The Teacher Toolbox

I’m currently doing a favour for a friend of mine and working with her son because the lad is ‘beating himself up’ about his maths knowledge.

Here is a game I’ve made for him that encourages him to reflect on how mental computation is often more efficient than using a calculator. NB Over the years I’ve found that adding a little ‘competition’ with boys often provides them with a little extra motivation to learn the basic facts than constant worksheets

Download Beat the Calculator

Over the last week or so I’ve been reading a book by Matt Groening  (The Simpsons Handbook: Secret Tips from the Pros) and tonight is my first experiment with drawing a character with an overbite

Today I’ve been working on a poster for a friend of mine to give a simple ‘tag’ to help kids remember the properties of prisms. Feel free to download this prisms poster if you need it.

cheers

Adrian

I believe that there are only a few things that are certain in the lives of people and one of those things is that they will have to solve problems.

In this activity the students could only animate their solutions once they had solved the tangram puzzles.

Fractals is an aspect of maths that can inspire awe and wonder in the students. This is a piece of ecphrastic poetry (where you ask questions of artwork) based on fractal geometry. The students had to ‘combine’ Fractalus, Photostory 3, Ejay and poetry. See what you think.

Adrian

PS My Twitter Network sent me a collection of ideas for using Photostory 3. See if any of these ideas work for you and your class.

I’ve just finished the 20th roman numerals webquest page but am really going to have to move on to a few more pressing projects for the next couple of weeks.

Next week I’m flying up to Mackay to give a keynote and run some breakout sessions. I’m then back to prepare a submission for my favourite Australian ICT conference ELH 2009 and then I need to get really busy as I’m off to New Zealand to speak on “Using ICTs to Engage Students’.

If anyone feels like finishing off the text for any of the remaining pages, feel free to email it to me via my contact page.

Cheers

Adrian

Recently friends & I have been discussing an appallingly named time management strategy known as, ‘Swiss Cheesing’. The strategy alludes to making lots of small holes in a project which eventually leads to the project being completed. This is how I’m currently trying and finish my roman numerals webquest site.

Over the last few months I’ve been making graphics on & off with my Wacom Tablet. This week I’ve started putting the webpages together and adding the ‘draft’ activity ideas to the pages.

Feel free to have a look around the beginnings of my roman numerals site, offer any suggestions and perhaps bring your class along to try it out the next few weeks.

cheers

Adrian

PS I’m rather pleased with the way my drawing skills are progressing and the graphics I’m producing

Over the last few months these guys have been great discussion starters. I love having them sit on the desk, not only for inspiration, but also to get students asking questions about the lads and their work.

Recently my three year old daughter has taken to playing with the characters in her doll house. I’m finding it strangely good fun to see Freud and Dora the Explorer sharing a kitchen or bathroom

There are heaps of these guys to choose from. I think I’ll get  The Artist Collection for a art teacher friend of mine as it has Dali, Picasso, Frida Kahlo, Warhol & Van Gogh in it. A history teacher friend of mine is getting the Revolutionaries Pack for his desk as he feels that, ‘History teachers just can’t have enough revolutionaries in their lives’. I also have an English teacher friend who is getting the  Writers Collection for her desk.

Now it needs to be noted that I had a few dramas in getting these guys shipped to Australia. Firstly I tried the official Jailbreak Toys Website where the prices were very reasonable and there was an excellent variety of figures, but due to a shipping anomaly it was going to cost $57 US (almost $100 Oz) to ship my order. Needless to say I didn’t go with this option.

I then tried Amazon but they don’t ship these figures to Australia but would be a good option for my American readers.

After that I turned to Ebay and Salvador today arrived just in time for my birthday tomorrow.

cheers

Adrian

NB This is not a paid blog post, I just find these guys a wonderful addition to my desk

Hi All,

I’ve just added four new flash movies to the Symmetry site that demonstrate:

Flips Across a Vertical Axis, Flips Across a Horizontal Axis, Slides, and Turns or Rotations.

A HUGE THANKYOU goes out to my Flash guru Andrew of onlineartschool.info fame for creating these. Feel free to check out his site when you need ideas for your art programs.

A poster defining ‘descending order‘ for you to print out and add to your Maths Vocabulary Wall.