 Posted by: Lois Lindemann on: April 3rd, 2011  Posted in: 2. Events and Happenings | for students Tags for this post:   I was amused by an advert in the window of my local Oxfam shop a couple of weeks ago. "Easter Egg Hunt?" it asked, before adding, "Clue: they’re in here." I haven’t been in to buy any eggs yet, but it did remind me that it was time to set up a very popular annual event – the first time I’ve run it at my new school.
The MoreThanMaths.com Easter Egg Hunt started out as a purely analogue event. I printed out a selection of puzzles onto brightly coloured sheets of A4 paper and then roamed around the school where I worked armed with the pile of puzzles, some blu-tak and a step-stool in order to ‘hide’ the eggs. By the time I returned to the maths department, students were already collecting entry forms. It was great fun, created heated debate about the solutions to a couple of the problems and was declared a success. I ran it like that several times, the only problem being that some over-competitive students removed some of the eggs to give themselves an advantage. Tsk.
The Easter Egg Hunt has been mostly online for several years now (that stops the overly competitive participants from nicking the eggs  ), with egg pictures ‘hidden’ on my website for students at MoreThanMaths.com. They have to find an egg picture (like the one in this post), then click on it to reveal a puzzle or a problem to solve. I still pin up a few eggs around school to generate some interest.
It’s a great way to get students to explore my website – even though the new version has a search box, which makes finding eggs quite easy! I imagine this would also work well on a VLE. My event is aimed at Y7 and Y8 this year, but in previous years both Y6 and older students have joined in too.
If you’d like to use this yourself, either online or as a hunt around school/another location, feel free to do so. The links to the files are below, please adapt them to suit you:
(I’ll upload the answers once my own Easter Egg Hunt has finished – some of my students read this blog! Yes, I’m looking at you – shouldn’t you be doing something more interesting instead?)
The egg image is from Microsoft’s clipart, used under licence.
Update – here are the answers:
Posted by: Lois Lindemann on: March 3rd, 2011 Posted in: 4. Reviews and Reflections | MEd study Tags for this post:  After years of prevarication, I finally signed up to study for an MEd this year. I started full of enthusiasm, at much the same time that I started my new job (about which I was also full of enthusiasm).
I think it would be fair to say that the job is going rather better than the studying.
I ended up getting really behind with the module I’m taking, partly for good reasons (two weekends away, teaching revision classes, doing the exam marking that helps pay my course fees), partly for unavoidable reasons (I’m looking at you Christmas lurgy) and partly for distinctly rubbish reasons (just didn’t get my act together). Whatever the reasons, a half term study binge isn’t the best way to learn, nor is it particularly enjoyable.
Finally, time to breathe. I’ve met my latest deadline. I’ve submitted an assignment that I’m not at all happy with, but I think I’ve done enough to pass. Most importantly, it’s done. Part of me was tempted to fill in some comments myself to save my tutor the trouble when he marks it – I already know what many of the weaknesses are!
I’m also not happy with the way I’m studying. It’s a distance learning course with the Open University, but there’s a wiki, a forum, Skype, an Elluminate room. Let’s count my contributions shall we? Maybe not. Wouldn’t take long.
I think the key issue here is that flexible doesn’t mean leave it until the holidays. When I was doing several short(ish) study sessions per week, I was enjoying the course.
So I’ve given myself a timetable. It’s flexible, as in different time slots each week – that’s essential. But there’s (hopefully) going to be about the same total study time each week – also essential.
It has to better than a study binge. Now lets see if I stick to it.
Photo: Tunnel by Tina Carlson on Flickr. Used under Creative Commons Licence.
Posted by: Lois Lindemann on: March 2nd, 2011 Posted in: 2. Events and Happenings | for students Tags for this post: 
World Maths Day may have been yesterday (1st March), but happily the final dateline wasn’t crossed until late this morning, so my Y8 group had a chance to take part.
Sometimes it’s good to stop worrying about levels and just have some fun! And much fun was had – they loved it. There was wild excitement every time they played someone from a new country, in fact they were almost as competitive trying to clock up the highest number of countries played as they were playing the actual games.
There was absolute concentration as they did mental maths at lightening speed, there were shrieks of delight every time a medal was won.
This is the class that invented the phrase ‘maths rush’, which is the brilliant feeling that comes from solving a tough maths problem.
No idea how Ofsted would rate the lesson, but I thought it was hugely enjoyable and Isaac rated it as “brill”. And we all experienced a maths rush. That’ll do for me. 
World Maths Day logo © 3P Learning
Posted by: Lois Lindemann on: February 21st, 2011 Posted in: 3. Teacherhacker | displays Tags for this post: I still seem to be unpacking school stuff. I moved schools last September, so yes, this is a sign that I have way too much stuff. Operation Own Less Stuff has been going on for a while now, the end is not yet in sight.
Anyway, I just unearthed Homer Simpson. Sky TV sent me several fold out flyers featuring Homer, so I cut one out, had him laminated and stuck him on my classroom wall. Last year I printed out key words and quotes in speech bubbles/callouts and made a mini display. Homer offered us a different word or bit of wisdom every week or so.
Think I might start again with this one:
"The human mind has never invented a labour-saving machine equal to algebra."
[Anon]
via Murray Bourne (@intmath) on Twitter
Posted by: Lois Lindemann on: February 19th, 2011 Posted in: 3. Teacherhacker | classroom tools Tags for this post: Mouse Mischief.  A class full of children looking excited at the appearance of mice (so far so good), then a problem: the PowerPoint that had worked perfectly the last time I used it simply didn’t run with multiple mice. The slides loaded, but no dialog box offering a multiple mouse set up.
Result: a class full of children looking a bit miffed. Not quite what I’d hoped for. (My own fault – should’ve tested it first!)
The problem seems to be a conflict between plugins. A quick Google revealed that SMART’s ink-aware layer is a common culprit, but I wasn’t using that. I had just downloaded a trial version of Articulate, which might be where the conflict is occurring – but I haven’t used this particular laptop for running presentations for a while, so who knows? Could easily be something else.
I’m fortunate to have two laptops – my own and one provided by school. Mouse Mischief is still working fine for content creation on my own laptop, but I’ll stick to using the school machine for use in lessons. It’s running Windows 7, so copes with more mice anyway.
The moral of the story: if Mouse Mischief stops working, try uninstalling any new or recently updated PowerPoint plugins.
Photo: Inside the Microsoft Arc Mouse by blakespot on Flickr. Used under Creative Commons Licence.
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Welcome! Hi, I'm Lois Lindemann - welcome to my blog!
I teach maths at Dronfield Henry Fanshawe School, a secondary school in the UK. This is where I'm planning to share links and explore ideas that I find useful or interesting - hopefully other educators will also find something of interest here.
Thanks for dropping in. Feel free to comment.
NB: Any opinions expressed here are those of the author or commenter; they don't (necessarily) reflect the view taken by Dronfield Henry Fanshawe.
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