"In the 59 years I've been on the planet, MathsConf has been the best day of maths ed I've ever experienced. Thank you so much, one and all! Still on a high... "
Grab a quick tea/coffee or a snack before we start the next session
Grab a quick tea/coffee or a snack before we start the next session
In my 15 years in the classroom, I've made mistakes. Most of these were made in the early stages of my teaching career, resulting in an increased workload for me and hindering my pupils' from achieving their full potential.
I'm still learning, but if I could go back in time and speak to early-career-Dave I've got a few things I'd like to tell him.
In this session, we'll look at righting my wrongs with some tips for minimising the amount of time spent planning, whilst making our lessons more impactful, and ensuring that not only are our pupils getting the best experience from their mathematics education, but we're looking after ourselves at the same time.
In 2023, it has never been easier to tap into the combined knowledge of humanity than ever before. With this, comes greater freedom in how teachers can take charge of their own professional development but it can seem, at times, an overwhelming and daunting prospect. In this session, we will explore three tried and tested ways to take our professional development into our own hands and develop our practice to new and dizzying heights. Whether you’re new to the profession or an experienced senior leader, you won’t want to miss this one!
Completion tables have increased both the quantity and, much more importantly, the quality of questions I give my pupils.In this session we will look at:
What exactly is a completion table and the pedagogy behind their use in the classroom.
How can we improve the responsiveness of our teaching and incorporate variation into our lessons through their use?
What topics lend themselves best? I'll share some of my favourite examples and give an opportunity for you to collaborate or create your own.
How many of our students truly enjoy math class? Is math class only enjoyable for students who perform well on it? Are you sure? In this session, we will explore some ideas in how to facilitate #MathPlay in the classroom creating a more enjoyable math experience for all our learners. Learn how effective #MathPlay can lead to deeper understanding and students taking ownership over their learning.
Problem-solving is close to the heart of mathematical experience.
How can we make our students better problem-solvers?
How can we equip them with techniques and attitudes that enable them to take on bigger and harder maths challenges?
And how can we encourage them to enjoy this process?
It is important that the use of dynamic software actually creates understanding that lasts. Teachers are fortunate to have a huge range of online resources and software available, but to use it confidently needs careful preparation.
This session will explore the teaching of vectors, trigonometry, parametric equations and a selection of calculus topics.
Maths talks are 3-15 minute purposefully crafted collaborative conversations that create authentic opportunities for mathematical thinking. This session is an introductory focus on maths talks - what they are, why they're important and how they can help to transform the maths learning experience for students, and the teaching experience of teachers! This session will explore three different kinds of maths talk, clarify their purpose and provide resources and ideas for classroom implementation. The pedagogical ideas will be appropriate for teachers who want to foster mathematical proficiency and help bust commonly-held and damaging myths about maths.
In order for our pupils to progress at pace and have success in mathematics, we need to teach responsively. This means that we need to be sure of what pupils know (and don’t know) and we need to modify our teaching accordingly. Teaching responsively is more than formative assessment. It’s a cycle involving planning, gathering data, making decisions and adapting. It can happen “in the moment” or it can happen over a series of lessons. In this session, we will discuss techniques that will help us tell what pupils have and haven’t learnt and - importantly - we will discuss the moves we can make in response. We can all teach a little more responsively and this session is suitable for teachers at all stages and of all levels of experience.
In the teaching of pupils we have all come across transformations of 2D shapes. No doubt there will have been an introduction possibly starting with a simple reflection in a mirror line, a rotation around a point located at the origin and then when the point is not at the origin, a translation using just horizontal and vertical movement on a square grid and then using column vectors. We will also have even seen enlargements with positive (and negative) scale factors.
More often than not, these transformations are performed on 2D coordinate grids or square grids.In this session we are going to look at how we might transform graphs as they are drawn on 2D coordinate grids. In various examples (which can then be taken back to the classroom for use) this workshop will look at using a pedagogically sound approach to help visualise what is going on. It will then go on to show how we can then construct a single (or multiple transformations) and how this can be applied starting from a blank page to a square grid to a coordinate plane.
I wish to inform educators that it is important to address the problem of teaching subjects in a disconnected way. Moreover, educators need to understand that mathematical ability is at the core of holistic teaching experiences. Language and design learning is dependent on the higher cognitive skills that are enhanced when mathematics is taught in a way that tranferability is possible by the learner. In spite of considerable research and advancement in pedagogical approaches, significant problems with mathematics understanding exist when it is taught using a rote method or when formulas are memorized. Therefore, innovative pedagogical approaches entailing the use of all senses and movement are required to achieve good learner outcomes.
On reviewing evidence from the past five years in my recent systematic review, I came across deductions that were cross-disciplinary - from psychology, neuroscience, and education. One of the core perspectives is that learners need to acquire mathematical ability to start with, building on language and design capabilities. Scientists affirm that it is important to "spatialize the curriculum" to enforce development of "mathematical senses". In this way, learners are empowered to use these senses in learning language and other subjects, and transfer their knowledge confidently to real life situations.
The National Curriculum in England contains quite a few peculiar admissions and omissions – no unit on logic, for example. Perhaps the oddest of all is the, seemingly out of nowhere, requirement for all pupils in primary schools to learn how to use Roman numerals. Not the history of mathematics, not how various base systems have evolved and interrelate, not the fact Roman mathematics was inferior to what came before and slowed the pace of mathematical progress or any other intellectually stimulating inquiry we might choose to spend the time on, but simply to use the numeral system.
For many, what seems like such an obvious missed opportunity becomes, well, a missed opportunity. With lip service being paid at best and the topic being completely ignored more typically.
But what if this anomaly on the curriculum didn’t have to be a missed opportunity? What if there was a vast amount of really interesting and useful mathematics that could emerge by considering Roman numerals? What if this mathematics was intellectually stimulating, challenging and joyful not just for primary school children, but for children and adults of all ages?
Join Mark McCourt for a deeper look at Roman numerals and some of the fantastic mathematics we can engage our pupils with.
Now that we are into the second half of the year for the Class of 2022, the focus is on preparing our Class of 2023 students to do A Level Maths.
Reflecting on results from the Pearson Edexcel Summer 2022 GCSE papers for the general cohort, and for my A Level Maths groups, the aim is to look in detail for areas where Year 11 Higher GCSE teachers can focus on and to see what we can all do to make the transition to A Level Maths happen more smoothly.
There will be plenty of time for discussion and there will also be some questions from topics that appear on both GCSE and A Level Maths to try out!
This is a repeat of the workshop from #MathsConf30 to give everyone the opportunity to discuss this online from around the UK and the world!
Join me as I live plan a sequence of lessons. I'll be finding resources online, making some new tasks, and putting it all together into a coherent thread and a beautifully presented booklet. Expect to see some interweaving, some completion tables, some Bob Ross references, and lots of PowerPoint tips and tricks!
Effective strategies to maximise successful outcomes for all learners working on the Foundation Tier...suitable for GCSE resits and Yr 11; Top Tips with some big takeaways to implement straight away in your classroom.
In this session we’ll be looking at the insights and data from the 2022 GCSE Statistics examinations. We’ll be looking, in detail, at how students perform on key questions, the finer points of the mark schemes and where students are just missing out on straightforward marks. This is an ideal session if you are currently teaching or considering teaching GCSE Statistics.
A brief look at the November results followed by a more detailed look at the GCSE improvements being implemented in 2023. This workshop will also explore the many new resources AQA has produced to support GCSE maths, mocks and the improvements in particular.
Workshop Leader Bio: As a maths graduate, Robin naturally gravitated towards the maths team when he joined AQA 14 years ago. Since then he has worked on every maths qualification AQA has to offer and was heavily involved in the reform of the current GCSE and Level 2 Further Maths. Robin is responsible for ensuring that AQA’s team of teacher advisers are fully informed and able to support teachers.
It's a #MathsConf tradition for delegates to catchup with the community, network and talk all things mathematics at our MathsConfOnline After Party. Bring a drink and your favourite maths discussion points.
We'll be sending out further information to all ticket holders nearer the time.