Monthly Archives: August 2013

Gamification

I was playing a game on my Xbox the other day when I suddenly realised that I was not playing for fun. I was playing for work. Let me explain.

Kurt Vonnegut on the Shapes of Stories

This is really cool. The graphs look like trig functions! Might be a way to introduce them.

Recycled Assumptions

Recycled Assumptions Interesting article on the idea of ‘school reform’ as it’s presented in the press. Well worth reading.

So I made some starters. You can find them here. The file name says ’25 starters’ but there’s actually more than fifty of them. I got carried away. There are some of the normal numeracy starters in this pack, but I’ve also tried to add unique and interesting ideas that can be used over and… Read More »

James Garfield Was the Only U.S. President to Prove a Math[s] Theorem

This is really cool! The Pythagorean Theorem has been proved many times, and probably will be proven many more times. But only one proof was made by a United States President. Five years before James A Garfield was elected president, he came up with a proof that involves a simple sheet of paper and some… Read More »

Why teachers don't know best

This is a really interesting post and well worth a read. I’m not sure I agree with all of it. I especially hate it when anyone refers to pupils as ‘customers’, but it really got me thinking, and that’s always a good thing.

Chris Moyles' Quiz Night

A while ago, Chris Moyles had a TV show called ‘Quiz Night’. Part of the program was a maths quiz, done by various pop acts (including, shudder, One Direction). A lot of these are available on YouTube, so I collected them all together to make a convenient playlist. Here it is I’ve used these a… Read More »