HumaneMaths

Do you want to teach the  angle sum property for a polygon? Here you go! Ask the students to go to the link:  www.mathsteacher.com.au/year8/ch10_geomcons/02_internal/anglesum.htm#internal There is a lovely self learning module on it. Ask them to learn the formula for sum of angles from it.  Reinforce it by a discussion. Ask them to them solve some problems Take a short 1 question assessment to check their clarity. Give them about 5 minutes to solve it.  Give them the answer so they can self check their work. Give them 3 minutes to check with buddies if their answer is not correct.  I wonder why we need to teach when so much information is given on Google! In addition, I want to share something that I did. I wanted to know how they felt about the process. So I gave 4 question prompts: I understood ... I liked ... I am confused by ... In this module ... Here is one student's response: Geometry Contemplation I understood… Though I k...

Grade 8; Class setting: Group; Mode of learning: Flip the class ; Lesson on: Percentage Website to be used: www.aaamath.com ; Drill work: Textbook The students worked in groups with their laptops. The school had free WiFi. As the students often ran in panting with "My battery is about to die" or "Net is working", thereby completely ruining the lesson, I had told them in advance, "Have battery back up for 40 Minutes and WiFi functional. Else you work through the textbook".  I never had any tech issues...such is the (un) popularity of textbooks!   Now here is my perfect lesson!  Clear instructions to the students Name of the site emailed to them Modules to be covered circled The content is clear on the site to be learnt Try the quiz and practice it till you are confident Work on the textbook problems Come for an assessment when you are ready. Picture perfect lesson ...ri...

There are 5 words in language that can be used very effectively in Maths classes to develop lessons!  These are: When? How? Where? Why? and What? One can make use of these easily. I used them to flip the class for the lesson on Pi.  Introduction: I told the students that they would be learning about something called as 'Pi". They have to investigate and find information on the same! They had to work in a team of 2 to 3.  T ask sheet for them, emailed: Part A - Create 5 original questions around the following on Pi : What ......? When ....? Where...? Why...? How...? Email me your questions and the researched answers. Part B - “How is circumference of a circle connected with knowledge of pi"? Email me the information Part C - Present your findings to the class with a question-answer session.  This is the assessment of the task Rubric: Questions selected Information Finding circumference Presentation Team work Time managem...

Teaching using a video. (Quadratic Equations) When we hand out a video to students to learn from, often teachers claim that the students are not really learning or we do not know how to test if they have learnt something. I think when a video is handed out, we have to give some very good leading questions also to students to extract information out of the video. Else they may not know exactly what they are supposed to learn and can come back with a "that was awesome!" or "that sucked!" approach. This is how my lesson went: 1. I gave students a weblink for a youtube video on applications of quadratic equations  and asked them to spread out with their partner anywhere in the school. The video involves the following: " An answer to the common question from students, "When am I ever gonna use this stuff?" This episode of Math In Action features Sgt. Rob Krider of the CHP MAIT (California Highway Patrol Multidisciplinary Accident Investigation ...

Teachers often feel quite burdened by the syllabus. However there are topics that can be left for the students to learn on their own, with some smart strategy on the part of the teacher.  One such topic is Scientific Notation.  I f you do not wish to teach it directly, this is what you do! Set clear objectives: At the end of this lesson, you should know:     How to convert a number to scientific notation/standard form.     And the reverse, converting a number back to normal form. Give the students a clear task sheet.  Preferably email to them do they can go to the required websites directly. The task sheet language should be SO clear that they don't have to come back to you with questions. (It is hard...took me 2 years to refine my language) Mine went like this: Go to the  site .  Learn about Scientific Notation Open the site 2 .  Read and understand the information on scientific notation.  Scroll do...

A lot of times students are not ready for using resources that they are expected to by the curriculum. I faced that when my IB SL Maths students had to use the graphic calculator to learn about Sine and Cosine graphs.  They were students who had just come from CBSE or ICSE background and were not used to the usage of calculators at the IB level. Their comfort zone was shaken and stirred! I did what any empathic teacher would do. I broke the challenge  into baby steps! They drew the curves on graph paper, just like good ol days!  THEN we went on the CD, projected onscreen, and saw the graphs and their changes in detail. I kept keying different values and they saw the changes in the graphs. Finally I asked them to pick up their graphic calculators and try some curve drawing using them. The fascination and comprehension in their eyes was enough to feel contented! No fear. Only excitement. The tech friendly generation got it right within minutes!

We often forget the good old whiteboard can be used for work in the class, even if we are creating a self directed class. Here is what I did the day I had a sore throat in the class! Creativity and Ingenuity. I used the board to flip the class. I used BLUE colour for it is soothing to the eyes.  I wrote in steps for that is what makes content digestible.  I felt the board was filling a lot so I used GREEN for extra content.  When I had to explain, I said "look at the Blue 1" or "Read the Green". That got the attention of all students easily!

Sometimes, simple ideas can be used from one subject that invigorate and bring alive teaching in another subject. I find that language gives a lot of ways that bring Maths alive. One such simple idea is  solving a word search Word search is usually associated with language teaching, however it can be very well used for Maths too. There are words to be remembered in Maths which can be difficult, such as 'Quadrilateral, Isosceles, Algebraic...' etc.  There are 3 reasons why it is a good idea for Maths classes: Word search is a fun way to help the students recall the names of the words and also remember the spelling.  It is a group task so brings in the skill of collaborative learning.  Finally, this can be a formative assessment that is self checked. Teacher can be a facilitator of the class.  Word search made by a student To implement word search in the Maths class, there  are two ways: Generate one from the web and ask students ...