Learning in the 21st Century

Introduction Recently I have been teaching a friend how to programme in the language called Python and I thought I would make the resources we have been using available to all. Most of the material is based on the book called Automate the Boring Stuff. I have adapted those open source materials as needed for our programme. Additional Resource Links Automate the Boring Stuff  with Python Python Tasks   Preface · A Byte of Python   PY4E - Python for Everybody Welcome to Data Analysis in Python! — Data Analysis in Python 0.1 documentation School of Data - Evidence is Power Trinket Tool  Data Analysis Tools from 2022 Pivot Tables in Google Sheets Tutorial  Kaggle - Machine Learning Data Analysis  How to Create a Dashboard in Google Sheets (10 steps) - Query Formula - YouTube How to Create Dropdown Filters on Google Sheets Dashboard Using QUERY Formula (ADVANCED TRICK) - YouTube How to Build a Professional Dashboard in Google Sheets (Query Formula Advanced C...

Getting to Grips with Primary School Mathematics in SA  After many years of teaching high school maths, I suddenly find myself needing to upskill and understand the way mathematics is taught at the primary school level because of my involvement with a local NGO. Like everything in life you just start at the beginning, so this is that beginning. Hopefully, over time, I will add to this list based on my interactions with other primary school teachers.   CAPS for Mathematics  GR R-12 Wits  Maths Connect Primary Olico  Times Table Challenge   Living Maths  Organisation in SA  Timss&Pirls  overview of SA Mathematics Curriculum  Number Sense Website  https://www.numbersense.co.za/ SA Maths Foundation  Research in SA  SAMF Calendar events in SA in  2022   Why Number Sense  https://jumpstart.org.za/why-number-sense/  Teacher  Navigation Packs  for ATP's Pearson ANA's  Diagnostic Assessme...

Intro Over the last year or so I have increasingly been using Microsoft OneNote to author my maths lessons. I think a lot of maths teachers would benefit from having a closer look at the tool as it has a lot features that lessen the amount of work a maths teacher has to do when preparing lessons. It is also very easy to work with, when collaborating with other maths teachers because of the native sharing functions it has. Some Useful Links  These are a collection of links I saved to help with common problems I had when starting to use OneNote as Maths Teacher.  My Online Notebooks URL   (link to the online version) Export and Import Copies of OneNote Notebooks  Import Whole Notebooks into OneNote Online URL Great OneNote Youtube Tutoria l for Maths Teachers  Summary I plan to return to this post in future and update it as I continue using OneNote in my Mathematics Teaching in 2022. 

Intro Recently I entered the 3 blue brown maths explainer competition. I really enjoyed participating, as it gave me an opportunity to focus and practice my mathematical lesson design skills in a way that I probably normally wouldn't do. I also came across some great advice in the process and learned quite a few new skills.  Advice Here is the general advice put forward at the beginning of the competition by the organiser. I think it's really good advice to keep in mind whenever you are designing a lesson or an explanation for a mathematical concept. My Entry Here is the entry that I put forward for the competition. I tried to explain trigonometry in a more intuitive and lower level type of way, in the hope that could take away some of the mystery and make the core ideas accessible and understandable. I also learn't some new PowerPoint animation skills along the way and I'm pretty happy with the end result. I also came across a really cool way for judging project subm...

  Introduction  As the results of the phase three trials for the first successful vaccines against the coronavirus are released, my mind couldn't help but gravitate towards the mathematical nature of the results revealing process. The idea of designing a trial to test for the efficacy and safety of a vaccine is inherently mathematical in nature. I began to ask myself what are the sort of ways that I could use this situation to teach mathematics to my students and get them more interested in the mathematical content and the theory behind this type of situation. The most obvious tie up is in the area of data and probability and understanding how scientists leverage established knowledge in this area, to design effective vaccine trials. Here are a list of articles I found and some questions I thought of, that may be of use if I was to develop this idea further. Please feel free to add your comments below if you have some ideas for questions you could add, as this was just a quick...

  Overview  These are some recent interesting online resources that I have identified that could be used to create authentic learning experiences for mathematics students and improve their general quantitative literacy. 1) Present Value of Cash Flows   2) Data Grapher: GR3 - GR8 3) Math Apprentice   4) Virtual Manipulatives   5) Investopedia 6) Numbeo - Cost of Living   7) Teaching Mathematics using Tennis   8) Validating Questionnares 9) Tinkercad 10) Maths made Magic  

Image Credit Follow on  In the previous post ( link to part 1 )  I discussed the basic mathematical  ideas to have in mind when thinking about purchasing a car. I had decided I would look at cars in the range of 80 - 100 000 rand and I wanted to buy a used car because of the better value offered. The videos in post 1, suggest cars around the range of 2 - 4 years old, as they offer the best trade off between future maintenance costs and depreciation on the purchase price after you have bought it. I agree with the facts laid out and will probably look for something in the 3 to 4 year old range. However I still need to check to see if the same patterns on maintenance costs and depreciation are also true in the South African context.  This points to our next step in our search. How do we get accurate information relevant to the SA context to see if these ideas mentioned are true and so allow me to get closer to my ultimate goal, buying a car. I am going to start with an ...

Introduction I have just returned from an overseas teaching post and I find myself in the position that I need to buy a car in order to get around. Almost everyone will be faced with a similar situation in their life at some point. I have done a lot of writing recently about how to make Mathematics Teaching more authentic and this is exactly the type of situation teachers could use. So what are some of initial questions we need to be asking?  So probably the first decision one needs to make when buying a car, is approximately what amount of money can your budget support for the purchase.  In my particular case I am willing to spend between R80 000 and R110 000 cash. Then you need to decide are you going to buy a new or used car.  Once you have made these two decisions, the number of options available should be greatly reduced and therefore your decision making should be easier. The videos below gives a nice feel for the tradeoffs between buying a new or used car. Based on...

Introduction As I have recently come to the end of my 2 year contract teaching Mathematics at my first IB teaching post. I wanted to record my experiences while they were still fresh in my head and ripe for reflecting on. My particular context was that of a full continuum school where we had the PYP, MYP & DP programs running. The relatively new CP program was not running at the school where I was teaching. The majority of my time over the two years was spent teaching Mathematics in the MYP program and then about a quarter of my time was spent teaching Mathematics in the DP program  I also acted as a personal project supervisor (PP) for M5's and was also lucky enough to go on a number of Interdisciplinary Unit Trips (IDU's) and Outdoor Pursuit Trips (OP). This is an overview reflection and therefore quite broad, but hopefully at some point I will get to go into more detail on other relevant aspects. General Structure  In terms of understanding the overall design of an IB e...

Introduction As I go through a period of signifigant reflection at the end of my current teaching contract. The need to file and store high quality sources is up most on my mind. I find that during conventional teaching time, it is always a struggle to store and file the interesting maths teachers and the associated resources I find on the web. So I wanted to take the time now, to make a list of people whose work I plan to look at more closely in future. Perhaps some of these names will be of use to you too. Mrs E   Dan Meyer   William Emeny Alice Keeler Jo Boaler Gareth Metcalfe   Denise Gaskin Don Steward Marilyn Burns Craig Barton

Introduction Sometimes you just need simple resource rich websites without pages of slow to load video. This is a list of some of my favourite sites that are quick to load and easy to engage with. If you take the time to look around these sites, there is a lot of very useful information for anybody who is a teacher of Mathematics.  1) MathsSalamanders   2) MathIsFun   3) BritishInternationalSchoolOfPhuket   4) OnlineMathLearning   5) Educational Simulations    6) TopDrawerTeachers   7) National Council of Mathematics Teachers 8) Mathematics Assessment Project TRU 9) +MathsMagazine 10) Centre for Education in Mathematics & Computing(CEMC)

Introduction A couple of years ago I became fascinated by project based learning (PBL). As a result, I conducted my own experiments by designing unique educational engagements, based on literature I had read about PBL -   2015 , 2017 . I was impressed by the engagement achieved and it made me wonder how could I get a similar level of engagement, but with a content base more directly tied to my maths curriculum? The theory that seemed to offer the most promise was the concept of " Authentic Learning & Authentic Assessment ". To me, it seemed to offer a reasonable way of combining the strengths of project based learning, together with a process for acquiring understanding of a universally agreed upon useful mathematical content base. As a first step in the process of designing authentic learning experiences in mathematics, I tried to create a comprehensive list of topics that covered the context in which mathematics most commonly appears.  I would love your suggestions or a...