Scootle Presentation

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"When are we going to need this?"

I was at a professional development day and one participant (who looked as though they had been teaching Mathematics for many years) kept asking "When are the students going to use this?". It reminded me of how often students have asked this question over the years.

In my first year of teaching, I wanted to be able to answer the question, everytime it was asked. Unfortunately when a student asks "Why do we need to know 2x + 3x?" It can be quite difficult to answer. It is like asking, why do we need to know that 1 + 1 = 2?

I have come to believe that we do not need to answer the question everytime it is asked. Sometimes, the answer will be "We need it for more difficult Mathematics later on, which has many applications to the real world". But sometimes, I now give the response below.

You probably won't remember this specific bit of Mathematics in 3 or 4 years time. What we're trying to do here is trying to get you to think mathematically. That is, working towards the "Working Mathematically" Outcomes in the NSW Syllabus.

Now, moreso than ever, we need our young people to be problem solvers when they leave school. The problems that they will need to solve will be different, but thinking logically and mathematically can be of great assistance.

Of course, I often still like to answer the question by giving a real life application - but it doesn't always satisfy students curiosity.

Tabletise your computer with an iPhone (SplashTop)

I love the idea of the WACOM tablets, but at the moment I have a Toshiba Tablet PC. Just like a regular laptop, except you can touch the screen and write on it with a pen. To supplement this functionality, I have recently installed SplashTop on my iPhone. It lets me view and control my PC Laptop from my iPhone! It would therefore also let me view Flash on my iPhone. Thanks for the twitter tip from @markliddell.

Implications for Teaching

With greater freedom, you can now control you laptop, connected to a projector, from anywhere in the room. You don't have to be stuck to your laptop – or stuck to the 'interactive' whiteboard. Will technology like this do away with the 'Interactive Whiteboard'?

This week on Twitter

New NAPLAN website		@aamtinc http://www.nap.edu.au/
Curve Fitting using Geogebra		@MrHonner has students taking photos, then fit curves in Geogebra http://fb.me/JtYe7oa4 and http://goo.gl/suQed and http://goo.gl/suQed. It would be interesting to curve fit @dandersod's Irish Arch I've actually found Autograph easier to curve-fit.
QR Codes – Maths Worksheet		@rmbyrne share a post http://goo.gl/fb/Y5num
Free things for teachers from Microsoft		@rmbyrne shared a post from coolcatteacher http://goo.gl/JzmbH. But they are all listed on Microsoft's webpage here. SkyDrive – 25GB of free cloud storage. Microsoft Math Addin for Word and OneNote They don't note the Math Worksheet Generator that I like.
Cloud Storage		@rmbyrne shared a post advertising SugarSync that gives you 5GB of online storage for free. An alternative to the 2GB available from Dropbox.

NAPLAN 2010: Numeracy Year 7 Solutions

With NAPLAN 2011 just around the corner, many students will like to have a look at the 2010 NAPLAN papers, so that they know what to expect.

[slideshare id=7556712&doc=2010year7naplannon-calculatorsolutions-110407232058-phpapp01&type=d]

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