On the move
Posted by: Lois Lindemann on: December 6, 2009
I’ve been burbling away here for quite a short time, but I’m moving to a new home – already!
I’ve enjoyed using WordPress.com – and I fully intend to continue to do so – but I always planned to use self-hosted WordPress for my blog. It just opens up so many more options. Since my old web host couldn’t seem to provide the necessary support for me to run an up to date release of WordPress, that presented a bit of a challenge. So I’ve moved: firstly to a new web hosting provider, then to a self-hosted blog.
Unfortunately (unless I’m missing a trick here) I can’t automatically redirect you to the new place. If you’d care to drop in, I’ll be very happy to see you. I’m now at:
http://www.morethanmaths.com/teacher/
or if you’d rather follow my new feed, that’s at:
http://www.morethanmaths.com/teacher/feed/
I really hope to see you there!
Lois
On the Tiles
Posted by: Lois Lindemann on: December 2, 2009
I was going to wait until we had finished until I blogged about this, but I’m really excited about our latest STEM Club project!
We’re making Escher style tiles – real, actual clay tiles and it’s great fun.
Last week we set the students a challenge:
They came up with some designs, this week we’ve started to make them out of clay:
OK, they aren’t perfect (yet), but isn’t this brilliant? I can’t wait to see the finished result…
Retweet? No thanks.
Posted by: Lois Lindemann on: November 28, 2009
Twitter means different things to different people, I have no problem with that. This is not going to be one of those ‘You Just Don’t Get It Do You? 10 Ways You’re Tweeting It Wrong’ type of posts.
For me, Twitter is about conversation. Retweets are part of that – and something that I’m a big fan of, so it was good to see them finally appear at Twitter.com. However, I don’t use the web-based version of Twitter much, so I didn’t play around with the new retweet function until last week. Sadly, I soon learned that whilst Twitter’s version of retweeting may fit their business model, it doesn’t work for me.
In an offline conversation, if I repeat something interesting that I’ve been told, I don’t necessarily do it verbatim, I’m able to add my own comments if I want to. If I retweet via a Twitter client (such as Tweetdeck) I can do that online too, but I quickly discovered that Twitter’s own retweet function is exactly that – a verbatim retweet. There’s no opportunity to add anything. That’s not facilitating a conversation, so personally I’m not interested.
I just hope that as Twitter develops their new retweet function, they don’t end up affecting the ability of the rest of us to RT in whatever fashion we choose.
STEM Club Reloaded
Posted by: Lois Lindemann on: November 18, 2009
We had second attempt at relaunching STEM Club today – and it was much more successful than the trip that we were forced to abandon last week. This week we just ran a few simple challenges for a group of Y7, Y8 and Y9 students.
Science: Neutralise it
We gave the students some sodium hydroxide and added a couple of drops of universal indicator. The students had to neutralise it with some hydrochloric acid – harder than it sounds. We challenged them to do this in less than two minutes.
Engineering: Paper towers
The challenge was to build a structure that would hold a ping pong ball as high up as possible, using just newspaper and two long strips of Sellotape (about 3 metres). Last time we did this, some enterprising students tried to tape a tower to the ceiling, so this time I told them that they could only use the paper and tape to build a tower on the table. Of course, some of them promptly utilised the table leg as a support – evidently I need to work on my instructions!
Maths: Möbius strips
Obviously this was my favourite challenge. We gave the students a strip of paper and asked them to turn it into something with only one side. They tried really hard, but we weren’t surprised when they didn’t manage it.
We demonstrated how to make a Möbius strip, then did all the usual stuff:
- coloured the strip and watched amazed faces appear as they realised that something most unexpected was happening
- coloured the edges of the strip to prove that it also only had one edge
- cut down the middle of the strip to cut it in half – except of course we didn’t, then repeated the process and enjoyed the baffled and amazed looks on our students faces.
They loved it. ‘Why can’t we do this in maths Miss?’ one student asked. No reason at all, in fact I think the Möbius strip might get revisited very soon.
Anyway, I think it all went well, the students obviously had great fun and said that they would be back next week. All in all, a pretty successful first session.
Impermanent
Posted by: Lois Lindemann on: November 18, 2009
A few weeks ago I came across instructions about how to get rid of permanent marker from your whiteboard. (Scribble all over it straight away with the dry wipe marker that you *should* have used, then wipe it off.)
Pffft, I thought. Who writes on their whiteboard with permanent marker?
That would be me apparently. Even after noticing how similar looking Sharpies and our new board pens are. And after making a mental note not to get them muddled up. Oops.
Anyway, the cleaning method works very nicely.
Phew.
Lining Up
Posted by: Lois Lindemann on: November 16, 2009
I really like using photos as a starting point to get my students talking about maths. I used this slideshow [PowerPoint] with Y7 to get them talking about parallel and perpendicular lines.
All the photos are taken in Sheffield; I’ve found that pictures of our local area always go down well. We had a bit of fun guessing where the photo on slide 5 was taken, before I revealed the next slide, which gave it away.
At this point one student got very excited and started asking me if I had seen ‘that new building called the Cheese Grater‘. Funny you should say that…” I replied, as the aptly nicknamed Cheese Grater appeared next. (Personally I think it looks like a Borg cube, but who am I to fly in the face of popular opinion?)
Another one of my students had an interesting question: “Miss, if we got a really big, massive piece of cheese, do you think it would work?” Brilliant idea! We’re writing to Brainiac to ask if they’ll try. Do you think they’ll take us up on it?
STEM Trail at Weston Park Museum
Posted by: Lois Lindemann on: November 15, 2009
The museum in Weston Park, Sheffield is an interesting place to visit, with exhibits that cover a wide range of subjects – the museum describes itself as being a place to “explore the world and its past, from millions of years ago to the present day”.
Unfortunately, my planned trip there last week was something of an epic FAIL. We were supposed to be trying out a STEM (Science-Technology-Engineering-Maths) trail that I’ve written, but alas, as a result of good old circumstances beyond our control our trip was cancelled.
In view of the fact that this was the best school trip that I’ve never been on, I thought I’d blog it anyway! (On a less flippant note, other teachers at my school are going to use this trail, and I have to put the teacher notes somewhere, so here they are.)
The STEM trail is intended to encourage students to explore Weston Park Museum and learn from some of the displays, but it could easily be adapted to suit other locations or projects.
The trail [Publisher file] [pdf] (uses three sections of the museum [map]:
- The Big Bug Show, which is located in the Harold Cantor Gallery (until 21st February 2010, at which point I will have to update the trail)
- Arctic World
- What on Earth
Teacher Notes
There are six sections to the trail:
1. Who rules the world?
STEM subject links: science (biology – minibeasts), maths (scales and enlargements)
Wider learning: reading for information, creativity
Notes: This section is based on The Big Bug Show, which runs until February 2010. Students learn about bugs, insects and minibeasts; they then use what they have learned to design a ’super bug’ that will star in a movie.
2. Could you live in a freezer?
STEM subject links: technology (materials), maths (negative numbers)
Wider learning: problem solving, learning about other cultures
Notes: This is based on the Arctic World exhibits. Students will compare the lives of modern-day Arctic dwellers with those of the people who lived there 50 years ago. The emphasis is on the changes made possible by the arrival of new technologies and materials.
3. How wild is Sheffield?
STEM subject links: science (biology, ecology), maths (statistical diagrams)
Wider learning: observation skills, sorting and classifying, possibility for follow-up research
Notes: This section is part of the What on Earth exhibition. Students will find out about species that live in Sheffield’s woodlands and then consider which of these might also be encountered in urban gardens.
4. Would you drink water that has passed through someone else’s body?
STEM subject links: science (water cycle)
Wider learning: reading for information, explaining ideas using words and diagrams
Notes: The What on Earth exhibition includes a display about the water cycle. Students will need to think about how water cycles through the system and then add explanatory notes/labels/drawings to a diagram that they have been given.
5. Who would win the Animal Olympics?
STEM subject links: science (biology), maths (scaling and enlargement, measurements using metric units, comparing numbers)
Wider learning: using data to support an argument, research skills, reading for information
Notes: The What on Earth section includes an area that explores how strong different species are. Unfortunately the fabulously bizarre ‘Push the Poo’ exhibit didn’t seem to be working when I visited! Students will need to consider which species would win various events at the ‘Animal Olympics’ using information is in the main display and the materials in the binder marked ‘Learn More’. The answers are somewhat subjective, so students should support their answer with some data.
6. Who lives in your house?
STEM subject links: technology (food), science (biology)
Wider learning: opportunities for further research, importance of hygiene, correct food storage etc
Notes: NB: There are two display kitchens at the museum, so there is real potential for confusion here! The correct one is in the ‘Close to Home’ section, which is part of the ‘What on Earth’ exhibition.
Students will explore the kitchen. Opening the cupboards and looking inside the storage jars and bread bins will reveal a variety of unwelcome house guests: from mould and flour weevils to a hamster and a corn snake! Students will add labels to the diagram that they have been given.
Running the trail:
- Make sure that each student has a copy of the booklet and a pen or pencil. Ask them to write their name on the cover of their booklet.
- Draw their attention to the ‘Trail Guide’ section at the bottom of each page. Explain that will need to use these clues to find their way around the museum.
- Make the students aware that the ‘Puzzle It Out’ sections will require a bit of thinking – they will have to work out the answers for themselves. The ‘Find Out’ sections can be done once they get back to school.
- Make sure students are in groups of two or three. It will probably be helpful if they don’t all start on the same section!
- Make sure that they know how long they have to complete the trail. (We are aiming to do it in an hour, but since my test run was cancelled, I’m not sure if that’s ideal.)
- Once they have set off, you should simply need to monitor and encourage.
Back at school:
There are opportunities for follow-up work, some are identified in the ‘Find Out’ sections. Students could also produce work for display based on a section of the trail, or create a presentation to show something they have learned.
Copyright
The STEM Trail at Museum Sheffield Weston Park by Lois Lindemann is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial-Share Alike 2.0 UK: England & Wales License. Basically you are free to copy and remix it as you please, as long as it’s not for profit and any copies or remixes are shared on the same basis. Please note that I do not hold the copyright on the two photos in the ‘Could you live in a freezer?’ section (pages 4 and 5). The owners have been acknowledged and have very kindly given permission for me to use these photos.
Useful links:
Download the trail: as a Publisher file or as a pdf file (If anyone knows a way to share files created with MS Publisher in a more open format, please let me know.)
The Museum Sheffield Weston Park website
If anyone uses this trail and has any feedback or suggestions, please let me know in the comments. I’ll be happy to hear from you.
Dropresize
Posted by: Lois Lindemann on: November 8, 2009
I often end up with photos that are bigger than they need to be: snapshots of friends and family don’t really need to be in super-high resolution, neither do photos that students have taken with the digital camera. Of course I could change the camera settings before I start taking the photos, but I never think to do that.
Dropresize sorts that problem for me. It’s a really simple little tool and really easy to use:
To install it:
- Download it from here (hat tip to Lifehacker)
- Extract the files
That’s it – it’s ready to use, no further installation required.
To run it:
- Just run the .exe file. It doesn’t sneak into the programs menu, so just find the folder you extracted it to and double click – how very nostalgic! Once it’s running an icon appears in the taskbar.
- On the first time of running, you need to tell it which folder you would like it to watch. (Being of vast imagination, I called mine Resize.)
- Tell it how many pixels wide you want the pictures to be.
- Dump everything that you want to resize into the watched folders. If you want to keep the originals, you will need to copy and paste. This might be useful if you are just shrinking some copies of pictures that will be emailed or put on the web, but don’t want to lose the quality of the original photos. (I know this should be obvious, but some commenters at Semigeek didn’t seem to realise this.) If you want to shrink the originals, just put them in the resize folder. The icon in the taskbar will change to show that Dropresize is shrinking the pictures. Once it’s finished the icon changes back and you can move the pictures back to another folder if you wish.
It’s pretty fast, although obviously the speed depends on how many files you ask it to resize at once. It’s also pretty ace – I’ve cleared the most amazing amount of space on my busting-at-the-seams laptop today, just by shrinking snapshots.
I’ve used this on Vista without problems (so that’s a first!); it should also work with XP and Windows 7, but I haven’t tried it with either (yet).
Goodbye Mr Titen
Posted by: Lois Lindemann on: October 26, 2009
Once upon a time, in a land known as South Yorkshire, there was a maths teacher who was surfing around the t’Internet. This was back in the days when most web pages were still made from Sellotape, old records and sticky-backed plastic, which might explain why I was so amazed to find Mr Titen’s More Than Math page.
A webpage, made by a math(s) teacher, full of puzzles and homework hints. I was impressed. I wanted one. Now let’s be honest here, GeoCities web pages were all a bit eye-watering to look at and I have to say that Mr Titen’s was no exception. Frankly I wasn’t keen on the dancing teddy bears, but it still left me feeling inspired.
The result: Ms Lindemann’s Mathemagic Page was born. It looked not dissimilar to my current site, which was supposed to be an elegant lilac, reflecting the hastily polled opinions of some of my students. Sadly, a miscalculation with a rather ancient monitor resulted in a vista of pink, a colour scheme which remains to this day. (Yes, it is long overdue for an overhaul and redesign, but that’s another story entirely.) The earliest versions of my own site owed a lot to Mr Titen’s More Than Math Page; we may have had different ideas about how our sites should look, but I loved all his puzzles and optical illusions – ideas which still provide the basis for some of my own site’s most popular sections today.
My fledgling site lurked quietly inside my school’s website for a while (alas, its earliest incarnations have been lost, but perhaps that’s for the best). Of course, I really wanted to find my own little home on the web, but that caused me a bit of a problem: every permutation of mathemagic-dot-anything had already been snapped up. I agonised for ages, but I just couldn’t come up with anything else that wasn’t already taken, so I ended up adopting More Than Maths. It’s not plagiarism you know, it’s an homage – honestly!
I still popped back to visit Mr Titen from time to time, although his site has been very quiet for quite a few years now. So it feels a bit sad to know that this is it, GeoCities is no more. Mr Titen’s More Than Math Page has been consigned to history (and the Internet Archive).
Goodbye Mr Titen. Goodbye.
Welcome to my Classroom
Posted by: Lois Lindemann on: October 18, 2009
Actually – she says, bragging – I have two classrooms – one where I teach maths, one where I teach ICT and engineering. Obviously both rooms are shared with other teachers, I don’t get two to myself. This one is my main base, so that’s the one I’ll show you around first. Come on in!
The Room
Once inside the big green box, you’ll see student desks arranged in six groups; partly because that allows group work and partly because space is at a premium and groups of tables take up less room. Our department was refurbished about three years ago, so I’m lucky to have fairly new tables and chairs.
The department also got repainted when we were refurbished. Everyone thought I was crazy, because I decided to paint my own room, including the mural of triangles and quadrilaterals on the back wall. Maybe I was mad, but it looks great, even after three years – partly because I’m obsessive about keeping the room clear of graffiti and partly because I touch up the paintwork about once a year to keep it looking nice.
I had a rather battered old metal cupboard (which my form uses as a giant communal locker) and filing cabinet in the room. Our refurbishment budget didn’t stretch to replacing those, so I painted them. They ended up looking much better than I expected. Last summer I managed to trade another metal cupboard for two battered filing cabinets, which also got painted and now hold all my own files, worksheets etc. From the pictures it looks as if there’s masses of storage space in the room, but in fact but most of the cupboards hold departmental stocks of books and paper.
Whiteboards
There are quite a lot of whiteboards in the room, these are one of the best things about the space. At the front I have a SMARTboard with a standard whiteboard next to it. I use both of these (especially since I acquired a new, bright projector last summer) – often both at the same time. I don’t know how anyone manages with just an IWB – especially on the inevitable bad technology day.
The paper chain is a little unseasonal, but it is interesting – it’s a pi chain.
There are also five smaller whiteboards around the room. I made these when we were refurbished: I rescued two old teacher whiteboards that were being replaced and asked our DT technician to slice them up into smaller boards. Once I’d stuck on a bit of cheap plastic edging, they looked pretty good. Each table now has their own white board – although the one at the front has to share the teacher board with me.
We use these whiteboards pretty often:
- for groups to work together on a problem
- for students to demonstrate how they have worked out a question
- to compare different methods for solving a problem
- to discuss how clear someone’s working is
- to use as an aid when students present something to their group or the class
I have mini-whiteboards as well, but I tend to use the mini boards for individual or paired work.
Netbooks
I’m very lucky to have 16 netbooks stored in a trolley in my room. Actually I’m not sure that’s luck – I was very keen to volunteer to host them! We’re using these more and more in maths, but that’s something that’s worthy of its own post. 16 is enough for 2 per group or 1 per pair, so that works pretty well.
The Simpsons and Friends
There are a few Simpsons characters in the room. Homer was the first to appear. Sky TV kept sending me a fold out flyer in their magazine which featured Homer Simpson, so I cut him out and had him laminated. Sometimes he has a speech bubble and utters words of great wisdom, sometimes he lurks on displays, sometimes he is even a group member. For example, last week when there were 29 children present for a lesson on pie charts, Homer participated in our survey to make the numbers up to a nice ‘easy’ 30. How did he participate? Easy – there’s always at least one child in every class who can tell you what Homer thinks.
Some students brought in some extra pictures, so we have Homer, his two identical brothers and various other characters that can be pressed into service. There’s also an ITV Digital/PG Tips monkey lurking somewhere in one of the cupboards. I wasn’t sure how the students would react to Monkey, but even Y11 played along with that one.
The Maths Cafe
My last form won a £50 prize in an enterprise competition and decided to buy two kettles. Yes, that did take a bit of negotiation to have kettles in a classroom – but they were Y10. Obviously they are locked up most of the time (the kettles that is, not the students). My former group has now left, but they left their kettles with me. Excellent.
If I’m teaching a small revision group after school or in an intervention lesson, we generally pull the desks together to make a big table and provide drinks and biscuits. That’s proved popular with the students – it’s a small incentive to get them to attend.
In an Ideal World
If I could design my own room from scratch, I’d make it much bigger than this one. On the occasions I’ve taught in bigger rooms, I’ve really enjoyed the flexibility it allowed me. I’d make the heating and lighting easy to control: cool enough in summer, warm enough in winter, variable light levels would be good too. That’s all very basic stuff, but it seems to get overlooked in a lot of new build schools.
I’d keep the whiteboards (I love them!), but I’d like to have more than one interactive whiteboard – and wouldn’t multi-touch be marvellous?
Would I have netbooks or laptops? The honest answer is that I’m not sure: laptops are more powerful, but take up a lot more room – both to store and in use on students’ desks. I’d also like a lot of sockets – something that is noticeably lacking in my current room, so at present our netbook usage is punctuated by charging time.
Some breakout spaces would be nice, either inside or outside the classroom.
Anyway, that’s my room. Now it’s over to you – what are the best features of your classroom? What would you change if you could?
(My Lego stunt double (see photo at the top of this post) was created using Reasonably Clever’s MiniMizer. Thanks to David Muir for the link. His Lego MiniMe is pretty good too!)
Not what you expected?
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Flickr/morethanmaths
Twitter/morethanmaths
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MyBlogLog/morethanmaths
blog/The Link
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Copyright information:
This blog by Lois Lindemann is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial-Share Alike 2.0 UK: England & Wales License.
