5 Maths Gems #14
Thursday, September 5, 2019
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Welcome to my 14th weekly gems post - this is where I characteristic 5 of the best teaching ideas I've seen on Twitter each week.
You may or may non know that I've been writing these posts spell I've been at habitation on motherhood leave. My babe keeps me busy during the day, but my evenings are blissfully gratis from mark together with lesson planning thence I create got a rare chance to reverberate on my teaching together with assemble novel ideas. It's a shame that all teachers can't accept a mini-sabbatical every 5 years to produce the same. When I become dorsum to travel inwards Jan I'll create got 100 maths teaching gems inwards my toolkit - it volition last difficult to know where to start!
You may or may non know that I've been writing these posts spell I've been at habitation on motherhood leave. My babe keeps me busy during the day, but my evenings are blissfully gratis from mark together with lesson planning thence I create got a rare chance to reverberate on my teaching together with assemble novel ideas. It's a shame that all teachers can't accept a mini-sabbatical every 5 years to produce the same. When I become dorsum to travel inwards Jan I'll create got 100 maths teaching gems inwards my toolkit - it volition last difficult to know where to start!
1. Two Truths together with a Lie
Two Truths together with a Lie is traditionally an icebreaker game - person tells y'all 3 facts almost themselves together with y'all jurist which ane is the lie. For event my blood brother powerfulness tell y'all that he was in ane lawsuit bitten yesteryear a donkey, he was in ane lawsuit bitten yesteryear a serpent together with he was in ane lawsuit bitten yesteryear a monkey. Bizarrely, exclusively ane of those statements is a lie. So let's accept this game together with plow it into an action that prompts mathematical discussion.
This thought came from a tweet yesteryear @TCM_at_NCTM:
This tweet made me realise that I'm guilty of lazily telling my students that polygon is 'just about other word for shape' when inwards fact I should last to a greater extent than specific - a polygon is a 2D figure amongst at to the lowest degree 3 conduct sides together with angles (the word derives from the Greek 'many-angled'), thence a circle is non a polygon.
The ii truths almost quadrilaterals ('a foursquare is a rectangle' together with 'a rectangle is a parallelogram') volition also prompt interesting discussions almost definitions. The quadrilateral identify unit of measurement tree powerfulness attention clarify things. The Euler diagram below is also helpful.
Polygons (source: mathsisfun.com) |
The ii truths almost quadrilaterals ('a foursquare is a rectangle' together with 'a rectangle is a parallelogram') volition also prompt interesting discussions almost definitions. The quadrilateral identify unit of measurement tree powerfulness attention clarify things. The Euler diagram below is also helpful.
Quadrilaterals (source: Wikipedia) |
Here's a duet to a greater extent than examples of mathematical 'Two Truths together with a Lie' activities:
Influenza A virus subtype H5N1 related idea, Maths Lies (where the instructor tells ane deliberate prevarication per lesson - encounter my first gems post) is nonetheless ane of my favourite teaching ideas ever.
The paradigm higher upward reminds me of the 'If the World Were a Village of 100 People' visuals I talked almost inwards Gems 1 - this is a nice agency of conceptualising information that powerfulness attention students sympathise percentages.
3. Creative Mathematicians
Thanks to @gareth_metcalfe for sharing this bright video 'What is a mathematical proof?'. The video explains why mathematicians pass most of their fourth dimension trying things that don't work. Students are frequently reluctant to test a dissimilar approach if their get-go test at answering a enquiry is a dead end. Show this video at schoolhouse to encourage your students to last creative inwards their mathematical thinking.
4. Communicating Reasoning
Continuing the theme of encouraging students to test diverse approaches to solving problems, bright NQT blogger gems post (unlucky 13) was my most pop post ever, amongst almost 2,000 views inwards a week. I also wrote a post on circle theorems terminal calendar week that I was peculiarly proud of. I dearest my gems posts together with my resources library, but it's my topic specials that I intend people volition detect the most helpful. I similar to intend that novel or late qualified teachers volition actually produce goodness from these posts when planning to learn a theme for the get-go time.
Continuing the theme of encouraging students to test diverse approaches to solving problems, bright NQT blogger gems post (unlucky 13) was my most pop post ever, amongst almost 2,000 views inwards a week. I also wrote a post on circle theorems terminal calendar week that I was peculiarly proud of. I dearest my gems posts together with my resources library, but it's my topic specials that I intend people volition detect the most helpful. I similar to intend that novel or late qualified teachers volition actually produce goodness from these posts when planning to learn a theme for the get-go time.
Finally, produce y'all receive Chris Smith's (@aap03102) weekly newsletter? If y'all don't already subscribe together with then email him forthwith to larn on the mailing list. This calendar week he featured Pret homeworks which y'all should accept a await at if y'all haven't seen them before. Chris also featured the first-class puzzle below, which I'm looking forrad to giving my students when I provide to travel inwards January.