TheSameAs

Teaching rounding up or down by 10, 100 or 1000? This game I played with my class went down a storm today!
Give each child three random digit cards each, then write a multiple of 100 on the board. The children arrange the number nearest to that on the board. The children win one counter if their number rounds up or down to the target number, and two if theirs is the nearest to the target. Plat two more rounds before swapping their cards.
To add a twist to the game, why not allow the children to 'buy' someone elses card for a counter?

I started off by showing the children 1/3, 1/4, 1/6, and 1/2, and asked them to order them from smallest to largest.

After the inevitable error in ordering, I then drew a pizza with 12 slices on the board, and we worked out together how many slices each would allow.

I then added a few more mixed fractions, such as 2/12 and 7/12, and they ordered these too. Mistakes were made again, but again we looked at how many slices of the pizza each was worth.

This activity was short, fun and was like an arrowhead into the jugular of frustrating fraction lessons!

This is a mash up really of Texas Hold 'Em and the Fizz buzz game played normally. It is a great game for teaching odds and evens.

After shuffling 100 number cards, give about five to each player, who holds them like a deck. They must then take turns to place them down in the middle alternately, fizz being even and buzz being odd.

If they make a mistake, or say the wrong thing, they have to pick up whatever is in the middle and start a new round. The first to lose all their cards wins.

As an extra challenge for older children, why not try it so that the numbers have to increase or decrease?

This is a lesson idea for Maths or Upper Primary teachers, and came out of the fact that 25 million people's records would actually take up an awful lot of space - is the two discs claim actually true?

In the first part of the lesson, give the children the list of items stolen, and talk about how long each string would be - try testing this with the longest name in the class for example. Here is the list of data taken for each person below:

• First name
• Last name
• Address 1
• Address 2
• Town
• County
• Postcode
• National Insurance number
• Dob
• Child benefit number

Well, I've had the interactive whiteboard for a while now, and surprisingly, am not using it as much as I had predicted/thought. My main uses could be divided into distinct categories:

Modelling writing
I personally find it much easier to type than write on the board, and I use the highlighter facility in Word all the time.

Printing the board
I have two children with IEPs, who find it especially hard to read or copy from the board. I am now able to print off what is on the board with ease. In fact, they automatically go and collect the work from the printer now!

Viewing shows
YouTube -the ultimate lesson enlivener! I have recently been teaching volcanoes, and YoutUbe combined with a projector make for a much more interesting lesson. Video is definitely the way forward.

Well, something that has been ticking under/over for a few months, and somethings that I planned last year and have only just managed to finish!
Both are school related, so I thought I would add them as links from this blog.

The first is Report Fairy, a service where you dictate your school reports into your computer, upload them to the Report Fairy site, and we have them typed up for you (for about fifty quid). I came up with this because, despite being a fast typist, I still can't type as fast as I think, and teachers are naturally good talkers (and probably unnaturally slow typists). Have a look, and let me know what you think.

I keep on being reminded of a small piece of software I wrote, and then haven't done much with.

Fyclone is a little Windows utility that helps you to duplicate folders. Say you wanted all the children in your class to have access to a set of resources in a folder, that they could change and add to. Traditionally, you would have to copy this file, then select it, F2 to rename it, and type in the new name. Fylcone does all this for you automatically. You start it up, point it to the file you want to duplicate, type in or import the list of new names, and click Go. Pretty simple, but I appreciate, quite specialist.

For all those who use Roamer, I game I came up with on the hoof that has paid massive dividends in all sorts of other ways.

I created a roamer grid using masking tape on my ICT floor (it was 5 squares by 5 squares), and got the group I was working with to bring a toy in each, ending up with 8 toys. I then placed the roamer in the middle, and put the toys in various places around the grid.

The children then played Roamer Chess, where they each had to make one move, be it forward, back, left or right. If they landed on a square with a toy, they could keep it. The game required c-ordinations skills, as well as the ability to plan ahead, and not keep giving the next person playing a good advantage.

Well, just finished an ISI inspection! Quite similar in some ways to an OFSTED inspection, but remarkably informal in others. I loved having the use of the IWB, but more so the ability to plan what was going to actually appear on my board, rather than a hastily-drawn set of boxes or circles (I was teaching Venn and Carroll diagrams).

What I've noticed, and this might just be for my teaching style, is that I am tending to create templates on the Notebook software, rather than individualised slides, and then sing my ordinary board pen to fill these in. I don't quite know why - some of it is due to my handwriting style on the board, which was ropey to start with, but I think it may also be because I can with the Ebeam system. Does this mean I will set up all the slides as templates, and hae these to draw on in the future? Who knows. What I do like however is the ability to create an activity sheet straight from the slide itself as a printout, as well as being able to cut and paste into Word seamlessly.

I have been using the Notebook software, free from Smartboard, for the past tw weeks. It has been fascinating to look at the last ten days' worth of boards writing that I have done - 31 slides in all. I suppose that it is only through recording software like this that we can actually look at trends and patterns. But what now? Do I tidy up the slides and re-use them? Delete them? Most likely, I will build a vast array of largely unused slide sets, never to be used again. Something to ponder.

On a side note, I would heartily recommend software from a small company called Class In a Flash.