Tools & Resources
We are so pleased to be connected to teachers around the world on social media right now. It is such an incredible source of inspiration, tools and resources. I thought it might be useful just to make a straightforward list of those with links and the briefest of descriptions below in caes it helps. I know I am already benefitting from reading other peoples lists. This list is incomplete, but everytime we hit something new we will put it it here. Now , as much as ever, we are thinking about the variety experiences that students can have and the tools/resources we have out our disposal to make that posisble. All the below play a part in the balanced approach we will try to offer.
Microsoft TeamsAs ever, nothing is perfect, but fair play to a tool that went from new to daily so quickly and effectively. Wow.
Google Hangout Meet (gmail acct (free set-up) needed)
Replaced Google Hangouts (which is great too and accessible direct from gmail), Hangout Meet has the added functionalities of: live subtitles as you speak & teacher controls students mics & video and up to 250 people on one call! Getting started video and Scheduling in advance & Share Window only. Warning: check if students can unmute themselves.
ZoomAgain, for speed, simplicity and the ability to look at lots of people all at the same time.
Already a huge part of my day to day, this is coming in to its own in the virtual school. Collaborative, live, online workspaces that make a lot of things possible.
This is a huge suite of websites written for IB teachers. All are freely available at the moment and there will lots and lots of resources that work for different curricular. Specifically, you might make use of this one for Maths Applications/Maths Studies and this one for Maths Higher level and Standard level
Similarly, these freely available virtual teachers are for IB students, but offer lots of useful crossover. Try Maths HL/SL, Maths Applications and Maths Studies. You create an account and then everyting is free.
Worth its virtual weight in virtual gold - I can see me using a lot of this graphing calculator in the virtual school. Create an account, save and share you graphs so that students can manipulate them.
Geogebra and Geogebra Ready-to-go Resources
Geogebra is super powerful! There is so much mathematics you can do with it, so much room for creativity and no limit to how far you can take it (except your own limits!): 3D, Augmented reality etc. For power and easy to use interface (not cluttered) I still prefer "Classic 5" (personally). A vast user community sharing 1000s of new applets every day: www.geogebra.org/materials (scroll, or 'search', to start sourcing!)
And as if the calculator wasn't enough, these are tailor made for our new virtual world. Well thought through and put together so that dependence on the teacher is minimised on a whole class level, freeing the teacher up to work with smaller groups/individuals. The dashboard allows the teacher to see exactly what is going on. Definitely exciting.
This site is excellent: set up your classes, assign "quizzes" by topic / revision sets etc. Complex questions (like the frustums one in this image) are broken down into steps, students type in their thinking and you, as the teacher pool all this (whilst students are taking the quiz(zes)) ready to "share screen" and discuss post test. Many thanks Craig Barton! (FREE and always will be!). Further discussion here . .
Open SankoréFREE teacher whiteboard software, great for "sharing your screen" with your class. Maths Tools included (ruler, protractor, compass etc.) + video embed etc. and other functionality.
Video Example, Video Tutorial.
We have always appreciated what a service like MyMaths has over a textbook in terms of self help for students. This is particularly pertinent now. Students can take part in the interactive lessons and get feedback. Teachers can see what students have bee up to. We will be using this!
This has been on my radar for a while, but like most of us, time is finite. I have started having a good look at some of this and can definitely see potential and things that I like.
I find myself going here for their GCSE question series fairly regularly. I particularly enjoy the progression in the questions that invariably ends up with the really challenging. We have agreed that we don't expect students to do reams of printing, and so students might be looking at these questions on screen and writing answers on blank paper. Of course printing is an option too and these kind of resources are going to be great too!
The huge value of this selection is that it has been carefully curated, so you know that everything you find here is being recommended. I am on this site regularly and will be here looking for different types of task to make sure there is variety in what I am offering students.
Like so many services, Manga High are offering long free trials to help out during this time. I have seen before what happens when students get sucked in to some Manga High games and am really gald I can offer this. Set up was really, really easy!
A quick, easy and safe (respects European data protection rules and has a downloadable form you can ask parents to sign and return if you're school doesn't already have parental authorisations for use of student images in lessons) way for students to share video. I used it with my tutor group to make a quick, 2min video sharing good ideas on "My Life in Confinement" - questions they had to address are here.
Brilliant.org As the name suggests, this is a brilliant site with courses for mathematics, geometry, problem-solving, logic and much more. Quality resources that can be given to students to work through independently.