Andrew Jeffrey's
January 2009 Newsletter
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1.
Happy New Year!
2. Website
of the Month
3. TES
Numeracy Awards
4. New
Year Magic Maths Trick
5. Top
Tip
6.
Einstein Says
7.
Christmas Maths Books
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1. Happy New Year!
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Dear
Friends,
Happy New Year!
I hope that 2009 will prove to be a good one for you, whatever course you take.
I am certainly looking forward to taking a few risks this year and hopefully
developing a wider range of skills and experiences.
I never
realised that my offer last month of half-price travel for visits to my
subscribers would spark such interest, but as I write I am pleased to say that
the Spring Term is now getting pretty much booked up. This term I will be
venturing as far afield as Guernsey, Ireland, Holland and Germany, and in the
spare moments I will be putting together more pieces of my new exciting project
(more details next month).
Finally, as
ever, please remember that since this
newsletter is sent out automatically, hitting ‘reply’ will not work – your
reply will not reach me. I can always get emails sent to info@andrewjeffrey.co.uk
; please add this address to
your address book.
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2. Maths Website of the Month.
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A
recommendation for a conference like no other this month. The man behind the
fabulous Autograph software, Douglas Butler, runs an annual conference for
teachers at Oundle School (near Peterborough) every July. I was invited to
deliver an after-dinner talk and show last year, and deliberately turned up
early in order to capture some of the flavour of the event. The conference
managed to be simultaneously dynamic and relaxed; no mean feat! If you are a
user of the Autograph software I can heartily recommend the conference.
Probably more aimed at Secondary or A-level teachers, this one.
Here’s the
link:
http://www.tsm-resources.com/tsm-09/index.html
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3. TES Numeracy Awards
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Have you
done anything outstanding, different and effective this year to help your
students learn mathematics? Then why not win a prize for it:
http://www.tes.co.uk/article.aspx?storyCode=6004062&s_cid=numeracy
I was
tempted to enter this myself, but I think it probably quite rightly only
applies to schools. Why not submit an entry? Teachers are notoriously modest
but you never know; it could be you!
(If you do
enter and win of course I’ll only want 10%of the prize money…!!!)
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4. New Year Magic Maths
Trick
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It seemed
appropriate given the New Year to offer you a free trick based on the calendar.
It is particularly interesting that we had an extra second last night; when
someone says “Do you have a second to spare me?” you can now say “Yes”, but
that’s another story…I am sure you can get an interesting starter from the fact
that we added an extra second onto 2008, making it the longest year in living
memory…
Do your
children know which years are Leap Years and which are not, for example? Every
multiple of 4 IS, EXCEPT multiples of 100 which AREN’T, apart from multiples of
1000 which ARE. So only twice since the time of Christ (sorry, I have no truck
with this ‘common era’ lark) has a century been a leap year – interesting.
Anyway, on
with the trick. It’s an oldy but a goody. Give someone a calendar page and ask
them to put a box around any 3 by 3 square of numbers. Ask them to add up the 9
numbers they have drawn around. (Use a calculator or paper depending on their
ability).
While they
are still fiddling, you amaze them by confidently announcing the answer ages
before they work it out!
Of course,
you manage to do so by multiplying the date at the centre of the box by 9,
which is easy to do in your head; multiply by 10 and then subtract the date
itself.
This works
because the centre number is always the average of all 9 dates. Why? The richness of the mathematics is exciting here;
you could call the centre square ‘n’, and the top left would be n-8, the bottom
n+8 etc. All the +8s and -8s (and all the other squares) will cancel out,
leaving just 9n as the total. You could instead to choose n for the top-left
square, and you get a similar result.
You have a
lesson on algebra, or averages, and all based around the new year. And while
you’re at it, don’t forget to ask your G+T group to find the Prime Factors of
2009!
Enjoy!
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5. Top Tip
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Tip Number
#3:
“When teaching rotation, show
children how to draw a plus sign with an arrow on the top onto their tracing
paper (like a N.S.E.W. compass). I discovered this when realising that children
were not sure how to do 90 degree rotations accurately. Encourage them to put
the arrow facing ‘north’. Then they trace and rotate as usual. The arrow will
then tell them whether they have rotated their tracing paper 90 or 180 degrees,
and in which direction.”
For 99 more
top tips, click here:
http://andrewjeffrey.co.uk/products.asp#2
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6. Einstein says!
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This month
Albert once again gives way to another famous quoter– in this case, wartime
leader Winston Churchill.
“Personally I am always ready to learn,
though I do not always like being taught.”
I like this,
though it makes me feel a bit uncomfortable – I wonder how many of the
so-called ‘un-teachable’ children I have met would be happier if I just dared
to change my approach sometimes?
Remember
that you can get hold of loads of motivational and inspirational quotations
here.
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7. Maths Books for
Christmas
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The
ever-splendid Mrs. J has been kind enough to buy me a number of popular maths
books for Christmas, namely:
·
The Music of The Primes by Marcus Du Sautoy
·
Does God Play Dice by Ian Stewart
·
Mathematics, A Very Short
Introduction by Timothy Gowers
·
Pop Charts by Paul Copperwaite
Over the
coming months I will review them, once I have read each one. Having skimmed
them briefly, I suspect that one will help you, two will make you think, and
one will make you laugh out loud.
(She also
bought me ‘Scouting For Girls’ and ‘Neil Diamond’ CDs, but perhaps that’s for
another issue.)
A Happy and
Fulfilling 2009 to you all. AJ x
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