Learning in the 21st Century

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...

Introduction The need to locate high quality resources for maths teaching has become even more relevant due to the Co-Vid 19 outbreak. Here are my current top 10 YouTube Channels for Maths Teachers. They are not ranked in any particular order.  MathsAntics    (concept videos with impressive visual reinforcement) Organic Chemistry Tutor   (concept videos with calm tone) 3 Blue Brown   (inspiration & curiousity) Dr Nic Maths & Stats   (higher level maths with clear concept videos) Khan Academy Channel - Math   (impressively clear concept videos and practice) Learn Math Tutorials   (clearly labelled explanation videos) TecMath   (clearly labelled explanation videos) Numberphile  (inspiration & curiousity) Further Maths  (clearly labelled explanation videos) Youtube Teachers  (very broad collection of explainer videos) Update A couple of weeks ago I wrote this post that listed my top 10 channels for maths teachers, on Y...

Book Review of Digital Minimalism by Peter Schutte I just finished reading Cal Newport's, ‘Digital Minimalism’ and I wanted to record my thoughts while they are still fresh in my head. So here it goes ... The book is a succinct and well researched piece of writing that takes a critical look at the way in which modern society uses digital communication tools. Its central point is that in the age of the attention economy, where smartphones act as modern day billboards and multinational IT firms have massive incentives for us to continue to increase our usage. We need to think more critically about how we use these new communication tools and the roles we allow them to play in our lives.  A particularly illuminating thought that comes across, is the conceptualisation of a point at which more digital communication means less high quality and productive human life. A useful analogue with the economic principle of diminishing marginal returns is also drawn. As well as the related questi...

Introduction As we have all moved online for schooling , the need to locate high quality resources for maths teaching has become even more relevant. Here is my current top 20 collection of resource sites / channels. They are not ranked in any particular order.  Maths is Fun - fantastically simple but broad reference website with few ads Khan Academy  - treasure trove of useful videos and practice  Nrich  - storehouse of conceptually rich questions  Desmos  - graphical calculator and fun well thought out dynamic activities  YouCubed  - tasks designed with deep mathematical rigour Dy/Dan Blog  - great original ideas for maths classes Siyavula Textbooks - open source & free to repurpose 3 Blue Brown Youtube Channel  - inspiring visual mathematical concept videos  The Organic Chemistry Tutor   - simple effective help videos for maths  Crash Course Statistics   - really well thought out explainer videos  Dr...

Introduction This is a collection of my latest useful resources from my Research.  It is an interesting mixture of screenshots and documents I came across through searching the web or my supervisor.                 Becoming A Literature Search Ninja   Kickstart your Research   Successful Educational Research  Literature Review Templates  Really Good Dissertation Guide   Thematic Lit Review Video Lit Reviews Writing Center How to write a Literature review   How to Conduct a Literature Review: Organizing/Writing Research And Dissertation Resources DOCUMENT TEMPLATES Writing Tools  Hemingway Editor  Thesis Writer  Open Source Writing Aide   Grammarly  

Introduction Most teachers begin their introduction to Pedagogy and Learning Design with Bloom's Taxonomy as a guide. So it's a useful place to start, as you begin to come through the initial phase of constructing some sort of functioning Learning Ecosystem online and move to wanting to deepen the quality of your Online Class. Something really important to remember as you move into this deeper level of ICT integration, is to explain the rationale for each step to your students. This is also really new to them and so guiding them through it carefully, deliberately and as slowly as needed is important if you want to get proper engagement and establish a fully functioning system. My experience is that normally teachers, including myself, underestimate how much time this setup stage actually takes. Bloom's Taxonomy and Extending it to the Digital Realm Make a Copy of this Doc >

  Introduction I decided to do this post, as I am busying completing my minor dissertation and one of the key skills I am needing to upgrade is my ability to find useful, credible and relevant academic literature for my research area. As I have dug deeper into the problem, it was interesting to see how many different approaches there were and how the skill is a strange mix of being systematic and creative at the same time. I also had a friend who is an experienced academic who made some very helpful videos on the topic and so I have included them in this post too. Charting a Path The world's knowledge, whilst mostly converted into digital form these days, is still really spread out amongst a varied collection of sources. These sources comprise things like open source repositories, university libraries, private databases, journal articles, ...  etc. Access to these sources or repositories is not always free and even when you do manage to get access through a university l...