Mathematics Teaching in Indonesia

My first assignment for my Master's course was to "look at a chosen aspect of education in one country and comment on the socio-economic, political and cultural influences on this aspect of education [using] an infographics tool to present [my] findings."

The country was a largely random choice: I didn't have a particular country in mind so I just sort of broadly read around until I landed on something that struck me as interesting. Could the aspect I chose really have been anything else?

I completed and submitted the assignment at the end of November and have just received my grade* so here it is:

Mathematics Teaching in Indonesia

The Third Reich Is Listening

As Bletchley Park's "Enigma Man*" I was often asked the question "... but what were the other side doing?" The museum doesn't cover this side of the story other than very fleetingly and in passing so it was always tricky to answer, but it is nevertheless a very pertinent - and thoroughly interesting - question.

This is my copy of The Third Reich is Listening and you can't have it (but you're welcome to buy your own, or borrow it from a library, of course)

This post is, essentially, a review of Christian Jennings' The Third Reich is Listening. Its subtitle "Inside German Codebreaking 1939 - 1945" tells you the main focus of the book, but the story does start earlier than that, summarising work done by key characters in World War I and the inter-war years.

The Most Important Thing in Your Pencil Case, or Calculators Ain't Bad

I have a friend who's starting secondary school in September. Her mum sent me this:

I need your opinion on something. B████ is laughing at me because I said that choosing a new pencil case is THE MOST IMPORTANT thing about a new school year. I messaged my English dept, but she said they’re bound to agree and I needed to message a Maths teacher. Thoughts?

I responded with:

Teaching to the Void

Following a conversation sparked by one of their training events GEM, the professional network for people interested in learning through museums and heritage, asked me to write a guest post loosely based upon (and an expansion of) the ideas in this post. It's here:

    Teaching to the Void at GEM.org.uk

Is Zero Odd or Even?

It's been a while since I posted something mathsy, but I've seen a few people being wrong about this one lately, so here goes...

Let's start with the popular-but-wrong response; the one that would get the QI alarm awooga-ing: "it's neither!"

Wrong!

Stony Stratford: Things to See and Do

If you're looking for things to do in Milton Keynes I've recently discovered* Sophie etc, a blog covering just that topic. It focuses on food (she's pointed me towards some GREAT takeaways during lockdown) but also posts now and then about other adventures that are up for grabs in the area. There's a post (this one, in fact) about all of the fantastic things you can do in Stony Stratford, a gorgeous former market town up in the furthest reaches of north-west Milton Keynes. Actually, she doesn't quite cover all of the things that are worth seeing, though the one I'm going to tell you about is a bit niche.

Digital Skills for Teaching & Learning: How to Present with Google Slides or Powerpoint in its Own Window

A little background

EDIT (06/07/2020): Now with added PowerPoint!

I've taken part in a good number of online discussions, seminars, conferences and the like since our Lockdown period started and on the whole it's all been very good, with incredible use of broadly (and often freely) available use of resources to turn an experience that could be flat and impersonal into a very positive one. There are a few things that niggle me, however, and I've been looking into overcoming them, especially as I've been moving into this online teaching lark as well. I thought I'd post about some of the things I've found out and include a few "how to..." walkthroughs. This is largely so that I can find these things again but I realise there may be others out there who might benefit.

Thoughtful transitions can be used to make slides clearer and less cluttered. Losing them can make a big difference.

If that's you, fill your boots! Also ask questions if I'm at all unclear, miss out an important step, or say something you don't understand. If I get something wrong correct me; if there's an easier way let me know!

How to Use a Spreadsheet to Batch-Upload Events to Your Calendar

The other day I posted...

One of my favourite things I've discovered this year is using a spreadsheet to batch-add things to my calendar. Such a timesaver!

— Tommaths (@TeaKayB) June 1, 2020

... and a couple of people asked me how to do it.

To some of you this may be the most obvious thing on the planet, but I only discovered it earlier this year and - my oh my - has it saved me some time. My day* job sees me visiting various places around the country and I keep track of it all in my calendar. As any self-respecting nerd is driven by unknown forces to do, I often put a bit of effort into finding out how I can get the tech around me to do some of the more boring jobs so that I have more time available for doing the interesting things. I'd list some potential use-cases for this spreadsheet-to-calendar trick but I figure that if you've read this far you already know what you want it for.

Before we get started, a disclaimer: Yes, there are plenty of other articles detailing how to do this and I visited many of them. I haven't referenced any of them because it was about six months ago so I've forgotten which ones I used, none of them gave me every piece of information I needed, and there were a few important stumbling blocks that weren't mentioned at all.

Another Puzzle for the Today Programme!

I set another puzzle for Radio 4's Today programme and it was featured this morning (Monday, 6th April 2020).

It goes like this...

"Doc note, I dissent. A fast never prevents a fatness. I diet on cod."

Bletchley Park Codebreaker Peter Hilton constructed this impressive 51-character palindromic sentence, allegedly in response to a challenge set by a fellow Codebreaker. Palindromic numbers work in the same way: the same digits in the same order whether you read them backwards or forwards.

What is the 51st Palindromic number?

You can find the puzzle (with a link to a solution) on the Today Programme's website, here.

As with many puzzles the solution is debatable depending on some starting assumptions. Feel free to discuss your assumptions (and how these might change the answer) in the comments. Teachers, I'd love to hear how you might use any of the ideas or topics featured (even tangentially) in your own teaching!

Also, please post your favourite palindromes!

Research Poster: Digital Mathematics Resources and Museums

Back in September I asked for some maths teachers to take part in the trial of a mathematics resource that I had created and was trialling as part of the work towards my PGCert in Digital Leadership.

With massive thanks to the teachers and students who took part, I completed the project which formed the second assignment towards the first of two modules in the course. Our brief was to present our report in the form of a research poster (with a creatively loose definition of what that means).