questions – nilsbird training

Update on things

March 25, 2022March 25, 2022nilsbird

Just a brief update on what is happening at nilsbird training.

The idea of visiting an African country in May of this year is still beginning looked into. Please contact nilsbird training if you are in Uganda or The Gambia.

The mathematics questions project has been put on hold for the time being. Hopefully, more questions will appear at some point this year.

There are no current plans for webinars, except for a possible one-day conference in May of this year; around the idea of discussing teachers personal needs, rather than student needs. Keep an eye on the website for any information regarding this.

Until next time,
David
nilsbird training

Great opportunity to access free training

December 13, 2021December 17, 2021nilsbird

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 Question 19 and other things!

September 28, 2021September 28, 2021nilsbird

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

September 20, 2021October 8, 2021nilsbird

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

Telling the time – part 4

September 1, 2021September 1, 2021nilsbird

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

Mathematics Question – Number 16

May 4, 2021May 4, 2021nilsbird

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

Mathematics Question – Number 15 and beyond!

April 21, 2021April 21, 2021nilsbird

Mathematics Question – Number 15 can now be found at https://nilsbirdtraining.com/mathematics-resources. This time the combination of topics is – geometric sequences, ratio and surds.

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!

See you soon,
David
nilsbird training

The questions are never straight forward!

April 13, 2021April 13, 2021nilsbird

As I write the mathematics questions, I think. Yes, this one’s ok. Then I find an error!

So, having shared question question 13 with a student I am tutoring, I saw that the question wasn’t clear.

It’s now been updated on the website – see here.

David