International Bingo

Posted by: Lois Lindemann on: September 22nd, 2011
Posted in: 1. Learning and Teaching | 2. Events and Happenings | resources and ideas
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Here’s a nice maths activity for European Day of Languages: BODMAS / BIDMAS bingo.

So far I’ve made four versions: French, Spanish, German and Italian.

To play you will need:

  • Bingo grids
  • A list of the numbers from 1 – 10 in the language that you are using. The lists include pronunciation guides.
  • A PowerPoint with the questions.

How I run the activity:

I give out the grids and ask students to fill in the numbers from 1-25 – the numbers can go anywhere. I find it minimises confusion if I say “Write 1 in any square, now write 2 in any square, now write 3 in any square. You get the idea – keep going to 25.”  They should end up with something like this:

10 14 25 2 11
22 1 7 23 18
17 8 12 5 13
24 21 15 3 19
4 9 20 16 6

A line of 5 in any direction (vertical, horizontal, diagonal) will win.

The questions are on PowerPoints. I usually start by counting to 10 with the students, then we play the bingo game. There are also links to sites where you can hear the numbers if you wish to.

You may spot certain similarities between the questions for each language (find and replace is a wonderful thing!) Some questions involve using the rules of BIDMAS / BODMAS. The questions are written numerically, together with the correct answers in the speakers’ notes. If you get carried away and want to run two games, just shuffle the slides around.

Prizes are optional – although a round of applause for the winner is obviously nice.

 

Download the files:

Blank bingo grids (8 grids per sheet) as a Word file (.doc format)

List of numbers. These are Word files (.doc format). I usually print A5 size by choosing to print two pages per sheet, that’s why there are two identical pages. Maybe not the most efficient way to do it, but it’s the simplest way!

Question PowerPoints:

Revision starters

Posted by: Lois Lindemann on: June 4th, 2011
Posted in: 1. Learning and Teaching | resources and ideas
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2 comments - more welcome!

It’s that time of year again, GCSE exams are imminent for several year groups, end of year exams loom for others. The revision season is definitely in full swing.

I’ve been using a few starter activities for my classes as a bit of quick revision on some topics, the ones listed below are all on PowerPoint files [pptx format], if you would like any of them, please help yourself – Creative Commons licences apply to them all:

In The (Learning) Zone

Posted by: Lois Lindemann on: April 22nd, 2011
Posted in: Wordpress
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I’ve been doing some more work on MoreThanMaths.com over the last couple of days. It was high time that I added some content to the Learning Zone. In the process of doing this I learned something. How appropriate.

Anyway, having spent a bit of time grappling with the wonders of combing Flash and WordPress, I thought I’d share what I’ve discovered:

1. Embedding Flash files in a WordPress site

I’ve been doing this for a while (here’s an example) and I’ve found the easiest way is to use a good plugin.

I recommend SwfObj – it’s reliable and really easy to use. I usually add some code to my posts/pages, eg:

[swfobj src="http://www.morethanmaths.com/mtm-content/puzzles/coins-01-triangle-to-square.swf" height="450" width="600"]

Alternatively, I can use the link that the plugin adds to the WordPress dashboard. When writing a post or page, just look for an icon with a little f. It’s sitting next to the other media upload icons. Click it and follow the instructions. It’s easy!

There are two functions from the SwfObj plugin that I don’t use.

- Alignment

I find it easier to align the movie by placing the code inside center tags:

<center>
[swfobj src="http://www.morethanmaths.com/mtm-content/puzzles/coins-01-triangle-to-square.swf" height="450" width="600"]
</center>

- Full screen view

I offer a hyperlink to a full screen version of the file rather than using the built in function (example on this page). This makes it easier for anyone who wants to grab a copy of the movie (eg to embed in a flipchart file for an interactive whiteboard), or who wants to hyperlink straight to it.

Incidentally, if you are going to do this, make sure that your Flash movies don’t have things going on offstage – otherwise they will show up! Many of my movies do have things going on offstage, but before publishing I cover these with a ‘curtain’ – actually a big white rectangle with a hole that shows the stage. Yes, I could deal with this by setting opacity on a webpage, but that won’t help if someone downloads the individual file.

2. Linking one Flash movie to another

Some of my resources aren’t single Flash files, they are too big for that. For example, Measure Island is made from a set of Flash files: one for the introduction, one for the map, one for the flea circus activity etc. They are linked together using Actionscript commands within the Flash files. This command is used to load the flea circus:

_root.loadMovie("ruler_flea_circus.swf");

After trying to get this to work with WordPress, I learned that this doesn’t work quite as I expected. I knew that the loadmovie command was a relative link. I was surprised to learn that it doesn’t point at the folder/directory that contains the Flash movie; instead it defaults to the folder/directory that holds the webpage that the movie is on.

My old site consisted of static html pages, with the relevant Flash files held in the same folders, so that wasn’t a problem. On my WordPress site, it was an issue, because the ‘folder’ containing the page doesn’t exist as such on a database driven site.

I tried lots of things before realising that the solution was easy!

I tried putting an absolute link in my loadmovie commands. The result was crashing Flasherama. Not pretty. Not recommended.

I discovered the base command on Adobe’s page listing Flash OBJECT and EMBED tag attributes

base -. or [base directory] or [URL]. Specifies the base directory or URL used to resolve all relative path statements in the Flash Player movie. This attribute is helpful when your Flash Player movies are kept in a different directory from your other files.

I failed at using this in various ways before eventually deciding to try a base command with SwfObj. There is no mention that this is supported on the plugin’s page, but the plugin does use the SWF Object 2.2 library and I was getting desperate…

[swfobj src="http://www.morethanmaths.com/mtm-content/measureisland/mi_intro.swf"</a> height="450" width="600" base="http://www.morethanmaths.com/mtm-content/measureisland/" ]

It worked perfectly! Now when a user clicks on a link in my Flash movie, it looks in my www.morethanmaths.com/mtm-content/measureisland/ folder for the Flash file. No crashing, no gnashing of teeth. You can see the results here.

As I said, I recommend SwfObj – it’s reliable and really easy to use. And it does even more than it says on the tin!

Easter Eggs

Posted by: Lois Lindemann on: April 18th, 2011
Posted in: 5. Random Musings
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house bricksI have lots to do, but it’s the school holidays, so I’m feeling no guilt about doing something fun instead.

I’ve been hiding some Easter Eggs. No, not real ones, not even the chocolate variety. I’m talking about the type of Easter Eggs that you find lurking on websites, DVDs or in games. Or on my site for my students, MoreThanMaths.com

There is a purpose to this. When I made my first student website, I filled it with things that I thought were interesting, then sat back and waited for students to explore it. Some did. Most didn’t. So I decided to come up with ways to persuade them to look around, such as the Easter Egg Hunt – and a Christmas present hunt, which operated in much the same way, but with pictures of Christmas presents.

Later I hit on the idea of hiding Easter Eggs, such as the not very cunningly concealed bad joke page, which was surprisingly popular given the awfulness of the jokes.

If the site content is good, students will use it, but getting over that first hurdle of hooking their interest and getting them to explore was harder than I expected.

Anyway, I’ve transferred the bad joke page over to the new site. I should probably find some new jokes though. Preferable some that are actually funny.

I’ve also been having fun creating and hiding one or two other bits and pieces.

I wonder how long it will take for someone to find them?

 

 

Photo: Easter Egg Hunt by Leigh Jay Hicks on Flickr. Used under Creative Commons Licence.

Planning: Back to basics

Posted by: Lois Lindemann on: April 7th, 2011
Posted in: 4. Reviews and Reflections
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house bricksI love it when I have an “Aha!” moment. No, I’ve not been listening to 80s pop, I’m talking about those moments of real insight, when everything clicks into place.

I’ve not been experiencing many of those lately, so I’ll tell you about the “Aha!” moment’s less glamorous relation instead. I like to call it a flash of the bleeding obvious. It’s like a flash of inspiration, but without the inspiration :)

At the start of the last school year, I was thinking about some lessons that had gone particularly well, when I experienced a flash of the bleeding obvious:

My best lessons are often the ones I’ve practised.

See, I told you it was obvious!

For example, I often use a Harry Potter themed ratio lesson. It is always a cracker. It started as a suggestion from a colleague which I developed into a workable lesson. Since then, I’ve delivered it myself many times and shared it with colleagues. Those colleagues have offered suggestions for improvements. Considering how many times I’ve been through a cycle of practising this lesson and improving it, it’s no wonder it’s always a success.

What does this have to do with planning you might ask?

I decided that I wanted to build up a bank of lessons that were tried and tested, with all the resources readily available and with a reasonably detailed set of lesson notes. These would help me to remember what I’d done (I frequently forget things) and allow me to share the ideas with other people. After all, my best lessons are often the ones where I’ve collaborated with colleagues to improve them. (There’s another flash of the bleeding obvious for you!)

The result was that after years of increasingly minimal lesson notes, I’ve returned to detailed lesson planning. Not for every single lesson, but for a surprisingly large number.

Guess what I’ve discovered? My best lessons are often the ones I’ve planned in detail.

I wonder why it took me so long to work that out?

 

Photo: house bricks by Minimalist Photography on Flickr. Used under Creative Commons Licence.

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