Resourceaholic: A Stage Assets #3

Should you’re , this is a little bit of background on how this got here to be… I taught A degree proper from the beginning of my educating profession, together with throughout my PGCE and NQT yr. I assumed it was frequent apply to show A degree when coaching, however I now realise I used to be fortunate to get this chance – many maths lecturers go their whole profession with out educating any A degree (both as a result of they do not need to, or as a result of they work in colleges with out Sixth Kinds). I like educating A degree – it provides selection to my day, and it is good to not have to fret about behaviour administration. Six years in the past my timetable was majority A degree, however then I made a profession transfer that took me away from A degree educating – I did a quick stint as a advisor, then I moved to a model new college which solely had 12 months 7 once I joined. It was a tough profession transfer for me to step away from A degree educating, however I knew that serving to to arrange a brand new college was a possibility to not be missed. Anyway, quick ahead 4 years and we lastly had our first GCSE outcomes (did I point out that our maths P8 was prime 1% within the nation…?😀) after which our Sixth Type opened. Our Sixth Type is totally different to what I am used to, and remains to be very a lot in an embryonic stage. On my timetable this yr I’ve 12 months 9 and 12 months 11, plus three A degree courses (one in all which is Additional Maths). As Head of Maths I believe it is vital to show all Key Levels, so that is the right steadiness for me.

Educating the brand new Additional Maths specification for the primary time brings challenges for me by way of each curriculum design and topic data (I am re-teaching myself plenty of the content material as I am going) but in addition a lot pleasure. I believe my happiest moments of the time period have come from my Additional Maths classes. I’ve a pupil who asks me difficult questions that I’ve to go off and take into consideration. Being ‘intellectually challenged’ at work has all the time been vital to me, and I might forgotten how a lot I take pleasure in it. 

My A degree classes now look fairly totally different to my A degree classes from 5 years in the past. My type and construction has developed – I believe that educating a lot Key Stage 3 has made me a greater instructor.

Assets

Again in 2015 I wrote two weblog posts about A degree assets:

A Stage Assets #2

A lot of the assets in these posts are nonetheless a giant a part of my educating. I snip questions out of Solomon Worksheets on a regular basis, to make use of as examples or for retrieval apply. I additionally use assets from Integral, significantly in my Additional Maths educating. And I make use of Susan Whitehouse’s duties, a long-standing favorite of mine. 

Word that in my first put up about A degree assets I talked about CMEP, which was later renamed Underground Arithmetic.

On this put up I need to add just a few extra issues to the checklist, in case you are new to educating A degree and you are not conscious of those assets:

1. MadAsMaths

I first found madasmaths.com again in 2016 and blogged about it in Gems 53. These assets at the moment are well-known by A degree lecturers. The web site is stuffed with extraordinarily top quality questions with a superb degree of problem, and the amusing use of IYGB (‘if you happen to’ve acquired balls‘ apparently) makes me smile. The author of this superb web site Dr Trifon Madas sadly handed away in 2021, and his household have kindly saved his web site going in order that lecturers and college students can proceed to profit from Dr Madas’ knowledge and generosity. In addition to apply papers, there are booklets of questions by matter. I discover these actually useful in Additional Maths – for instance, I used plenty of questions from these booklets when educating matrices, collection and proof by induction. 

 

2.  Marta Hidegkuti

I really like Marta’s assets on educating.martahidegkuti.com. They’re aligned with American programs so I’ve to hunt round a bit, however I typically discover helpful units of questions on her web site. For instance, try her sheets on logs, trigonometry, indices, vectors, graphing and calculus. 

3. MathsHelper

I take advantage of mathshelper.co.uk for problem at Key Stage 3 and 4. It additionally has an A degree part, and a Additional Maths part for OCR. Each include units of worksheets, plus a worksheet generator. 

4. Mr Southern Maths

Rob Southern’s wonderful weblog is useful for A degree lecturers – it comprises Schemes of Work, wealthy duties and classes for each Maths and Additional Maths.

5. Matter Assessments and Questions by Matter

There are such a lot of locations to get previous paper questions and matter assessments, it could actually really feel overwhelming at instances. Listed here are some sources – there are most likely many extra:

• Awarding our bodies have loads of assets on their web sites, together with matter assessments (e.g. for Edexcel try the Emporium and for AQA look on All About Maths). 
• The subject assessments from Oxford College Press are designed for the previous specification however nonetheless very helpful: C1 & C2, C3 & C4.
• Zig Zag make nice matter assessments for the brand new specs of Maths and Additional Maths – these will be bought from Zig Zag.
• Jethwa Maths has worksheets and assessments for each matter. 
• StudyWell additionally has questions by matter, as does NaikerMaths, Mathsaurus, MathsGenie and MathsandPhysicsTutor. And MrHardyMaths has a query generator. 
• I like Chris Ansette’s assortment of questions by matter right here and the gathering by Bicen Maths right here.

Extra Assets…

Listed here are just a few extra assets or web sites that I’ve featured in gems posts over time:

Apologies to these I’ve missed – please use the feedback beneath to make solutions!

Useful resource Library Replace
Lecturers typically contact me about damaged hyperlinks in my useful resource libraries. I am very grateful for these emails and extremely sorry that there are such a lot of damaged hyperlinks! I blame TES for suspending inactive accounts. It seems that sustaining useful resource libraries for nearly a decade is much more work than it needs to be! I am decided to repair all of them, and return my weblog to its former state. My plan is to repair and replace my A degree useful resource libraries over the approaching weeks, after which work by different pages over the course of 2024. Thanks on your endurance with this, and within the meantime I hope you proceed to search out resourceaholic useful when planning your classes.