1) A Calculator is a must!!

There are many calculators on the market but the casio range always does it for me. I find the Casio FX-83GTPLUS Scientific Calculator one of the best out there and it  is recommended and authorised by all the exam boards. This calculator has some amazing hidden functionality that allows learners to perform better in calculator exams. It can be purchased here are a very good price: Casio FX-83GTPLUS Scientific Calculator

 2) A Geometry set that includes a compass, protractor, pencil and a ruler 

A  good quality geometry set allows learners to answer shape and space questions in Math lessons effectively.  You can buy a very cheap set from large super markets but I find they break easily. If you want a long lasting set that comes in a tin than the following can be purchased: Oxford Educational Supplies Geometry Set in a Tin

3)Revision Guides and Books

A great summary of the top Maths revision guides or books can be found here

Below is a list of my  top 5 revision books or guides for Maths revision at KS3 KS4 and KS5;

It is very important revision is active, which means the student should be doing Maths to revise a topic effectively. The books below have some very good questions with scaffolding in the correct places.

1) KS3 Maths Revision Guide – Levels 5-8 (Paperback) – Can be purchased here at the cheapest price KS3 Maths Revision Guide – Levels 5-8 (Revision Guides)

“This book is full of clear revision notes and diagrams for students studying KS3 Maths. It covers the current KS3 programme of study and is aimed at students working at levels 5-8. The whole thing’s designed to make revision straightforward – each section is split into a topic per page, with lots of handy questions to check what you’ve learnt as you go along. It’s all explained simply and thoroughly and there’s the odd joke thrown in to help break up the revision.”

2) KS3 Maths Complete Revision and Practice (Paperback) - Can be purchased here at the cheapest price KS3 Complete Practice Tests – Science, Maths and English (Practice Papers)

“This book is full of clear revision notes, detailed diagrams and practice questions for KS3 Maths. It covers the current KS3 programme of study and it’s packed with useful tips for doing well in your exams. There are also lots of exam-style questions and a complete set of practice papers (answers are at the back). It’s easy to read and revise from – everything’s explained simply, in CGP’s chatty, straightforward style.”

3) KS3 Maths Workbook (Including Answers) – Levels 5-8 (Paperback) - Can be purchased here at the cheapest price KS3 Maths Workbook (Including Answers) – Levels 5-8: Workbook and Answers Multipack – Levels 5-8

 “This book is full of test-style practice questions for students studying KS3 Maths. It covers all the topics from the National Curriculum and is aimed at levels 5-8. The questions are written in a clear, straightforward style to test what you know and how well you can apply your knowledge. The answers are in the back of the book so you can easily check your work and find out where you’re going wrong. Matching study notes and explanations are also available in the CGP Revision Guide (9781841460307).”

4) GCSE Maths: Higher: Revision Guide + Exam Practice Workbook – Collins Revision (Paperback)  - Can be purchased here at the cheapest price Collins Revision – GCSE Maths: Higher: Revision Guide + Exam Practice Workbook

“Collins Revision GCSE Maths is an all-in-one revision guide and exam practice workbook for Key Stage 4. Written by experienced test markers, it shows how each student can follow their level, test their knowledge, check their answers and improve. This all-in-one revision guide and workbook for GCSE Maths revision offers: / Complete coverage for the GCSE Maths Edexcel A, AQA A and AQA B Higher exams. / Accessible graded content with lots of tried and trusted Maths questions, useful graphs and illustrations. / Detachable workbook answers for flexible practice. Follow your grade, test your knowledge and improve your results at Key Stage 4.”

5)GCSE Maths Revision Guide (with Online Edition) – Higher (Paperback) - Can be purchased here at the cheapest price GCSE Maths Edexcel Revision Guide (with Online Edition) – Higher

“This updated and refreshed version of CGP’s bestselling Revision Guide is the ideal companion to Higher Level GCSE Maths – it even includes a free online edition that can be used wherever you have internet access. Every topic is explained in a concise, friendly style, with a sprinkling of CGP humour to keep things interesting. Grade information is included to show the difficulty level of each topic, and there are summary questions at the bottom of each page to test you on the important skills. And finally, a unique code is printed in the book that gives you access to the free online digital version (which also includes fully worked answers to all the test questions in the book).”

If there are any Mathematics revision books or guides that you wish to add to this list please let me know.

The video shows a movie that now holds the Guinness World Records™ record for the World’s Smallest Motion Film. You can learn more about how it was made here http://youtu.be/xA4QWwaweWA.

This is the twitter feed showing the funny #Youknowyouareateacherwhen statements!! This was started in April 2013 and now has quote a few tweets added to the feed.

Some of them are very very amusing, leave your comments below.

What are your favourites?

The twitter conversation on #YouKnowYouAreATeacherWhen

Please wait, fetching the tweets…

you now you are a teacher when

This would make a great starter to a ICT lesson on animation or a science lesson on water.

Please take a look and befriend us at:

Website- www.adamup.co.uk Twitter – #adamup_maths

Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/The-Adventures-of-Adam-Up/ 355014687936040?fref=ts

Youtube – search for ‘Samuel Kordan’

Please spread the word and get in touch to discuss ‘what went well’ and ‘even better ifs’. N.B- Please visit the PC version of the website as opposed to the mobile version. The mobile version is very basic and does not have all the songs and graphics that the PC version has.

I used to ban correction fluid, not because they would sniff it, but because the working out and mistakes were important to me as a teacher trying to help them understand some aspect of mathematics.

So I have always been wary of online offerings that rely on multiple choice, on simple correct/incorrect analyses and on inputting the correct answer only. Offerings that completely miss the working out, the different ways students reach an answer, the reasoning as to WHY they reached an answer.

Providing good learning analytics is hard work. So generally, we only do easy learning analytics. “Student x took 10 minutes and scored 65% on subject test y”. “Student y moved to level 3 after 10 questions”

Bill Jerome, in a recent blog post “If you like learning, could I recommend analytics?” , said:

“Getting learning analytics wrong on the learning dimension is a recipe for disaster, (it) must be done carefully and with understanding. Without a semantic ability to understand what is happening, we won’t even know if we’re doing harm to our students by using algorithms to optimise for things we don’t understand”.

But how can we do things differently and what should, could, we do to get this understanding?

And to avoid doing harm to our students?

Michael Feldstein in his ‘Taxonomy of Adaptive Analytics Strategies’ draws on the work of Kurt Vanlehn’s best practices in learning design of describing outer loop and inner loop learning.

• Outer loop learning is that indicated above. Did the learner get the correct answer?
• Inner loop learning examines the steps a learner is taking to solve a problem and at appropriate moments, intervenes to provide feedback directly relevant to some mistake the learner is making.

So to create an online offering where inner loop learning takes place, and in which all that learning is fed back to the teacher… that sounds good to me.

Students get hints when they need help, and be able to progress. They have to show their working out, and indicate their reasoning when solving a problem.

Teachers will be able to see all that feedback and all the working out for every student in the class.

They will be able to analyse by student – where did a student need help, even if the question was eventually right. Or analyse by question – which questions did more of the class have a problem with? What part of what question did they have a problem with?

All with the aim of aiding teachers to help students, and to help students understand more.

Now as noted above, this has not been possible in the past, but a company in Australia, Mathspace, is about to launch in the UK. In our opinion, it does Inner Loop learning and provides help to the students and details to the teacher, in real time, that have never before been possible.

Take a look at www.mathspace.com.au for a sample,

download the free ipad app (android and Windows 8 coming soon) to use the incredible ‘myscript’ handwriting capability,

get in contact with by email – tstirrup at mathspace.com.au – if you would like a classroom trial

and keep in touch by following us on twitter.com/mathspaceuk.

I have summarised a few ways that teachers, parents and pupils can use to learn, teach and remember times tables. If you have any methods that you would like to add to the list, please add your comments below.

Hints Tricks Tips on Learning your 2 times table

• You should add the number to itself, for example 2 × 8 = 8 + 8

Hints Tricks Tips on Learning your 5 times table

Hints Tricks Tips on Learning your 6 times table

• If you multiply 6 by an even number, they both end in the same digit. For example: 6×2=12, 6×4=24, 6×6=36

time image picture clipart

table picture image clipart

Hints Tricks Tips on Learning your 9 times table

• The answer is 10× the number minus the number. For Example: 9×6 = 10×6 – 6 = 60-6 = 54
• The last digit of the answer is always goes 9,8,7,6, and so on
• The sum of the answer’s digits is always 9. For example: 9 × 5 = 45 and 4 + 5 = 9. (This does not work with 9 × 11 = 99)

Hints Tricks Tips on Learning your 10 times table

Hints Tricks Tips on Learning your 11 times table

An in depth description of the task can be found on the enrich website.

http://nrich.maths.org/7800/index?nomenu=1