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Core 1 MEI (Jan 2011)

Top 5 Maths Twitter Accounts we should all be following.

With the holidays in full flow I thought I would do a bit of research and list my top 5 maths twitter accounts that both students and staff should be following.

So, here we go….

Firstly, an honourable mention to NCETM.   It doesn’t make the top 5 as it is probably only suited to the CPD of teachers, rather than of interest to students, but nevertheless, it is one to be following.

We all know that continuing to improve our ability to teach is vital and following an account that has a heavy focus on Maths CPD is a no-brainer.  This account has a great community of skilled professionals working together for a common cause.  I particularly like the resources and support given for maths that is simply intriguing …rather than flogging topics that are going to be in the exams.  Keep it up!

So, my top 5....

5th  ASAPMaths

This is a teacher resource friendly yet fairly new twitter account.  Lots of regular and targeted resources seem to come out during the academic year to help students get a “C” or “A*” at GCSE and, brilliantly, the answers are provided!  Another area to keep an eye on is their “You Tube” channel which is starting to cover specific topics and past papers in a friendly way.

4th.  CorbettMaths

Another twitter account with excellent, and free, resources available.  This account is currently focused on giving students daily practise to ensure they keep their knowledge up to date.  For no other reason, this is a great account to follow.  The Corbettmaths website is linked to this twitter account with helpful and graded videos on a wide range of topics that students should find very helpful.

3rd.  Mr Barton Maths

A close call whether this should have been in 2^nd place or not but Mr Barton has just been edged out into 3^rd!  A truly outstanding twitter account and website is available.  His knowledge of Autograph is especially welcome and his role as a TES maths advisor means that there are lots of links to other helpful resources and people should you need them.  Most impressively, his twitter feed contains links to whole lesson plans and resources should you be needing a starting point for those topics that are tricky to teach.

2nd.  Just Maths  and  Revise Just Maths

Two accounts for the price of one!

This is an established and thriving community of people who regularly engage with the issues of the day.  In addition, Just Maths produces outstanding resources and is always ready to help with questions or queries any student or teacher may have.  They also have a great website linked in but some parts of the website do require a paid subscription to access.  The only reason this isn’t number 1 is because there is, currently, no KS5 stuff available…but I’m sure they are on it!

1st.   Hegarty Maths

A truly fantastic and supportive account that ticks all the boxes.  A brilliant "You Tube" channel is hailed as being absolutely vital by student after student after student.  His fascination with “growth mindsets” and “technology” means you are missing out if you are not following this one.  

Make sure you are following all of these to get September off to a flying start!

A Level and GCSE Maths exam results variability.

The BBC  is reporting of a warning to schools regarding this year’s forthcoming A Level and GCSE results.  However, on closer scrutiny, it is difficult to figure out what the warning actually is....

It seems that there are rumblings of great variations in results this year.  Greater variations of what though?  Greater variations between teacher prediction and actual attainment?  Greater variations between school’s expected and historical results and what they attain this year?  Or greater variation of student attainment across the subjects they have taken….or all three?

To muddy the waters more there is further contradiction.  Glenys Stacey (Chief regulator for Ofqual) says that standards would be “held steady”.  To me, this means that a student who got a “C” last year should get a “C” this year.  But, where is the variation in that?  Encouragingly, Stacey then goes onto say, “Overall, results are likely to look different because of the difference in entry patterns”.

The only difference in entry patterns is that many schools have cancelled their plans to enter Yr 10 students for the GCSE exam as it was claimed by some (principally Ofsted and Ofqual), though I never agreed with it, that entering students early for their maths exam did not result in greater attainment by the end of Yr 11.

So, following Ofqual and Ofsted’s logic, reducing the number of Yr 10 students sitting the exam should result in higher attainment for those in Year 11 this summer – especially as most Yr 11 students will not have been “damaged” by the historical early entry opportunities of the November, January and March sittings. 

But every teacher knows that would be a foolish and dangerous assumption.

Confused?  So am I.

And as the countdown to the results continues, us teachers wait for the traditional shrieks of joy and tears of despair, knowing that we too are receiving our judgement.