MathsClass

I’ve updated the Quick Quiz app on MathsStarters.

The app now has three quizzes, Mixed (+, −, ×, ÷), Measurement (metric unit conversion) and Percentages (common percentages).

Underneath the hood, I’ve made it easier for me to add new quizzes.

Whilst you can use the mouse to navigate through the questions and answers, you can also use the Page Down key. That is the same key used to forward slides in PowerPoint… so, I’m thinking that a remote clicker will also control the quick quiz – can anyone test that for me?

Always happy to hear suggestions for quizzes, or feedback about problems (I haven’t had a chance to test this widely yet).

Where do you go for maths lessons and good lesson ideas?
Here’s the start of my list, I’m not particularly recommending these sites, just listing them as places to look for ideas.

• Math Snacks
• M2T2
• Mathalicious ($ Pay what you can)
• Math Pickle
• Mathematics Assessment Project
• Rich Tasks
• The Chalk Face
• I Love Math

(Of course, there are numerous blogs that could be included here)

I’ve added these sites to MathsSearch meaning you could search these sites through there.

So, in the comments, where do you go for maths lessons and good lesson ideas?

2011 (my 6th year of teaching) was a year of befuddlement¹.

For starters, 2011 was a year of change. Good change, but not as smooth as I expected. The “battle” that I thought I understood at my previous school has changed. I thought I had “cracked the nut” as Kate puts it. So has the nut changed in my new school or have my difficulties surfaced from being the new guy? It’s probably a combination of those factors and more. 2012 will hopefully be the year of establishment and sorting this out.

Then, there is so much information, inspiration and so many folks telling us how we should be teaching that it can become overwhelming. It becomes difficult to know which direction to head, which idea to pursue and where to apply my efforts. So what to do? One option is to ignore. Like you (given you’re reading a blog) I can’t do that. But I do need to filter and focus. I need to filter the sources of information and focus on particular areas of learning and creating/building.

2012 is looking like a year of quiet reflection (i.e. maybe not much on this blog), contemplation and trial and error.

¹ happy that befuddlement is a real word

Whilst often used as a textbook example, I had never seen negative numbers used in a lift before.

On Flickr.

I recently spent some time improving MathsLinks and adding some new features.

Watch this video summarising the updates, or read on…

GoMaths

When I’ve asked a class to correctly copy a web-site address from the board I have never had much success. Short URL services (like bit.ly) can help, but their strings of random characters can be just as confusing. Links posted on Edmodo or Moodle can resolve the problem, but what if you have a spur of the moment, “let’s investigate” idea. If you know the link you want is on MathsLinks, for example this Frequency Distribution Table with Cumulative Frequency, you can look it up and give the students this GoMaths link: gomaths.net/2369 it will skip MathsLinks and take them directly to the site. Better yet, if you have a projector click Show URL and the link will appear on the screen

This is a simple, but for me exciting addition. I used it many times in the last week of term like when I had kids making snowflakes.

The Australian Curriculum

MathsLinks is browsable by Topic or by NSW Board of Studies syllabus. This term, I added references to The Australian Curriculum, so far I’ve done Years 6 to 10.

Most links, however, have not been aligned to this curriculum. This is where you can help. If you visit any link, e.g. 3-D Shapes, and are logged in to the site you will see a “Help align this link to The Australian Curriculum.” link (if the link has not already been aligned). This link will take you to a simple form that links to the Australia Curriculum outcomes – pick the relevant ones and submit.

Ratings

What is the best tool for Isometric drawings? this one or this one. Each link can now be ranked from 1 to 5 stars, you don’t even need to be logged in to the site. I think ratings will make the site even more useful.

A question: Do you think adding the ability to comment on a link would be helpful? For example, would you share via a comment how you have used a link in your class?

Embed Links

Not mentioned in the video, if you’re logged-in to MathsLinks, below the link you will see BETA: Embed. You can now embed the details of a link into your own site. Just like this:

Other stuff

A couple of other things:

• a link to a video on a site like YouTube, for example, A centre for ants!? has a button Play Video which allows you to play the video on a darkened background without leaving the MathsLinks site and avoiding the extra mess of YouTube. This does not get around YouTube being blocked for students.
• you can now use your Facebook, Google, LinkedIn or Twitter account to login to MathsLinks. Saves you remembering more passwords.
• suggestions are always welcome, just contact me