It is no secret that Quarter the Cross is one of my favourite tasks. I've written about it twice before: as a Day 1 activity and in connection with Fraction Talks. The original source is apparently T. Dekker & N. Querelle, 2002, Great Assessment Problems (www.fi.uu.nl/catch). It has proliferated in recent years, including with an active Twitter hashtag: #QuarterTheCross. … Continue reading #QuarterTheCross Card Sort
If maths was an animal …
'If maths was an animal it would be a _______ because _______ ' Responses from my #math1070 students: A koala because maths is interesting and unique. A spider because of the pattern organisation of their web. A cat because it has lots of layers. An ant because lots of small parts make up a big part. … Continue reading If maths was an animal …
#TMC18: tweet at me now
Last week I travelled to Cleveland, Ohio for Twitter Math(s) Camp. If you've just raised an eyebrow (Twitter? Math? Camp?), let me explain. There is a global community of maths educators1 who communicate via Twitter and blogs and so use the nickname Math Twitter Blogosphere (#MTBoS). Since 2012, the community has organised an annual four-day conference, … Continue reading #TMC18: tweet at me now
Kindness and grace in our classrooms
It is the start of another academic year in Australian universities, and colleagues around the country are caught up in a flurry of organising unit outlines, wrangling webpages, writing lecture notes, setting tutorial activities, untangling enrolment issues, resolving timetable clashes, recruiting tutors, submitting staff contracts, ... GASP! I implore you to find a quiet moment … Continue reading Kindness and grace in our classrooms
#read2017: My year in books
I love to read but don't always make enough time. In 2016, I redressed this by planning to read 50 books. I blogged about the books (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3). I took on the same challenge in 2017 buoyed on by my 2016 success (53 books), and managed to read 62 books. This year, blogging about the books … Continue reading #read2017: My year in books
A lesson plan (of sorts) for quadrilaterals
This tweet sums up today's class. We've had a two week break, culminating with a public holiday Monday. In our first class back, I wanted to add some supporting activities for the difficulties we were having in our last class. Let's just say that I'm not sure that what we did today helped! Luckily, I … Continue reading A lesson plan (of sorts) for quadrilaterals
A serendipitous Pythagorean #LessonStarter
#LessonStarter is a Twitter hashtag, used particularly by Matt Skoss, to collect together ideas that might start (or take over!) a lesson. A #LessonStarter is usually a provocative image, but could also be an intriguing mathematical prompt. For me, lesson starters are often spontaneous. Today, a few serendipitous moments meant that I had a lesson … Continue reading A serendipitous Pythagorean #LessonStarter
