This isn’t about book scrutiny, which some people don’t like, and which was the subject of the second-ever blog post on this site.
Instead, our Book Look is a new series of comments from members of the Cambridge Maths Hub about books that are relevant to mathematics education.
What is your response to the instruction “draw the net of a cylinder”?
This week saw the first session of the Cambridge Maths Hub work group on Mathematical Thinking for GCSE. Because this is one of the Five Big Ideas in Teaching for Mastery I signed up. The work group is led by the Deputy Lead of the Cambridge Maths Hub. There were only three participants – me, a head of department and someone else who I didn’t get to meet because their microphone and video were not working. It meant I got to spend 90 minutes deeply unpicking maths questions with three other teachers – wow, what an amazing CPD opportunity! Being online makes accessing this workgroup really easy too. If you would like to come and join in the fun, email admin@cambridgemaths.org They have said that they will re-run session one for anyone else who wants to take part.
I was reminded of the early foundations in the teaching of mathematics when I attended a seminar on subitising for early years. At the seminar, the book Making Numbers: Using manipulatives to teach arithmetic, by Griffiths, Back & Gifford (2016) was recommended. While the book is aimed at EYFS and KS1, as I started to read it I realised the impact it could have on mathematics teachers at KS2 and KS3.
It will certainly have an impact on my own work.
This blog post is aimed at those who want to find out more about the Cambridge Maths Hub, either because they are new to teaching maths, are new to our region, or want an update as to what is going on in this strangest of years!
Geometry is one of the most beautiful and versatile areas of mathematics, which is why it is my favourite area to teach. Shape fills the world around us; just look around you now, how much geometry can you see? During the lockdown period, 30 of our Year 7 mathematicians have been on such a quest.
I’ve been on an IT journey. It’s been a rollercoaster ride, and I wasn’t expecting it.
I found myself using this expression “…from novice to expert”, which I had previously used for reasoning, based on an article by nrich: https://nrich.maths.org/11336
I recently discovered that typing ‘roll a dice’ into Google brings up a whole host of virtual dice to choose from. (‘Flip a coin’ and ‘spinner’ are also worth googling!)
It has taken me a while to realise that Zoom and Teams look different on a PC, on an iPad and on a Mac. For example, the Zoom toolbar might be in the middle of the bottom of the screen (PC), or in the top right-hand corner (iPad).
I was working with a year 7 class on developing meaning around algebra. We were scheduled to look at like terms, substitution and writing expressions. I wasn’t happy with the traditional way that I had taught it in the past as it seemed to lack opportunities for mathematical thinking. So I bought some ATM books about algebra activities to try to expand my repertoire.