Tag: maths

Great opportunity to access free training

Now that Christmas is nearly upon us, I’d like to offer TWO weekends of free webinar watching:

  • 12:00 am (midnight) on Saturday 18th December 2021 to
    12:00 am (midnight) Monday 20th December 2021
  • 12:00 am (midnight) on Saturday 25th December 2021 to
    12:00 am (midnight) Monday 27th December 2021

All times are GMT.

On both weekends you will be able to access previous material delivered by great trainers. The list of webinars is as follows:

Developing a Mathematics Professional – days 1 to 4

Nilsbird training offers Developing a Mathematics Professional as a way of inspiring mathematics teachers to consider different ways of approaching the teaching of mathematics. It covers: why mathematics, strategies, problem solving and questioning techniques.

Educating the 21st Century Student – days 1 to 3

Nilsbird training held the online conference Educating the 21st Century Student in August of 2021. It brought together six great trainers who covered: what’s the best way? multi-topic mathematics questions, active learning and science, which is more important: content or skills? engaging large classes using low resources in secondary english, thinking mathematically, active learning in a social context, using an analogue clock in mathematics, adapting mathematical tasks for use in the classroom, science enquiry for active learning.

Helping Students Learn Subjects Through English as an Additional Language

This webinar provides help for those teachers who support students who learn subjects through english as an additional language.

Teaching in the classroom on a single computer with no access to the internet

The webinar provides help for those teachers who are trying to teach using only a single computer in the classroom.

Free ICT toolbox

This webinar provides information about what free software etc. is available for teachers to use.

During the two weekends, more detailed information about the content of the webinars will be available.

To gain access to the two weekends of free webinar watching, email conference[@]nilsbirdtraining.com to register your details.

I do hope you will make use of these great opportunities for free training!

Till next time,

David
nilsbird training

Mathematics Questions – Newsletter No. 5

Welcome to a new post where, I have to admit, I’d forgotten what I’d written in a previous one!

In Mathematics Question – Number 15 and beyond! I’d said:

“From Mathematics Question – Number 17, onwards, I plan to post each question on the blog, as well, with extra comments that will then appear in the Mathematics Questions – Newsletters. So, basically, each question, plus comments, will become part of the blog and then the newsletter will appear periodically, bringing together, each time, three questions plus comments (as it does now). Hope that makes sense!”

The above didn’t materialise! Oops! What will happen is, I will be publishing the questions as normal on my website, nilsbirdtraining.com/mathematics-resources, and then the newsletter will be published in this blog.

So, here goes with Mathematics Questions – Newsletter No. 5.

Continue reading

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

Life is still very busy but please see about a great online event!

Life is still very busy, with marking and teaching, but one thing I must mention is:

Educating the 21st Century Student, an online teacher training conference for Zambia, and beyond – Thursday 26th to Saturday 28th August 2021.

This event is an amazing opportunity for teachers based in Zambia, and beyond, to have three excellent days of training from some high quality trainers. Find out more about this event via supportforteachers.com.

David
nilsbird training

Life is still busy but great news today!

Life never gives up on what it throws at us and, in my case, that’s the marking season, which is now upon me! So, things like my maths questions have taken a back seat for the moment. Do keep an eye out for number 17. I’ll let you know when it will be available.

This short blog post is really about the great news I have: Educating the 21st Century Student, an online teacher training conference for Zambia, and beyond – Thursday 26th to Saturday 28th August 2021. This is a conference I am putting on in partnership with Chingola Private School Association – based in Chingola, Zambia (in the Copperbelt Region!).

© OpenStreetMap contributors, https://www.openstreetmap.org/copyright

All the details about the conference can be found via supportforteachers.com. You can sign up there to be kept in the loop about all the arrangements for the conference. There are some amazing speakers lined up (including me!) and it’s a great price too – $30 for all three days!

I still need to write about how I’m teaching the time and fractions at the same time, but that will have to wait. Back to the marking!

See you next time.
David
nilsbird training

Motivation – how to engage students? Part 4 (and life is rather busy at the moment!)

I am writing this post, after having provided my next bit of support, as a tutor, on a course. Before that I was doing some marking (where I fell asleep!) So, life is proving rather busy at the moment. (Have I taken too much on? – maybe!)

With my reference to Part 4 of motivation, I had a pleasant surprise from one of the 9/10 year old’s today. They said that they were now beginning to enjoy maths, when it comes to telling the time. (They have even been practising at home, it seems!) Another student, however, said they hate maths!

There seems to be such a disparity between different students’ perceptions about maths when they are young. Some like it and some hate it! I wonder if other subjects are the same?

Just so that you are aware, my Mathematics Question – Number 17 might be a little delayed due to how busy I am. Please keep an eye out here and on my website.

Bye for now.
David
nilsbird training

Motivation – how to engage students? Part 3

Today, I’d like to add some more thoughts to this engagement question.

Thinking about some 9/10 year olds I worked with this afternoon, I began to think about what level of our UK GCSE (16 year old examination) they might sit in 6/7 years time. (Assuming this examination still exists!) It is clear to me that the students are already pretty good at mathematics and therefore I would predict they would sit the highest level.

So, assuming my prediction is correct, how do we keep the engagement going/keep them interested for another 6/7 years? (I think this is especially important to think about, when work the students can do/cover now will be revisited during the first few years of high school, and then within the actual GCSE examination.)

What would you do with such ‘bright’ students, as they progress through school?

Let me know your thoughts!

Thanks,
David
nilsbird training

Mathematics Question – Number 16

For those of you following the Mathematics Questions, Number 16 is now available to download from https://nilsbirdtraining.com/mathematics-resources.

As I said in a previous post, from Mathematics Question – Number 17 onwards, the questions and any additional information that would ordinarily appear in the Mathematics Questions – Newsletters, will become a feature of the blog. The newsletters will then become a summary of the blog posts. You can sign up to receive the Mathematics Questions – Newsletters here.

A new feature, coming soon, will be a dedicated domain name for the Mathematics Questions.

David
nilsbird training