MathsConf21

Here are some brief thoughts and notes about MathsConf21, which took place in Peterborough on Saturday 12 October 2019. 

Background

It was my first time at MathsConf (which is one reason I wanted to blog about it: to tell people who have never been how good it was!).  These happen three times a year in England, on a Saturday, and there was a real buzz.  It was clear that while lots of those who attended were local to Peterborough there were others who had travelled a considerable distance and who were MathsConf regulars!

It’s a conference in a day, with plenary speeches, workshop sessions to choose from, exhibition stalls, the famous tuckshop and other events, such as the TweetUp during lunchtime.

Introductory plenary

After the welcome from Mark McCourt came the big Steve Jobs-style announcement.  The brilliant maths education software Autograph has been bought by La Salle (the organisers of MathsConf) and will be free for everyone to use!  Moreover, there will be (around Easter 2020) a browser-based version, which will presumably allow it to be used on Chromebooks and on PCs/Macs without the need for installation. 

This is an absolute game-changer and is very exciting for those of us who teach maths at secondary and sixth form level.  The only previous barrier to using Autograph has been the need to pay for it.  Over the past few days it has been installed on my laptop; I suspect my half term week will be full of Fun With Autograph!

Session – Manipulatives

Liz Henning (@oxfordedmaths) presented ways that Cuisenaire and Numicon can be used. 

She showed a lovely way to think about factorisation, with this diagram demonstrating two ways to visualise some factors of 15. 

In what ways are these two diagrams the same/different?

This can easily be extended to help explore HCF and LCM.

I often find I learn lots at conferences from informal conversations and from other delegates.  This one was no exception.  Liz asked us to use Cuisenaire rods to work out 1+2+3+4+5+4+3+2+1.

I rearranged in this way:

Someone else on my table did this:

That’s lovely!  Several of us then tried to sort out how this method would work if the middle rod was an even number in length.

Session – Autograph for A-level Statistics

Douglas Butler (@DouglasButler1), Janet Smith (@JanetAdeleSmith) and Leona So (@LWYSO) showed us where to find useful data sets and other information about Autograph (http://www.tsm-resources.com/useful-files.html).  It was, as always, a privilege to work with Douglas, the creator of Autograph.

It was good to see how to draw a histogram, normal dist, etc.  I hadn’t realised before today that the rather weird idea of histograms with unequal width bars is unusual elsewhere in the world!

My initial thoughts are that Autograph:

• is more powerful than many other pieces of maths software
• does stats brilliantly
• is aimed at KS3 – 5
• has a steeper learning-curve than other software.

Lunch

This was an opportunity to visit the exhibitors (and the charity tuckshop) and to catch up with colleagues from other schools.  There was so much to do that I missed the TweetUp session!

Session – ‘So you think you’ve got problems?’

Alex Bellos (@AlexBellos), author and puzzle-ist (he writes a fortnightly puzzle column for The Guardian) spoke very entertainingly about his forthcoming book.  We had lots of great problems to work on, there was audience participation, and I enjoyed the opportunity to work on problems with those sitting around me.  There was history, there was geography and even the problem Alex described as being the worst he has ever come across turned out to be interesting to hear about!

Session – Exploding dots

Rebecca McAndrew (@MathsMcBec) showed us an introductory video about exploding dots which, at their simplest, are a way to show place-value.  We were then able to work on using ‘exploding dots’ to carry out calculations in different bases (we managed to add in binary and to divide in both binary and in base 8). 

The part that was completely new to me was that exploding dots can be useful in dividing polynomials by other algebraic expressions.

I continued thinking about this session on my drive home – and realised during the journey that we could make use of ‘negative dots’ in numerical calculations (having been shown this as part of algebraic division).  I don’t know how self-explanatory this diagram is…

Any session that keeps me thinking for several hours afterwards must be a good thing!

The rest of the day

There were then the closing remarks, an announcement of how much had been raised for Macmillan during the day and a chance for more catching up and more conversations.

It was a brilliant day of CPD, with lots of interesting things going on and people to talk to (and, of course, the announcement about Autograph!).

I am very keen to go to the next one!

MathsConf 22 is in Manchester on 14 March 2020 (the day that shouldn’t be Pi Day!)

MathsConf 23 is in Oxford on 27 June 2020.

Many thanks to all who led workshops and to the organisers.  Much appreciated!

Exam nerves

For the first time in 30 years I am sitting a GCSE exam.

I started learning Spanish a couple of years ago and have been working very hard at it.  I attend evening classes, have conversation lessons via Skype, have made visits to Spain, watch TV programmes with the Spanish audio and with subtitles in English (Netflix does that for lots of its shows) and, my favourite, listen to Spanish podcasts while I go running.

I have clearly been having lots of fun with Spanish, so what’s the point in doing the GCSE?

I really enjoy the speaking, listening and reading elements of Spanish, but have very little reason to do any writing and I don’t want to have a big gap in my knowledge.  Listening and reading come close to being problem solving.  It’s often possible to find the root of a well-known word in something unfamiliar, or to get some meaning from the context or from the sound of a word.  Speaking can be difficult because it all about thinking on your feet.  [I frequently think about cognitive load theory when I am trying to speak Spanish; as I am floundering around for the particular word I know I will need to finish off a sentence I then find myself making silly mistakes elsewhere in what I am saying!]  Writing in Spanish is something I just don’t need to do very often.

One reason, then, for signing up to take the exam was that it would force me to work on the things I don’t find easy and the things I don’t often need to do.

At the time of writing this I have done the speaking, listening and reading exams and am now focusing on preparing for the written exam.

What have I learned by doing GCSE Spanish (apart from ‘more Spanish’)?

   1)  I was surprised at how nervous I was before the exams.

Despite having nothing riding on this at all (I don’t need a particular grade, my life isn’t going to change depending on whether I get a grade 1 or a grade 9) I was still nervous.

I know I can speak/understand/read Spanish.  I have been a successful learner and a successful taker-of-exams in the past.  Yet I was still nervous!

   2) Exam technique is important.

It really has been good for me to prepare and to take the exam.  I now have a good knowledge of GCSE Spanish vocabulary and am much more confident at writing, for example.  I wasn’t expecting to need to spend so much time thinking about exam technique and rubric though. 

For example, in the speaking exam you have to ask the examiner a question at some point.   I checked several times at the end of the reading paper that I had answered the question in the correct language (some stipulated Spanish and others wanted answers in English).  None of this really impacts on how well you understand Spanish!

   3)      Revision plans are difficult to keep to.

I had a 46-page booklet of vocabulary to learn, set out in two columns on each page.  Three months before the exam I decided I would learn a column each day.  Seven weeks before the exam, having not done much, I decided it was fine because I could learn a page a day... .  Guess what I was doing the weekend before the exam?  Learning several dozen pages of vocab each day!

What are the implications for my teaching?

• I need to recognise that pupils will get anxious about their tests and exams, even if they really shouldn’t.  
• It has worked well for me to learn lots of Spanish and then to prepare for the exam shortly beforehand.  I need to think about what point to start mentioning exam technique and other exam-related things with my students.
• Setting regular deadlines for revision is a good thing.  I would have benefitted from having regular vocab checks!

So hats off to Year 6, Year 11 and Year 13 students for the huge numbers of public tests and exams they do during the summer term.  And “¡buena suerte!” to those who still have more exams to do.

Writing blogs

I have the enormous privilege of working with excellent colleagues as part of the Cambridge Maths Hub.

This has given me regular input from people I wouldn't usually have an opportunity to spend so much time with, to be able to reflect on my own teaching in different ways and to reflect on teaching in general.

I also have the privilege of being able to write, alongside others, regularly for the Cambridge Maths Hub blog.  This has given me more opportunities to sit down and think about an aspect of teaching and learning mathematics (and explains why I haven't posted here recently!).

One of the interesting things in what I have written here is that everything I do still revolves around reflecting on, and attempting to improve, my own classroom teaching.  Long may that continue!