Andrew Jeffrey's January 2008 Newsletter
1. Welcome!
2. Maths Website of the Month
3. Another Free e-book for you
4. Top Twenty Display Ideas is Launched!
5.
An idea based on 2008
6.
INSET
7.
Why is this newsletter still free?
8.
Resolutions or goals?
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1. Welcome!
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A belated Happy New Year to
you all, and welcome to the January 2008 edition of my Maths Newsletter. I hope that you enjoyed Christmas with those
you love; I know it can sometimes be a stressful time. We used to argue about
where to spend Christmas until I once did a magic shows on the Leukemia ward at
the Children’s Hospital in
Apologies that this
newsletter is no longer in a graphic format – we have had problems with the
delivery of it, so to simplify things it will now be delivered without the
photos and colours.
I will still do my utmost
to ensure that you will still get top-notch content, though, and remember, you can unsubscribe at any time. Thanks to those of you
who did ‘pass it on’; there are now over 1000 subscribers!
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2. Maths Website of the Month.
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My personal recommendation
this month is http://www.ii.uib.no/~arntzen/kalender/
where you can download a .pdf of a 3-D calendar to print
and construct for 2008 absolutely free; a great activity for the first homework
or maths club of term!
Apologies for the incorrect
URL of last year’s website of the month; it should have been www.learningclip.co.uk – try that!
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3. Another
free e-book is ready for you!
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This new title, 50 Top
Maths Websites, has been collated over the course of a few months from various
sources. Where possible I have put a bit of information about the websites so
that you can flick through and link to them if they sound interesting. I have
seen various similar collections online, but I thought it would be useful for
you to have one on your computer to access quickly and easily, rather than have
to go online and do a web search for the right site. I hope you enjoy it. Get
it for nothing from www.andrewjeffrey.co.uk/freegifts.asp
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4. Top Twenty Great Ideas for Maths Display book is launched this month!
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After some last minute tweaks
my new book is finally ready. I am really pleased with this, as traditionally display
was not one of my strengths, and maths displays are not as easy to produce as
those for many other subjects. So, I went back through my files, researched
what good ideas others had had, and produced this book. I wanted to do
something different from the pages of photos that you can see on the internet,
as I was concerned that this would be quite limiting, since it merely required
teachers to look and copy. Hence, the
final version, though well illustrated, is not simply a book of brainless ‘look
at this and copy it’; ideas. It is instead a book of ‘What, Why and How?’ Best
of all, it is very, very inexpensive (just £3 for the download or £5 for the
printed version), as I wanted it to get into as many hands as possible.
“I think that this is a
fantastic book containing some inspiring ideas for both existing and aspiring
teachers”
”Your book looks superb and very, very helpful. Lots of
lovely ideas together. A good source of useful display
ideas.”
“Really good ideas, which
seem do-able, even with the lack of time we all suffer from!”
“These are great - I can't
wait to try them out! Love the interactive ideas.”
“I particularly liked
number 9 - so obvious, in a way, once you've seen it, but I hadn't thought of
it!”
“You are really starting to
get a name for yourself for quality and usefulness.”
Check out www.andrewjeffrey.co.uk/products.asp
for details. And the big news about 100 Top Tips is that yes, I have now
created a comb-bound version; see the same page to order.
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5. A great
idea for you to play with in 2008.
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It’s always hard coming
back to school after Christmas. At the start of each term I would always spend
a couple of lessons with my classes doing what we called ‘mental cobweb
dusting’. Basically this was a series of questions from topics studied the
previous term, as well as some four rules questions, to blow away the mental
cobwebs that had accrued from not using the brain during the holidays. To that
end, create a worksheet you can use to have a bit of fun with your students! All
the answers are 2008, or 20.08, or 20/8, or even a two-part question with the
answer to a) as 2000, and b) as 8. The questions are all at different levels
but it may take them a while to realise what is happening to the answers! The
beauty of this idea is that you can devise questions on just about any area of
maths you like, and at any level.
For example: “Multiply these numbers by 4: a) 500; b) 2”.
Or what about “Find the area
of a rectangle measuring 50.2m by 4m.”
Or “How many eighths are
equal to 5 halves?” Write your answer as an improper fraction.
The power of this idea is
that you can use it with other numbers of course. Douglas Adams fans could make
every answer 42; those of you who have seen my ‘Tables Tricks’ lecture will
know how I like to use that particular number! Or maybe the answer to qn.1
could be 1, qn.2 could be 4, qn.3 could be 9, and so on. Enjoy this idea!
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6. INSET
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I really enjoy leading
INSET days in Primary schools, or even half-days or twilight sessions. The
problem is, I have so many requests, many through
BEAM, that I cannot always honour them all. I have reluctantly decided to limit
myself to 12 days only during 2008. This is because I estimate that each day
takes on average
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7. Why is this newsletter still free to
subscribe to?
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Quite a few people have
asked why this newsletter is still free, given the amount of information I aim
to provide. Some of you had assumed that
once I had built up a body of subscribers I would introduce a small monthly
subscription. Well, fear not – this newsletter is completely free, and will
remain so. Admittedly, it doesn’t generate much income but that isn’t really
why I started it!
I spent 20 years teaching
maths full-time and am thrilled to be able to share ideas with you based on
that experience. My goal is to build a list of subscribers, all of whom can
share their experience. For example, in the future I would like to have a
readers’ Top Tips section, with monthly prizes for the best published tip.
Of course, I am hoping that
every now and then you will have a look at the website and maybe buy something.
Not that this strategy is working terribly well, admittedly; believe it or not
only around 1 in 700 visits to my website results in a purchase! I only know
this because Stu has written me a stats page showing how many people visit and
when (but not who!) Maybe it is my advertising copy – who knows? Not a problem
– this means that people are accessing the site to get hold of what I hope is useful
information. This allows me to spend more time on valuable and rewarding (but
not necessarily financially!) projects such as this monthly newsletter. I must
stress however that even if you don’t buy any resources from my site very often
or even at all, I am delighted to have as many of you as wish to be here; it
doesn’t really cost me anything except time, and I get a huge buzz from reading
comments such as the one I published last month from a subscriber who had used
the Millionaire Game.
However, I do appreciate
that people value more highly those things that they have paid for, and I have
a couple of major projects in the pipeline, but I need your feedback. More
detail next month; see December’s issue for a clue as
to what I might be planning!
A tiny hint: in particular
I am working on a major programme for anyone
currently teaching Primary Maths but who is maybe lacking confidence in their
own subject knowledge or ability to get it across. Email me if that is you and
I might just let you in on the secret! Or you could just wait until March!
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8.
Resolutions or Goals?
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I used to make resolutions
like everyone else at New Year (and like everyone else, I broke them long
before February arrived.)
Then, one year I said to
myself on New Year’s Eve: “I resolve never to make any more New Year’s
Resolutions.”
That is the only one I ever
kept.
Why? Because like everyone
else I am a flawed human being! I now much prefer to set goals for myself,
using the S.M.A.R.T. target attributes.
This is a much more
positive way of going about things (for me) and has proved a far more
successful strategy. It is because of that that I was mentally prepared to move
out of my comfort zone, and am now doing the best job in the world (for me),
including supporting, encouraging and influencing the teaching and learning of
maths at all levels – what a privilege.
So – what are your goals
for 2008? And is there a difference between goals and resolutions? I look forward to hearing what you think. And
remember, when you have a pig of a day at school – you are doing the second
most important job in the world!
Until Next Time, Andrew x
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