Post 2 – New Start

Hello!

It has been over a year since my last (and first) blog post. It has taken me a year to work out what I want this blog to be. My professional aim is to make my maths teaching more about the real world, particularly for the lower-attaining students, so they understand that maths is important and relevant to their lives – And I would like this blog to help teachers who also have this aim.

I have been teaching maths in mainstream secondary schools for almost 7 years but the past year has been a hugely developmental year for me. The past 12 months have seen me teach maths in 4 different schools, including a primary school (which was great!), while completing my Master’s dissertation (which was incredibly tough!).

The variety in my working environments encouraged me to think about the issues common in most schools regarding maths teaching. Over the year I came to the conclusion that one of the biggest problems maths teachers face is student lack of engagement and motivation, especially students in lower-attaining maths sets. This issue, teamed with the chronic lack of time teachers have to think of ways to improve this situation, plus increased exam pressures, led me to what this blog should be.

In this blog I plan to:

• Share maths resource that I have made and found that connect maths topics to the real world
• Share articles, blog posts, videos, CPD, etc., that discuss how to improve maths education
• Share miscellaneous maths things that I think are interesting and fun (and there are LOADS!!)

I hope maths teachers and educators find the ideas in this blog useful. I’d love to hear your thoughts and suggestions. Also, if you have more ideas on how to make maths relevant to students’ lives please share and get in touch!