The week that was (no. 9)

The first week back after the tattie holidays is always a busy one. It’s amazing how two weeks off can make you forget how busy a school day can be.  As well as teaching my classes I have been organising our trip to Glasgow for the Enterprising Maths competition, completing our attainment report, marking 5 sets of homework, attending a whole school staff meeting, taking study club, being on attendance duty, writing a prelim, completing tracking reports and having my PRD meeting.  That said, this week has been a good week for lots of reasons.

So here’s what my classes have been up to:

Mathsconf16 – my reflection

Yesterday I attended mathsconf16 at The High School of Glasgow, courtesy of La Salle. I was really looking forward to the day and it did not disappoint. I’m going to try to summarise the day but am sure I won’t do it justice in words.

After an introduction from Mark McCourt @EmathsUK the keynote speech was given by Craig Barton. This was the first time I’d heard Craig speak in person and he sounds exactly like he does on his podcast. Craig spoke about variation theory and how to apply this in class. What interested me most was the idea of reflect, expect, check. I have never done this in a formal way and liked the idea of giving pupils a sheet to record their findings.

The week that was (no. 7 & 8)

I missed no. 7 last week due to family commitments so thought I’d combine two weeks together. It’s been a strange two weeks. I missed a few days for the funeral of my grandad and found it quite challenging to be motivated and enthusiastic because of this. However, lessons had to be taught and I tried to do the best I could.

So here’s what my classes have been up to.

• S2 Block 4 assessment, converting between fractions, decimals and percentages
• S3 the straight line and fractions
• N5 Unit 1 assessments and the straight line
• Advanced Higher integration by parts and first order differential equations

New strategy of the week

When teaching straight line I have always focussed on identifying the gradient and y intercept from the equation of the line, some rearranging required. However, I felt that this became very procedural and pupils only thought of the y intercept as the number at the end rather than relating to the graph. This year I decided to teach gradient and y intercept separately and include the x intercept. We spent a whole lesson on the x and y intercept but rather than do it by rearranging equations we did it by substituting in y = 0 or x = 0 and then writing the coordinate. I am hoping that when we come to working with graphs of quadratics that these pupils will be able to transfer this skill to find y intercept and roots of quadratics more easily.

Moment of the week