of cards.  When we put the Orange and Green cups together we found an overlap in the fastest lap for one and the slowest for another which raised a good discussion about why.  Perhaps one was longer than the other, or harder, or the drivers on the slower race were just rubbish!  Regardless of the reason or ensuing argument it was the project and the pupils’ own work which prompted the discussion and not a contrived exercise for which they had no passion or interest.

Sorting Race Times

Are you sure?

Moving on we met the trickier topic of Speed Distance and Time.  I was determined to use the race cards again.  The class is only expected to complete distance calculations given the speed and time.

We discussed the average speed of a journey from home to Inverness (30m/s) and the fastest average speed recorded for a grand prix win. (67m/s – from F1technical.com)  I had calculated both in metres per second for them to give some context and to simplify calculations but keep them realistic.  From this the class decided that our Karts probably had an average speed of 40m/s.  Their responses had a very wide range due to their perception of “kart”.  Some expected the karts to be much slower than cars and I was pleased that none suggested anything close to the speed of the F1 car.  I had to persuade them up to 40m/s to ensure the next part offered some challenge.

I explained that we would assume the average speed of 40m/s and use this to calculate distance for each driver in each race. “But, miss, the race is the same length for each driver!” Thank goodness. I heartily agreed and said we were going to estimate the actual length by using averages and the information we did have.

Back to the problem of the format of the times – a quick revision on rounding to the nearest whole number and the cards were split up again.  I handed out worksheets to help the pupils organise their work and we split into groups around the 4 different cups.  We moved around the class writing down all of the fastest laps rounded to the nearest second.  Once they were all completed we calculated the distance.  Working together they managed to solve the problem of multiplying by 40 without my input and they flew through close to 32 calculations complete with working in minutes.

Calculating distance.

Still working...

From here we will do calculations to find the mean distance and time.  I hope this will prove some of our earlier discussions about some courses being longer or more difficult than others.

There are still gaps in the scoreboard which leaves more room for discussion and opportunities to reward pupils.

Moving forward I am looking forward to completing a similar exercise with the power car.  I would like to use this to calculate speed using the distance we know from work already done.

In a real life context we are far more likely to know the distance and time or the distance and speed – I am going to try something similar to extend the course, it can’t possibly be considered a waste of time even if it is not defined in the SQA arrangements.

This is a project that the whole class are involved in.  As long as I can continue to move it forward then they will probably remain engaged.  All the better if I can keep it linked to work that is prescribed by the curriculum.

For now, the motivation to play games may well have dwindled but Mario continues to keep them hooked for all the right reasons.

The Longest Journey Starts With A Single Step

I am spending some time working my way through my rather neglected Google Reader feeds. Each and every one included has value in education and has been added by me because they have provided an insight or an idea that I have been grateful for.

Reading them is not a chore, fitting the time in has become a problem. But only because I spend too much of that trying to plan what to do with it!

So, first step to taking control of my time and information flow – Reader will be checked every morning. Instead of watching adverts and personal stories of variable quality on TV over breakfast I will open up Google and have a quick flick through what’s new.

Time found!

I’ve bust my shoulder falling on the ice so I’m home and attempting to amuse myself.  The tv’s on and my laptop is open.  Now that’s just any normal evening – the only reason I feel the need to justify it tonight is because it’s Friday and I feel that I ought to be out somewhere.  Who am I trying to kid?  I’ve got TMBett201o streaming live, courtesy of Twitcam and @eyebeams , Facebook is providing a constant stream of news concerning the weekend exploits of friends and family and Twitter is giving me live updates from the education world and beyond.  All of this from the comfort of my sofa with a cup of tea and a heat pack on my shoulder.  I’m as happy as I could be right now.

So what’s wrong?

Once again I am receiving more information than I can handle.  There are too many things to try and I want to do them all at once.  TeachMeet is adding  to this list, so as well as inspiring me with tales of excellent classroom practice and fabulous new learning and teaching tools, my mind is once again trying to find a space to store all of these ideas or more accurately – a way to fit them all in next week.  So to get started I went to the Glow login.  That’s when I realised that this post was necessary.

The trouble is I find it difficult to focus on one thing at a time.  My head is full of projects that I can’t start because I cannot choose which one to try.  I believe this is more about not wanting to put all the other ideas on hold rather than not being inspired enough by one.

This is really a reminder to myself that I need to set goals and targets at the beginning of each term.

Time to regroup and prioritise again.  I haven’t done this properly since I had to write personal profile statements for GTCS.  Tomorrow I am going to keep a log of all the ideas floating around, conceptions or projects already in progress.  Then on Sunday I will set my own targets for the rest of the term.  Hopefully if I can see in a straight line then my classes will benefit from a more consistent effort.

Will keep you posted.

I’m doing a presentation on Tuesday and one of the key phrases that I am going to say out loud is that assessment is not the million dollar solution to Curriculum for Excellence that we are waiting for.  Now, I’m going to wear my waterproofs to protect me from the rotten fruit and veg bound to head my way but nothing’s going to stop the glares and looks of absolute disbelief.

The great thing is though:

I finally believe it’s true.

For a long time I have wanted to believe that the abolishment of external, final exams is the right thing to do.  I have always felt that it is fundamentally wrong to test pupil’s knowledge and 12 years of learning with 1 hour summative assessment.  On the flip side I have been unable to conjure any idea of what assessment should look like.  To be honest I’m still struggling with that but I can now look forward to the challenge because I finally understand my own role.

School curricula for too long has focussed on the goal being to pass as many exams as possible, the elite head to uni, the middle to college or apprenticeships and the bottom plough through and hope for the best from their handful of foundation grades.  Great improvements have been made with the continued implementation of vocational and practical courses.  The emphasis, however, has remained on channelling as many as possible down an academic route and adding extras for other learners.  Curriculum for Excellence goes one step further and asks teachers to provide learning suitable to every learner.

How do we know what to teach if there is no final goal?  A war cry from those, and until recently me, who need assessment to be fixed so that they know “what” to teach.  This is my real revelation to date because I have realised that:

 I know what to teach regardless of the final assessment. 

Nobody has ever suggested that we should be changing the content of our courses.  Indeed it would be difficult to create a brand new maths syllabus, the nuts and bolts of number, algebra and geometry are not changing and are essential to future learning.  Each step leads logically to the next and the extent of learning is now limited only by the ability of the pupils.  I agree that a structure must be imposed to learning to ensure that pupils are gaining a breadth of learning and that records of achievement for each pupil are essential and I’m not sure how that will look either but I am now confident that I have the tools and resources to move forward.

In my toolbox I have textbooks, worksheets and schemes of work, all of which offer comprehensive structure to suit learning maths through relevant age and stage levels in an ordered manner which builds upon previous learning and provides essential numeracy and mathematical skills.  In addition I have a plethora of ICT and interactive tools including games, concrete apparatus and links to real life.  Add to all that co-operative learning and formative assessment strategies and chuck in a bit of investigation, outdoor learning and fun and I reckon I might just make it through.

If I use all the tools that I have and maintain the pace and challenge I now believe that I can ensure that the learners in my classroom will be ready for whatever the National Assessment Resource can throw at them.

My first foray into using the video camera to engage pupils in mathematics.

image from http://www.flipcamera.co.uk/

My department recently purchased a Flip video camera from Amazon at my request.  My head is full of ideas about self evaluation, presentations, pupil interviews, screencasting, etc – the trouble as always for me is where to start.

So here’s what I’m going to do first.
The main aim is to engage pupils in their learning by making them believe that maths is all around us and truly important to our everyday lives.  My target audience is S1-S3.

The plan is to video various scenes in and around Thurso and set the pupils discussion tasks to answer the title question.

I’m going to start with the obvious;

• Retail displays including offers, discounts and deals.
• In the supermarket I’m heading for the fruit and veg aisle for weights, budgets, conversions, ratio.
• Off to the estate agent window for rent and mortgage info which I will follow up with household bills.
• The bank will provide some negative numbers, personal finance and some complicated percentage calculations in the form of compound interest and APR.
• Off down the river for an introduction to vectors which I learned about teaching the cadets last month.
• A wander in the park to look at Fibonacci, the golden ratio and maths in nature courtesy of Marcus du Sautoy and Teacher’s TV.
• Finish with a closer look at some of the buildings and architecture in Caithness – this may well be worth a trip to Dounreay to get the dome close up.

The more I think about this, the more excited I get – again, it’s an idea that has been bubbling around for a while.
If all goes well, I’d like to then send the pupils on a mission to record their own videos – around the school to begin with and then further afield.

What have I missed?  Your ideas to enrich this project would be more than welcome.

Many thanks to Tom Barrett and his amazing Interesting Things series.

.

As a teacher and a volunteer at a youth organisation I am in the enviable position of being able to learn alongside young people.

Just because I am older does not make me the expert. In many ways I have a better capacity to interpret new knowledge because I am often more aware of my own learning preferences and I have many more experiences with which to associate and compare new situation. In many ways I am at a disadvantage, previous misconceptions need to be overcome, it is often difficult to find a place for new information and I find it difficult to learn new practical skills.

Together my S3 class and I learned how to play Mario Kart – on Wednesday they beat me soundly – again!
Tonight I learned how an Air Speed Indicator works collaboratively with a group of cadets – although I’m not sure any of us know exactly what the Pitot tube is I know that they could offer explanations regarding pressure differences as well as me now.

Tonight I feel privileged to work with these people and tomorrow when they anger me I will try to remember writing this!

I’ve put this presentation together as an introduction to using a SMART Board in the classroom.

It is my intention that users will be able to use this as a guide and work through the excellent material already available online.

I would appreciate any comments that you have.

Many Thanks in advance.

.

The idea has been bubbling away nicely all summer and last week my thoughts finally pulled together into a feasible learning experience.

Based on discussions with the class, the restrictions of hardware and software, advice from my PLN and the curriculum restraints this is what I have chosen to trial this term.

There will be 2 leagues.

The first is a competitive league where 8 pupils at a time will race their tennis stars in a classroom battle.

How?  I have set aside 8 of the DS devices which I am hoping I will be allowed to retain in my classroom solely for the use of the project until at least Easter.  The pupils have chosen to name the consoles after tennis players (yes, Wimbledon was on at the time).  The league has been drawn up on a point basis.  The game will work out winners and points and the pupils will record these.  For now I will keep the info in a Google spreadsheet with a view to possibly getting the pupils to duplicate the worksheet in an ICT lab.

What learning outcomes am I addressing here?

• reading tables, graphs and charts
• draw conclusions and explain them from data
• take an organised approach to solving problems

We will have 2 races each session, hopefully 6 sessions this term.
2 each time to ensure the whole class has the opportunity to play.

This will leave us time in the last week to draw our conclusions.

The second tournament will be a time trial competition.

Within the game there are 8 characters who each have 2 cars and 4 cups which each have 4 tracks.
This leaves a lot of space for trial and improvement of the project.

So we’re going to attack the first track in each cup with each player’s 2 cars – that’s 64 races – that’s more than enough for 1 term.  This is an individual game so I’ll have to be careful about who’s getting to play.  The pupils will be able to choose which character, car and cup to race until all of the blanks in the posters are filled in.

Each time trial gives overall time and best lap data which will both be recorded.  The times are given in minutes, seconds and then decimal up to 1/1000 of a second.  This will set up learning outcomes about time beyond expectations of the course.  Extending easily into time calculations, we can also consider rounding, averages and further organisation skills.

So let the races begin!

Your feedback as always would be greatly appreciated.

I thought for long enough that if it’s on the Internet then it’s public and anyone can use it – this of course is naive and entirely wrong. Until the beginning of this year the internet was just a way to buy cheap music, keep in touch with friends and find funny jokes. It was a personal tool, not a professional one. Now I am responsible for a blog and a department webpage I’m starting to understand how I may feel if any of my work was used without my knowledge or permission. Now it is my knowledge that worries me most. Assuming that if I know about something that is used then I have probably offered my consent in some way. So actually it is acknowledgement that would concern me. Use my work but link it back to me.

As a teacher I want to share my ideas and practice. Sharing through blogging and social networking sites opens up my classroom to a wide audience of educational professionals. From these wonderful colleagues I receive praise, support and, most importantly, criticism and a guiding hand. My own reflections are challenged so that I consider alternative perspectives and think out of the box a little more often. Teaching can be a solitary profession even in a department where we have a program of regular self reflection and peer observation. Opening up my thoughts to a wider community helps to make me a better practitioner. The drawback is that there are unscrupulous people who will present ideas found online, in texts, in audio sources, etc as there own.

It is easy perhaps to hear or read an opinion or idea and it will come back to you as a flash of inspiration some months later when remembering the source is nigh on impossible – try hard to source the original, ask your pln, google as much as verbatim as you can. It is becoming easier with excellent bookmarking services such as delicious – I have begun to save these links with a note to remind me how I found the resource originally. Most websites offer a contact option. If you desperately cannot trace the source then admit that on your own work and attribute the work to an unknown source – eg “many thanks to the person who originally came up with this – my apologies for lack of memory – if you do stumble across this and you know who is responsible for the original please let me know so that I can properly reference the credit.”

Jenny Eather wrote a fantasitc website www.rainforestmaths.com which no longer offers public access because the website was plagerised somewhere in Asia where someone copied the code and tried to make profit from selling the program commercially. Now I have no idea how this travesty was discovered but the site was immediately locked from the public domain and is now only available through subscription and password.

The dedicated teacher who built www.teach-ict.com into a fantastic resource bank has become increadingsly frustrated by people replacing copyright notices on her work with their own and publishing it, or worse – submitting it back to her for inclusion on her own website. The running costs of hosting this site are over £3000 every year, much of which is met from the publishers own pocket, yet she has had to find time to reformat all of the documents in a bid to protect her work.

What a shame. As a resource for learning and teaching these sites are fantastic. I have shared them with many colleagues, indeed they came to me via recommendations from colleagues on my teacher training course.

We’re good at sharing provided the people accepting are using our labour to produce better learning and teaching practice. If you think an idea is good enough to make money from then get in touch and share right back.

So legally, what rights do we actually have. As if original copyright laws weren’t complicated enough the new Creative Commons Licensing is almost incomprehensible.

Highland Council, my employer states on their website (http://highlandschools-virtualib.org.uk/copyright/intro/intro.htm , 28th June 2009):

“Definition: Anything original that has been created and produced by someone else whether literary, dramatic, musical or artistic is protected by copyright legislation.”

and

“Generally anything produced by an employee as part of their work for the Council, or commissioned by the Council, or using Council facilities (e.g. using ICT equipment, getting office staff to word process the material, is Highland Council’s copyright.)”

They go on to offer the following good advice:

“Assume that everything not produced by yourself is someone else’s copyright”.

We are relying on other people taking a scrupulous approach to what they see online. When I use a book I wouldn’t dream of copying ideas, quotes or pictures without, in my own work, properly referencing the source. My attitiude has now been well and truly changed to catch up with the modern world of information. Using resources is completely different to claiming resources are your own. I very much like and agree with Highland Council’s advice and will bear it in mind as I try to make sense of copyright in the future.

Some useful resources:

• A creative commons search engine: http://search.creativecommons.org/
• The Creative Commons website: http://creativecommons.org/
• A Guide To Copyright Licensing in Schools: http://www.licensing-copyright.org/
• LTS Web Standards and Guidelines: http://www.ltscotland.org.uk/webstandards/ipr/index.asp
• Copyright4Learning – a collaborative wiki: http://copyright4learning.wetpaint.com/
• Copyright Guidelines for Highland Schools: http://highlandschools-virtualib.org.uk/copyright/intro/intro.htm