The most interesting resource here is my idea for a FLEXIBLE revision timetable that worked very well with my daughter and was later loved by many of my students.
The most important rule is: You don't fill anything out in advance.
Let's say on Monday you really feel like doing some maths (obviously) and also your French teacher has set you a revision task. So you spend the evening studying maths and French. I usually advise between 30 mins and an hour on each subject depending on the strength of the student, so a total of 1-2 hours per evening. After studying, you fill out the Monday slot with what you actually did e.g. Maths: Trigonometry, French: Shopping vocab, and, most importantly, you cross off an "M" and an "F" from the subject grid at the end.
This is repeated all week, but you're only allowed to study subjects that you haven't crossed off. By the weekend you're left to study the final remaining two subjects, and this ensures that you spend a fair amount of time on every subject without forcing you to do a specific one each day. This also leaves Sunday free to either relax or to catch up with any subjects you missed during the week for whatever reason.
The subject grid can be modified to include multiple squares for more important or weaker subjects. For example in the attached version English is Poi's second language so we assigned three out of the twelve slots.
Also included:
π An aesthetically-designed set of timetables for a biweekly teacher's timetable.
π A simple Parents' Evening timetable to put outside the room for parents to refer to.
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A colourful and engaging PowerPoint to get students thinking about why maths is so important for them personally. Reasons range from classics (more money) to less conventional and more fundamental reasons, including:
π² Loans, bills & taxes... π’
π² Increased earnings.
π² Understanding just about everything in the world better.
π² Improving your ability to succeed in ANY field, with sport given as an example.
π² Logic, strategy & problem-solving: basically maths makes you smarter!
π² Not letting yourself be fooled by the media and advertising.
π² Stopping human society from collapsing!
π² Understanding the universe and our place within it!
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All resources will need to be adapted for your own classes. This resource includes:
π A behaviour contract.
π A colourful poster of student birthdays.
π A detention reflection sheet.
π A list of expectations for students to categorise in a two-way table of what they expect and don't expect of me, and what I expect and don't expect of them.
π A sheet for students to provide feedback on the lesson.
π An aesthetic seating plan PowerPoint.
π A sheet for students to submit who they want to work with.
π A sheet for students to have a say in which teacher they get the following year.
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A selection of thoughtful resources to use with a new class, including:
π Guidelines for a student "Neat Book": A personalised revision guide, separate from their normal book of solutions and workings, where they explain clearly their own understanding of each topic for future revision and for peer teaching.
π A student info sheet where they have to draw pictures to represent their interests and career plans for you to incorporate into future lessons.
π An introduction to the classroom rules & ethos.
π An student voice activity for students to rank what they think is most important to learn.
π An insert for students to create a Contents Page for each Learning Objective and rate the topic for understanding at the start and end of the lesson, and to rate their enjoyment and participation.
π A sheet for students to write down their hobbies and interests so that they can be incorporated into future maths lessons.
π A poster for the classroom door asking students to line up in alphabetical order.
π A multiple choice PowerPoint where students have to guess which of the interesting things I have really done in my life (you can adapt it for yourself of course). [PLOT TWIST: All the options are true for me!]
π A discussion for a new teacher to have with a mature class.
π Scrabble Game: Students work out the score of their name by adding the letter scores, e.g. BEN = 3+1+1=5. Then see if you get a different class winner if you work out the product instead, e.g. BEN = 3x1x1=3. For more advanced classes you can work out the exponent (3^1^1=3) and discuss the order that the exponent operation follows.
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Guidance for teachers to start using word roots to help students to understand technical words, to make links between different words/subjects, and to improve their spelling.
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8 engaging and fascinating posters about real-life circles and spheres. When designing these posters I thought of the stereotypical maths poster (full of words, numbers & boring diagrams) and made the exact opposite. Students actually look at and ask questions about these posters! High quality images for printing as large wall displays (7200 x 6000 px JPEG format). Contact me for the original PSD/TIF files.
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A starter to get students thinking about what pi really is, why it's such a simple idea and why it's so important! A table relating "circles" of different dimensions is also included.
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Two interactive GeoGebra files that let you prove all the circle theorems live in front of your students. You will need to know all the proofs and know how to use GeoGebra to make the most of this resource. A worksheet with two challenging circle theorem questions is also included.
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Dinosaurs, planetary orbits, megagons and space diagonals, this trigonometry resource pack has it all! Not to mention a few trigonometry tests with some plain old triangles thrown in for good measure, solutions included. Some resources for practising basic trigonometry with gradually increasing difficulty, and some exceptionally challenging questions that will make even the smartest maths teachers have to think too! Some resources for outdoor trigonometry may have to be adapted for your school grounds.
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A PowerPoint that guides students into discovering the sine and cosine rules for themselves.
Original GeoGebra files included.
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An extremely different approach to teaching trigonometry that allows high-ability students to truly understand what the sine function is doing. This tried-and-tested guide shows students how to scale up and down right-angled triangles produced by a unit circle in order to solve any trigonometry problem. This is for students and teachers who don't just want to memorise SOHCAHTOA but really want a deeper understanding of trigonometry. Anyone who has had to apply trigonometry in real-life situations such as engineering or computer game design will know that SOHCAHTOA is not appropriate for our high-ability students. This method is advocated by MEI lecturer Tomi Owens, among others. Not only does it develop a deeper understanding of trigonometry but it allows students to practise Pythagoras and complex enlargements. Be warned, this method may only be suitable for the most able of students.
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A set of worksheets and laminates for students to investigate the tangent function and its relationship to the gradient of the hypotenuse. I usually start this lesson with this video...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HcMm6TJoYL0
...and discuss how Pythagoras and trigonometry are essential to anything beyond the earliest computer games (anything requiring diagonal movement).
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An interactive unit circle (GeoGerba file) that demonstrates to students what their calculator is doing every time they use the sine and cosine functions. Please contact me if you would like me to adapt this resource specifically to your needs.
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A visual and intuitive introduction to radians that guides students from a basic understanding of angles and circles to be able to work with any angles in radians.
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Three colourful & engaging laminates with a carefully-designed increase in difficulty to develop understanding and maintain challenge.
GREEN: Angles on Parallel Lines
AMBER: Angles in Triangles
RED: Challenge Angles
Includes PowerPoint angle puzzles.
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A simple GeoGebra file which lets you dynamically move two parallel lines and a transverse line to clearly demonstrate the relationship between opposite, corresponding & alternate angles.
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A simple worksheet linking 3D shapes to real-life objects and asking students to count their faces, edges and vertices.
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An engaging activity where one student draws an isometric 3D object and the other must convert it into plan, front and side views. The reverse activity can also be attempted although impossible shapes can be created! A PowerPoint with some awesome isometric art is also included.
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π Two starters on averages & range.
π An Excel averages calculator for checking student results live.
π A PowerPoint based on comparing test results by gender.
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