1. Happy Shortest Month!
2.Mathematical Dates again!
3. Einstein Says
4. Website of the Month
5. Maths Makes Sense, Channel
4
Visit www.andrewjeffrey.co.uk for
details of my work
1.
Welcome to the
February Newsletter!
Dear Maths
Friends- welcome to the February newsletter. I expect that January was a pretty
disrupted month for many of you. I certainly lost a bit of work here and there,
but we come to the most glorious mathematically dated month in years (see item
2)! I confess that this newsletter comes to you late because I have been
struggling with my tax return and finally submitted it online, and also because
I have started my new job as a consultant with East Sussex, leaving me less
time for my other work. However, despite that I hope you will find some food
for thought in this month’s issue.
Remember
that thanks to the generosity of HP
Calculators, subscription will remain free, and there will be occasional
offers made ONLY to subscribers. (The Christmas offer proved very popular and
there will more ‘subscriber-only’ offers this year.)
Finally a
MASSIVE THANK YOU to those who so generously responded to my appeal for
sponsorship for the homeless and vulnerable people, for whom I am trying to
raise funds for the Charity Off The Fence. My target
of £ 10 000 is now £ 200 closer thanks to you, but if anyone else would like to
contribute I would be hugely grateful. Even if each of us who subscribe gave
just £3 that would reach the £10 K target, so thanks in advance. The link, to
get the money straight to the charity, is www.justgiving.co.uk/andrew-jeffrey.
Bless you
– have a good month.
2.
Mathematical
Dates Again!
My
question last time about the numbers stumped quite a few people, (What is interesting about
these dates: 1776, 1941, 1984, 2001, 2010? Email me
if you can't figure this one out!) so here is
the answer: they were all dates that had a story named after them, be it a book
or a film. I hope you got a few right answers from your students. Or Google!
But are we
perhaps in the most mathematical month for years? For starters, the very first
day of February was palindromic when written as
01/02/2010. How often does that happen? Not very! It’s certainly something to ask a
class on a wet Friday afternoon.
But as if
that wasn’t enough, only 2 days later, when
written without unnecessary leading zeros, the date was 3/2/10 – a perfect
countdown. Now that definitely won’t happen again in my lifetime!
3. Einstein Says
Regular subscribers will know that I love Einstein, and that many of his quotes, even those which are probably wrongly attributed to him, are very thought-provoking. I do often include quotes from other folk, and we have a guest quotation again this month from the great Marie Curie, who quite literally gave her life to science.
I saw this on the back of a science textbook last week and wanted to share it with you all, as I think it really resonates with those less confident mathematical learners. (And teachers, or course!)
See what you think – I think it’s definitely one for the classroom wall, and it positively radiates common sense:
“Nothing in life is to be feared. It is only to be
understood.”
This is a
great one – I may even update my ‘Wish I’d Said That’ pack. (Click here to see
what I am talking about.)
4. Website
of the month
This is
one I have been meaning to mention for a while, but somehow not got round to
it. This website from
Cleave Books
is a
terrific resource for busy teachers, and has a range of resources to suit all
styles. There are worksheets and investigative ideas as well as printable
background papers – check it out.
5.
Richard Dunne’s ‘Maths Making Sense’
There have
been some interesting conversations recently around Richard’s concept of using
paper cups to teach maths, but now you can make up
your own mind thanks to Channel
4’s Dispatches programme. Due to
be screened on 15th and 22nd February at 8pm, I haven’t
seen the programme, but I do know it will spark some
lively debate. (I really hope it doesn’t portray teachers in a bad light for
the sake of journalistic sensationalism.) I like Richard Dunne, and his passion
for helping children understand mathematical ideas, but I look forward to
hearing your views, from either side
of the argument.
**************************************************
That’s it
for this month. Next month I will have a great activity to do with chocolate,
courtesy of my friends on the MA Primary Committee (other than eat it, and yes,
it’s suitable for a family audience). Added to that, I’ll show you a really
nifty trick to get the 7x table sorted!
Thanks yet
again for being a subscriber, and remember, if you
enjoy the newsletter, please encourage others to sign up at http://andrewjeffrey.co.uk/newsletter.asp
AJx
Visit www.andrewjeffrey.co.uk for
details of my work
You
are receiving this newsletter because you have previously expressed an interest
in Andrew Jeffrey and his work in mathematics education. However, we do not
wish to send unsolicited emails, so if you wish to unsubscribe, please email info@andrewjeffrey.co.uk with the word ‘unsubscribe’ in the title and your email address
will be removed from the database.
(Please
note that this is a manual process, not automated, so I will reply to you
personally to thank you for having been a subscriber, but it may take a day or
two. Thanks! AJx)