Noticeboard
We frequently received items from organisations and associations asking us to publicise something or other. I sift them for suitability and place them here. No endorsement by ATM is implied by their inclusion here.
Submit a noticeboard item here
Noticeboard RSS
Add this RSS feed to your Google
On this page
- NRICH Teacher Inspiration Days
- NSPCC Number Day 2008
- ACME Outer Circle positions for practitioners
- GCSE Subject criteria for Mathematics: consultation...
- Bowland Maths materials are now live...
- Maths popular lectures...
- Contribute your views on STEM Agenda...
- ICTs in developing pupils' understanding of algebra...
- Celia Hoyles: The magic numbers...
- Higher Level Teaching Assistants pilot study report...
NRICH Teacher Inspiration Days
The Millennium Mathematics Project's NRICH Team at the University of Cambridge is offering a free professional development programme for KS3, 4 and 5 mathematics teachers at maintained sector schools/colleges in the UK. The Teacher Inspiration programme will be delivered as three one-day events over the course of the 2008/9 year.
Dates for the programme are 24th October 2008, 19th March 2009 and 3rd July 2009. Each Teacher Inspiration event will be a full day, held at the University of Cambridge.The aim of the professional development programme is to support mathematics teachers who are committed to nurturing confident, resourceful and enthusiastic learners.
The last deadline for applications is 30th September 2008. Places are limited and an early response is encouraged.
contact mailto:mmp@maths.cam.ac.uk
NSPCC Number Day 2008
The NSPCC Schools team are once again hosting our fun, educational fundraising initiative called Number Day. In order to promote Number Day and get as many schools as possible to take part, we would like to enlist your support and ask you to place some banner ads on your website. We would be grateful if you could allocate some space on your site and let us know the specifications required.
Number Day is an event for schools to get pupils to enjoy maths and raise money for the NSPCC. We provide a comprehensive set of resources to schools including maths activities, assembly plans and other resources to help make maths more fun. With the money raised from this exciting initiative, we aim to provide vital services for thousands of vulnerable children, and that is why we would like your support.
Info email contact For more information, please contact me on the details below
ACME Outer Circle positions for practitioners
ACME is seeking to actively draw in more school and college practitioners to its Outer Circle of confidential advisers. We recognise the challenges that clearly are being faced by school and college practitioners in taking on regular membership of ACME and we are seeking to bring into play their expertise as members of a re-formed Outer Circle, where involvement is voluntary, more flexible and less time consuming.
The Outer Circle is composed of individuals chosen by the Committee to encompass a breadth of knowledge, support and influence on mathematics education policy. They are consulted individually or collectively, in confidence, on key issues.
Expressions of interest are required before the end of September 2008
GCSE Subject criteria for Mathematics: consultation...
QCA is carrying out an online consultation on the subject criteria for Mathematics from Thursday 26 June until 30 September 2008.
ACME is encouraging all comments on both of these draft criteria to be copied to acme@royalsociety.org. ACME will contribute to a mathematics community response to the criteria over the summer period led by the Joint Mathematical Council of the UK and hopes that this will also engage with other subject communities through the Council for Subject Associations and other appropriate vehicles. One of its purposes will be to answer the following key question: "When and how should the new GCSEs in Mathematics be rolled out nationally? Jointly or staged, and in 2010 or 2011?"
Bowland Maths materials are now live...
Bowland Maths makes maths fun for pupils aged 11-14. The aim is to help change pupils' views of maths by increasing their motivation and enjoyment, which should help increase their confidence and their competence. A second aim is to help teach maths in a different way.
The Bowland Maths materials look very different from most maths teaching materials. They consist of innovative case study problems, each taking 3-5 lessons, designed to develop thinking, reasoning and problem solving skills – as in the revised Key Stage 3 curriculum. Each case study is different, but all provide pupils and teachers with problems that are fun and engaging, while also being a rich maths experience. The case studies are not remotely like answering questions from a book.
Bowland Maths also includes Professional Development materials to help teachers with the skills needed for the case studies and for the new Programme of Study. There are five modules which cover the main pedagogical challenges for this type of investigative problem solving. Each module is activity based; it is built around problems similar to the case studies, but short enough to fit into a single lesson.
All these materials are available on the Bowland Player, which is free to UK schools from this website. Some users may have problems accessing interactive content online, so there is a DVD-ROM version, which also has better quality video, available free to schools in England.
Maths popular lectures...
The London Mathematical Society have been holding annual popular lectures for over 25 years.
This year's lecturers are: Dr Tadashi Tokieda ('Toy Models') and Dr Reidun Twarock ('Know your enemy ? viruses under the mathematical microscope')
The lectures are aimed at a general audience and are suitable for sixth formers. Both lectures will be given in London on 9 July and Birmingham on 25 September; tickets are free.
Further details on the LMS website
Contribute your views on STEM Agenda...
The STEM Advisory Forum is an opportunity for all those interested in the teaching and learning of science, technology, engineering and mathematics to contribute their views on the STEM agenda. The views expressed on this website will be used to help inform the Department for Children, Schools and Families and the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills in taking forward the Government's STEM agenda.
Launch content includes a piece by Sir Peter Williams on the primary maths review and the latest STEM Progress Report from DCSF.
Talk about this here at the Forum
ICTs in developing pupils' understanding of algebra...
The University of York, Department of Educational Studies has published a fourth systematic review of the literature report in mathematics education. It is available on the EPPI Centre website.
This review looked at the use of ICTs in developing pupils' understanding of algebraic ideas.
The review set out to find out how different software and hardware can be used to develop pupils’ understanding of functions.
Despite considerable investment in ICT, inspection evidence suggests that progress in mathematics is relatively weak. Many pupils find algebra particularly difficult. Teachers and policy makers need access to the best quality evidence of how ICT can be used in this aspect of mathematics.
Celia Hoyles: The magic numbers...
Like Bertrand Russell, for whom mathematics was "my chief source of happiness", Celia Hoyles has always adored a subject that terrifies and repels large sections of the population. She sees life, she says, through a numerical lens and instantly appreciates the mathematical patterns in things like snails' shells. "There's something wonderful about logical proof," she enthuses. "You can prove one thing and fit it into something else, it's like a jigsaw."
Read this article at The Guardian
Higher Level Teaching Assistants pilot study report...
Higher Level Teaching Assistants (HLTAs) provide valuable support for teaching and learning in schools. HLTAs work under the supervision of a teacher to assist with classroom activities, which has an impact on raising pupil achievement levels.
The Training and Development Agency for Schools (TDA) supports people in meeting the national standards to achieve HLTA status. The TDA has committed £4.7 million this year alone to encourage more people to become an HLTA with a mathematics or science specialism working in a secondary school. It follows a recent pilot study which looked at specialist mathematics and science HLTAs in secondary schools and the most effective methods to recruit, train and deploy them.
The pilot captured many effective ways in which HLTAs were working in a science or mathematics environment. This included how they worked with pupils with specific learning difficulties, how they supported pupils who had missed lessons and how they targeted pupils at critical points such as at the GCSE grade C/D boundary.
Recommendations from the pilot included greater training in specific subject knowledge. The pilot showed specialist science and mathematics HLTAs are best attached to their relevant departments and supported by a mentor. It was also recommended that mathematics and science specialists should be required to provide evidence that they have acquired and applied their subject knowledge as an integral part of meeting the HLTA standards.
A summary of the pilot’s research findings is here
Talk about this here in the Forum...
Add this RSS feed to your Google
