Mathematics Question 19 and other things!

In the previous blog post, I mentioned about the publication of Mathematics Question – Number 18. Now Mathematics Question – Number 19 has been published. Download it here. It is the third question in, “The skill of thinking” series. As with Mathematics Question Number 17 and Number 18, it is written for Grades 5 to 8. It asks students to think about different ways that four friends can spend time at a ten-pin bowling alley, over a six month period.

Also in the previous blog post, I mentioned about upcoming webinars and a week-long mathematics course. The dates for these have now been published:

Tuesday 12th October 2021 16:00 GMT Free ICT Toolbox to Help in Your Classroom

Tuesday 19th October 2021 16:00 GMT Teaching from a Single Computer with No Internet Access

Wednesday 20th October 2021 16:00 GMT Helping Students Learn Subjects Through English as an Additional Language

Monday 25th to Friday 29th October 2021 16:00 GMT Developing a Mathematics Professional – 5 Days Training

As with all the training nilsbird training tries to provide, the fees for attending the above events are being kept low so that teachers from different economic backgrounds can attend.

The standard price for a webinar is $7 (£5.11). However, until 48 hours before the training is due to take place, it is heavily discounted to the amazing price of $2.50 (£1.82). The standard price for Developing a mathematics professional is $35 (£25.54). However, until 48 hours before the training is due to take place, it is heavily discounted to the amazing price of $10 (£7.30).

Finally, nilsbird training’s first live stream event of this Autumn will be at 16:00 GMT on Wednesday 6th October 2021 on it’s YouTube channel. The topics will include CPD (continuous professional development) and active learning: https://youtu.be/je0DgWZZRP0

So, apologies for another information-sharing blog. My next post will be about the mathematics questions so, hopefully, there will be something of interest for you in that. During October I would like to continue to discuss the idea of thinking skills, mentioned in the previous blog post.

Bye for now,
David
nilsbird training

Mathematics Question – Number 18

A new mathematics question has been published – Mathematics Question – Number 18. Download it here.

The question is the second in a series called, “The skill of thinking”. Written for Grades 5 to 8, the question asks students to think about different ways of purchasing books; from an online store, or a physical book store. There are membership schemes and discounts for students to think about. As with Mathematics Question Number 17, the idea of the question is not to work with complex mathematics, but to bring together related information to solve a problem.

How important are thinking skills to you as a teacher? Do we just take them for granted when working with students, or do students actually need support with developing them? There is even a Thinking Skills examination provided by Cambridge Assessment International Education (17/18 year olds).

I think there is a new topic for a future blog coming here. What are thinking skills and do we need them? Let’s see what I can do!

The webinar preparations are coming on and the dates will soon be published. Just looking at providing three webinars in October, plus a week-long mathematics course.

Don’t forget to watch out for the live stream event in October – via YouTube. The focus will be CPD and Active Learning.

That’s it for now.

David
nilsbird training

What’s the plan now?

Well! This post is just a brief, short post to share some new ideas for 2021/2022. Here goes!

The mathematics questions are back! Question Number 17 has been published. It’s the first in a new series called, “The skill of thinking”. Question 18 will be published on Monday 20th September 2021. All the questions can be found at here. (Don’t forget the Mathematics Questions Newsletter is now part of this blog.)

Supporting CPD/Professional Development returns with some webinars in October 2021. Watch out for a blog post with all the details. The high standards shown in Standard for teachers’ professional development are what nilsbird training wants to aspire to!

Nilsbird training is embarking on a new venture – live streams via YouTube. The first will be on October 6th at 16:00 GMT. Themes will be CPD and active learning. Watch out for a blog post with all the details.

Thinking again about CPD/Professional Development, complete these three statements and let nilsbird training know what your needs are for 2021/2022:

1) Over the next year I want to learn more about … so that I can improve my students progress in the classroom.
2) Over the next year I want to improve my understanding of … so that I can improve my students progress in the classroom.
3) Over the next year I want to improve my … so that I perform more effectively as a teacher and support my personal well being.

That’s it for the moment.

David
nilsbird training

Telling the time – part 4

For this post on telling the time (my last, I think, for the moment!) I’m going to look at some of the written approaches I took.

Depending on the age/ability of the students, I tried to go as far as I could with my written approaches. At the start, it was important that students knew the basics.

This information was put into practise.

As I linked in fractions with telling the time (see the previous post), appropriate questions were used.

As some students progressed, harder questions were given, mixing in fractions when appropriate.

The most able students were set the task of planning a journey involving time.

I did not shy away from asking higher-level thinking questions, such as 15 minutes is the answer, what is the question? (The students did find this question particularly hard!)

So, the end of the posts about telling the time. I hope you found them interesting. I certainly learnt a lot that I didn’t know before!

The multi-topic mathematics questions are returning next week, so the newsletters will appear again. Something to look forward to!

David
nilsbird training

Educating the 21st Century Student – completed successfully!

Well, what a resounding success Educating the 21st Century Student online conference was! Great live keynotes and workshops, plus prerecorded material, led to feedback comments such as:

“Great thanks to the organisers”

“It was really my great privilege to be part of this conference again and I cant wait to tell others about it and to implement in my class.”

“I just have to encourage you to continue working hard as you are improving the life of a teacher by giving us nourished information which can help us to be good teachers. I really enjoyed this conference just looking forward if I will have another opportunity to attend another conference.”

“The conference was awesome and very insightful and really helped me to build my thinking perception to the teaching and learning process. Am looking forward to more conferences from Nilsbird. Thank you David.”

nilsbird training and Chingola Private Schools Association intend to pursue more of the same, next year.

Watch out for future updates!

Best,

David
nilsbird training