Numbers Game! Countdown Math & Numeracy in Form Time

I have a game called 'Numbers Game! Countdown Math' on my phone and haven't played it an awful lot lately. My Year 10 Numeracy Leaders are in forms at the moment and want to do 'Countdown'-type activities.

I sat down to make some of these up earlier and I don't like doing it... I tend to stick to certain numbers and make them too easy/too hard. I then thought of the game and downloaded it to my tablet to start again at level 1, noting down the numbers and targets. My other option was to rewatch '8 out of 10 cats does Countdown' for some easy ones, but there's football on!

So... I now have approximately 90 sets of numbers to go off, split into 1-20, 21-40, etc. where each interval will represent a 'level'.

1, 21, 41, 61 and 81 are as follows:

They give space on the IWB for someone to write their solution on, just like on the show and I'm intending to do another five of these every week for use by my Numeracy Leaders.


(02, 22, 42, 62, 82):

(03, 23, 43, 63, 83):

(04, 24, 44, 64, 84):

(05, 25, 45, 65, 85):

(06, 26, 46, 66, 86):

I'm a maths student... Get me out of here!

I follow a blog by @HoDTeacher called 'The View From The Maths Bunker'. This blog came up on my Feedly the other day and I love it...

Introducing... 'I'm in M2... GET ME OUT OF HERE!'

I'll put this in to SMART Notebook and put one of their timers beneath the 'Timer' bit and above our hosts, Ant & Dec ("Howay man!").  I'll add stars beneath the 'No. of Stars' column and assign questions to these. I was thinking that expanding single brackets would be a good one to use as 1 star could be assigned to 2(4x - 3), 2 stars to 2x(3x + 2) and 4 stars to 3(2x - 5) + 4(3 + x) as the 4 stars gives a good 'Risk and Reward' element.

It will be a competition between two sets of pupils (boys and girls, maybe) and the winning group will be aloud out of the classroom first - to break, lunch or ICT/English. Each group will be represented by a name picked at random using a random name generator and the 'opposing' group are to shout at the participants to put them off.

Will make a very exciting end to some rather dreary topics, I hope!

And I've had succeeded too... If it weren't for those pesky kids...

I like my Year 11 class. They're wonderful kids, fun to teach and generally get on. Their homework record, on the other hand, paints a different picture. Homework is an issue at our school, from top to bottom.

I teach a Year 10 class too. They're nice kids, difficult to teach and generally get on my nerves. Their homework record is abysmal.

I've found myself writing some notes for parents evening about the kids in my Year 10 class, whilst considering how to get the most out of my Year 11s in the 5 months after Christmas.

I'll hate myself for the next bit, but we're measured on levels, and here it is: Only seven out of 20 of the Year 10 kids have made progress between their KS2 grade and the end of year 9. Only one of them is 1 level of progress and only one of them is 2 sub-levels of progress - the rest are only one sub-level of progress. Their targets for the end of this year are Cs, for all 20 bar one, whose target is a B.  At the end of year 9 all were working somewhere around a high G to a low E. I've some big conversations to have on Tuesday night, which will be made much easier by my five period day!

My Year 11s are an easier proposition. They sit a mock exam this week and next, to give them a grade for a 'Mock Exam Results Day' on January 27, 2014. I have given them all one higher paper to attempt and I have received one a half sets back - the full set achieved an A and the calculator paper was an A too.

The full plan with Year 11 is:
Stage 1: Full feedback on mock exam with overall grade and areas for development using www.mathswatchvle.com. The plan is for all students to achieve an extra 32 marks on their June exams compared to their mock - the grade boundaries on their mock suggest that 32 marks would be an improvement of one grade.
Stage 2: Another mock examination prior to Easter, with the same feedback. Ideally, all students will have improved their grade by a half grade (16 marks, essentially).
Stage 3: Analyse all previous 4365/H papers to determine the most common topics covered in the exams to date and focus revision on these topics, applying this to lessons, after school sessions and half-term revision days.
Stage 4: Organise revision breakfasts on the day of the examinations focused on the above analysis to ensure that the little tricks like 'Difference of Two Squares' are fresh in their mind and give them some focus prior to the exam.
Stage 5: Congratulate all 20 on their As in August.

Now, let's hope that these kids don't foil my plans!

The Hunger Games... An adaptation of The Pirate Game

Sooner than I thought!

Here it is... The Hunger Games! Designed for use at Easter, because of the link between 'Hunger' and 'Lent' (tenuous, I know...), you can download the resources from the TES web site.

The Reindeer Game... The Christmas alternative to The Pirate Game

At the end of last year I did what everybody else seemed to be doing and played 'The Pirate Game' shared by @mrprcollins. I had a great time. Every session exhausted me as the facilitator but all the kids had a great time and so did I!

I had penciled in The Pirate Game for every end of term lesson with every class, but I then thought 'What do I do about Easter and Summer?'. I'd like to do The Pirate Game at Summer, so needed some options.

Meet 'The Reindeer Game'... because 'they never let poor Rudolph join in any reindeer games...'.

Download 'The Reindeer Game' from The TES web site.

There'll be one for Easter coming soon... with a twist.