MathsBot just turned 13 years old. How time flies.

Here's something I've been working quite hard on recently: classduels.com/maths/ A Maths game featuring: - two-player (split screen, can be done on a interactive whiteboard) and single-player modes - 50+ topics across KS3-KS5 - a version for the Australian curriculum: classduels.com/maths/au/ 😉

#Mathstoday Year 11 said their exam was nice (not easy but nice) (AQA) obviously don't get to see it yet but really want to. All calculator practice from here on out.

#Mathstoday Year 10 are solving quadratics using factorising, (coefficient of X^2 = 1) decided since my year 11 group really struggled with sketching quadratics we would start right there on sketching them (and making sure they are symmetrical! Not minimum point always on y axis!)

My year 11 form group opened their time capsule today. The first thing in there was a photo of them all from year 7! They really have grown up. I only started with them in year 9 but has been lovely to see them grow up.

Same place. 5 years apart.

How many yellow jumpers are too many yellow jumpers to own?

First taste of summer weather today in the classroom. Period 5 ended at 26.5 degrees.

In #mathstoday I rolled out this classic SMILE activity in my Year 7 Maths lesson. Worked really well, although it never ceases to amaze me how slow some kids are at cutting out ✂️ 😴

The thing I feel most strongly about setting is that if you’re setting, you should put strong teachers on your lowest-attaining sets. Unfortunately in my current role, I see trainees/ECTs are still being given loads of bottom sets 😔 #MathsToday

#Mathstoday Year 8 looked at scale factor and drawing enlargements today. Made sure that had a pencil and ruler and they managed to do loads of work, a L shaped one confused quite a few of them.

#Mathstoday Year 10 circle theorems look at subtended angles. I think getting them to practice which angle it is talking about really helped when using the terminology in the next circle theorem rule.

#Mathstoday Started Circle Theorems today with my Year 10's!! One of my favourite topics! Last year at MathsConf I went to a great session on it from @jemmaths.bsky.social on it. Decided to use the resources from that. Can't wait for next lesson where we are looking at subtension.

#Mathstoday Year 9 had a go at finding probabilities from two-way tables with this @draustinmaths.com resource. Printed out the answers and as they did it went round checking for any mistakes.

#Mathstoday Year 8 did some rotation today, so started with checking coordinates then drawing an arrow on a whiteboard then rotating it according to the instructions. Really reduced the misconceptions.

#Mathstoday Year 11 had a go at hidden equation GCSE questions. I found that despite being able to solve equations giving them one that was hidden in a problem caused it to all fall apart. Rly enjoy exampro in being able to collate them all together easily.

Had a really good day at #MathsConf40. It was great to see everyone there and every session was brilliant.

#Mathstoday Year 8 have started our transformations topic starting with reflection, was quite a nice and relaxing lesson. Off to Derby for Mathsconf tomorrow. Looking forward to it!

#Mathstoday It was a lot of marking papers today... But 2 lessons not doing that year 8 did substitution and year 9 started probability.

#Mathstoday Year 11 had a reteach lesson today, last year I taught quadratic sequences differently, changed methods this year which really worked well for my year 10. Decided to teach the year 11s since they had completely forgotten the other method. They really preferred it.

#Mathstoday Year 10 got to do some isometric drawing and had a go at figuring out what shape was being described. Surprisingly number 5 was the one they got stuck on. Many said square.

Thought I'd escaped this!

#Mathstoday Last lesson of new content with my year 11 today. Everything after the holidays is going to be revision. I already have my list of topics for the starters and lessons.

#Mathstoday Year 8 had a go at perpendicular bisectors (went well) angle bisectors (less well) and equilateral triangles (well again) with a compass. Had the original lines and angles drawn on a worksheet so one less thing for them to do.

In #MathsToday I tried @theteacherwins.bsky.social's idea of getting the students to take turns answering an #ALevelMaths question, to focus on clearly setting out their steps, so that the other person could pick up from where they got up to. It went really well, and they seemed to enjoy it!

#Mathstoday Year 10 looked at Inverse Proportion and I finally connected the graph for inverse proportion to the reciprocal graph. (How we x2 on one side so we multiply by the reciprocal to get the other side!)

#Mathstoday Year 8 today looked at Scale (And yes this is pretty much to scale!! With the 1cm: 20 miles) Used Pythagoras to find the length of the line then scale factor to get it to be the right length between London and Birmingham for real life.

#Mathstoday Year 11s looked at Venn diagram notation.(Which I still find tricky myself past the basic ones) Used the lovely Dr Austin task to shade in the areas.

Two new transformation worksheets: ✨ Harder reflections practice grid ✨ Negative enlargements practice grid Corrected after my Year 9s found a couple of errors! Find them at www.draustinmaths.com/transformations #UKMathsChat #MathsToday

#Mathstoday Year 9 looked at substitution today, substituting into our algebra tiles to start off with.

#Mathstoday Year 10s did their test today and since it was mostly the same as my last year 10 I could compare the scores. It's nice to know where I thought I had taught better they actually did considerably better on the exam.

Exam tip: always remember to include units/percentage signs etc when answering questions.

In #MathsToday my #ALevelMaths students were telling me about a Pi Day party they had at the weekend, complete with an integration quiz. They were so animated about it... I love teaching students who are unironically excited about being nerds 🥰😁 This lot are going to love university.

#Mathstoday Split up Year 8s lesson. First half looking at pictograms and the second looking at 2 way tables.

Discussing the sequencing of teaching collecting like terms using the power of algebra tiles with @morrismaths359.bsky.social #TTRConnect

On the train to Manchester so decided to read this book finally (Yes but why? teaching for understanding in mathematics) by @edsouthall.bsky.social I'm on Pg 44 but I'm really enjoying it. It's been nice to think about the basics again. (And I think I already have a takeaway)

#Mathstoday Year 11 looked at probability trees today. Started them off with a typical question to find if 2 different balls are picked from a bag (no tree) and alot of them only found one branch.

#Mathstoday Had 2 tests today and 1 lesson where we did more two step equations. Lessons are planned for tomorrow and Monday tho! Can't stay after school tomorrow since I'm up on the train to Manchester to go to Teacher Talk Connect.

#Mathstoday Lots of algebra tiles with Year 9 today. Solving 2 step equations.

#Mathstoday Year 10 had a go at ratio problems today in pairs. Bit more successful than they were yesterday when working by themselves.

#Mathstoday Year 8 looked at Pie charts today. After some practice with just filling in the tables we drew some without needing a protractor. (Then some with a protractor)

Happy International Women's Day to all the wonderful Maths women - cis and trans - here on Bluesky 😀 #MathsToday

#Mathstoday Year 11 looked at the area under a curve today. So lots of trying to spot triangles and trapeziums.

#Mathstoday Year 11s have started doing half papers today. Used a free online pdf editor to cut it in half but it messed up loads of the powers and brackets. It gets sent to repro so can't really say only print page 1,3,5,7,9 etc...

#Mathstoday Year 8 had a great lesson, half of it spent on tally charts and the other half on dual bar charts. I was surprised how many of them remembered how to do tally charts.

#Mathstoday Year 8 did bar charts today and got to use the scaffolded worksheet I made 4 years ago when doing my teacher training. Since then added some questions where they have to spot the mistake.

Started building my Lego at 5pm, next thing you know it's 9:30pm and I haven't eaten dinner. Whoops.

What warning signs could students pick up on that they might have gone wrong in an answer? e.g. - an unexpected negative/decimal answer, - an answer requiring many more/fewer steps than the number of marks would suggest, - an answer that would be weird in context (e.g. a taxi costing £3000) ...

It was super fun to attend last year, enjoyed it so much I said I would talk at this one!