A Reflection on Life After Teaching Part 2; Maybe, Just Maybe, I Could.

This is a continuation, so if you have not done so please read my previous post (A Reflection on Life After Teaching Part 1; That's When I saw The Tweet)

Shrewd readers amongst you will have noticed that by the end of part one I still hadn't left the classroom, but the events which lead me to do so had started some eight months earlier, and by the end of summer 2014 I was about to make a life-altering decision. 

I saw little of the summer that year, instead I chose to throw myself into the new world of authoring full time for La Salle Education. I spent that summer house sitting for friends, I had nothing but peace and quiet, no distractions, and plenty of time to focus on my work. I had no idea actually if I was doing well with the work or not, only that it kept on coming. More and more objectives were sent my way. I was really enjoying the challenge of not only creating the usual worksheets and activities that as teachers we are used to creating but now also of researching pedagogy. I was exploring why we teach things the way we do, common methodologies and approaches, finding papers and evidence to support, or refute, traditional educational theory. All the while, I still had a little voice at the back of my head worrying that my work was at best average, certainly not outstanding, surely not by comparison to those incredible mathematicians I had met earlier in the year. Nonetheless, as long as the work kept coming, I kept rising to the challenge and by the end of the summer I had written so many objectives I couldn't remember why I found it so daunting to begin with. Writing had become for me an absolute pleasure.

September loomed and the new term was about to start when I received an email from Mark (McCourt). We had been in touch on and off through the summer for new commissions and keeping on top of schedules and I knew Mark wanted as much of KS3 finished ready for the launch of Complete Maths in September. Oh no, I thought, he wants to take these last few objectives away now because I hadn't finished them quick enough. Au contraire, the email took me quite by surprise when I received compliments and praise for my work so far and a wish for this to continue in future. La Salle had been advertising for Maths teachers to join the team full time, but I'd never have dreamt of applying, I wouldn't have the confidence to do so. Mark may have preempted my fears as his email urged me to apply for the post. 

Initially I shrugged this off as a ridiculous, impractical, almost ludicrous idea. I'm not experienced enough, other people are better than I am, what do they see in me? I had plenty of ammunition to throw at myself, yet all the while something else kept telling me "maybe, just maybe, I could." With a little persuasion from friends I bit the bullet, reworked my CV, sent it in, and was promptly asked down to Corby for a "chat". You know what's coming next......that train journey, again! By this stage, however, I had found my way around Nottingham station where I needed to change trains, I knew the exact location of the loos at several mainline stations en route, and always carried a 20p and a 10p coin, so I was far better prepared. I informed my head that I was going for this interview, they had been very supportive of me doing the authoring but I'm sure that, like me, they were not expecting the outcome that occurred either. 

To say I was nervous would be putting it mildly.  I arrived before my scheduled time and waited in the reception area of the Corby Enterprise Centre like some kind of travelling nomad with my suitcase in tow. Mark came to meet me and we went to a meeting room. We chatted for a short while and I was bowled over to hear exactly what an impression my work had made. I distinctly remember thinking that he must have got the wrong person. Mark also gave me some useful critique which I took on board and found very helpful. Then it came to the crunch and I was offered a full time job with La Salle as part of their Mathematics Team, Mark said he had been interviewing me for months since I had been authoring and that there was a place in the team for me if I wanted it. Actually, at that point, I was to be the entire Maths Team! I couldn't quite believe what was happening, this could actually change my life. Someone had seen what I was capable of and believed in me. I could not turn this down. Hands were shook and that was the start of a new chapter in my life, all I needed to do now was tell school!

I waited until after the first day that I was back in lessons had finished and then I spoke to my head. Clearly I couldn't, and wouldn't, just be doing a flit and abandoning anybody. I had been at that school almost ten years, I was one of the first teachers there when the school was launched and the head had been my support through good times and bad. This chat once again took me by surprise. My head was supportive, kind and above all demanded that I seize the opportunity. I was so touched by her generosity. Between us we worked out a way to put my timetable into three days and for the next half term I worked three days a week at school and two days a week for La Salle. I'm glad I had this short time to get ready for the departure from school and to become more accustomed to work outside of the school setting. During that time I was able to prepare and pass over files and paperwork for my classes, ten years of planning, teaching, assessing, target setting, syllabus writing and policy making was all organised neatly into files and folders. I was also involved with recruiting and training new members of staff who would take over. Behind the scenes, and unbeknown to the students, we were planning my leaving with mathematical precision. 

The last week arrived. I had knots in my stomach and hadn't been sleeping well as the final day approached. I was excited to be starting my new chapter, but the worst part was still to come. There is one thing that keeps us in teaching, one thing that builds us up when we think we've had enough, one thing that drives us all crazy but then brings us showers of happiness...yes, you've guessed it, the students! Quite purposefully, the students had not yet been told that I was leaving and I was dreading them finding out. On the last day, a special whole school assembly was called after lunch. Some of the students, the older ones mainly in my IGCSE classes, had twigged something was going on and I had had several very carefully worded conversations with them. The head lead the conversation and very sensitively explained that I was going to be leaving. After some initial shock the atmosphere changed and before I knew it my screen began to explode with a torrent of well wishes, bunches of flowers, funny gifs, congratulations banners, thanks you's, chocolates, cute bunnies, you name it. I was overwhelmed by the support of the children I was so worried to be letting down. I still keep the script of the assembly, it was amongst the most humbling moments of my life, one that I will never, ever, forget. I was then presented with a leaving gift on behalf of the staff and students which was another unexpected surprise. It was time to leave, the last minute of the last day passed just like any other minute of any other day and there I was at my desk blubbing like a big baby. It was the end of an era, there was no going back. 

I was about to embark upon a whole new career and at that point I had no idea just what an incredible journey it was going to be. 

Find out more about my first year out of the classroom in part 3.

Follow me on Twitter @JennyPeek

A Reflection on Life After Teaching Part 1; That's When I Saw The Tweet

I've just passed the first anniversary of leaving teaching and what a year it has been. It seems fitting to reflect on what this year has taught me; on both a professional and a personal level. 

I had not planned to ever leave teaching but the universe conspired and I found events began to take a turn and lead me along a road I couldn't have dreamt of. 

Teaching isn't just a job, it is not something any of us does for the money (although many might believe otherwise according to the recent #TeachersMake campaign). Teaching is a vocation, I know this is a cliche, but it is true. One has to be drawn to teaching, to have that certain je ne sais quoi that gets your lessons going, that inspires young people, that gets you through the long winter days. I always had that drive, that belief in teaching, even after badly injuring myself during my PGCE year I continued on my course and school placements with two crutches, then one crutch and then a walking stick because all I wanted to do was teach.

How could I possibly ever want to leave that all behind then? What happened to make me choose such a drastic change in my career? LIFE, that's what happened. In 2013, my personal circumstances changed significantly, I found myself living with my mother after the breakdown of my marriage and I was at an all time low. Something had to give. I had to make a new path, a better path, and start a life on my own. 

I had worked for the last ten years for a British Online High School. Now, I know, many of you may never have heard of such a thing so let me assure you that they do exist. They are very definitely real; the pupils are real, the teachers are real, and life every day is as close to a normal school day as possible. I am drafting another blog about this, hoping to dispel the many myths surrounding online education, so I will save further explanation for another time. I was Senior Teacher and Lead in three subjects. I knew the syllabus inside out, having designed the school syllabi for those subjects. I was at a stage where I began to feel I had gone as far as I could go and needed a new challenge. That's when I saw the tweet.

It was February 2014 when a new, fairly unknown education business called La Salle Education was looking for Maths teachers to do some authoring for a new project. I thought it looked interesting so I replied to the tweet and was asked to send in my CV. CV?? What CV?? I'd been doing the same job for ten years, I hadn't written a CV in over a decade! Nonetheless, I managed to pull together a ramshackle document and duly emailed it. A little while later, I received an email asking me to attend a working weekend at a hotel in Corby. Corby was a long way away, but something was telling me to do this. I booked my train and hotel and told the family what I was doing. They all thought I was BONKERS, traveling hundreds of miles away, alone, to a hotel, to meet people I'd never heard of! I couldn't shake the feeling that whatever this was, it was what I was meant to do. 

Off I went, my first experience of what is possibly one of the longest, most tedious train journeys possible. Anyone who has ever caught the Liverpool - Norwich train will know exactly what I mean! Little did I know that this particular 6 - 8 hour trek would soon become a regular commute. I booked in at the Holiday Inn and had possibly the most wakeful nights sleep I'd had in a while. The following morning I was up sharp, dressed and desperate not to let my nerves show. I walked into a room where there were lot's of other people, each sat at a small table with laptops ready. Someone suggested this arrangement was rather like school and so we rearranged to make a larger set of two tables where we could face each other. The day began with introductions, and what do you know, who gets asked to go first? So I introduced myself, said a little about my background, and then threw in the fact that I was a Scout Leader. My heart sank as we went around the table and I heard some of the most illustrious education CV's possible. What on earth was I doing in a room with these people? What did I possibly think I could bring to this project when such great minds were already involved? 

Mark McCourt then began talking about La Salle, who they were and what they were planning to achieve by creating something called Complete Mathematics. I identified with everything he spoke of, especially when it came to the greater use of technology in education. I was enamoured with the ideals of this new project and I was interested to get involved. 

Lunch was provided and it was a chance to circulate; as if I wasn't already nervous enough in this set of social circumstances, I now had to cope with finger food! I did manage to strike up some conversations, with people who I can now actually call my friends, looking back I can't believe how nervous I felt then especially when I think of how easily and often we chat or tweet today. For the first time, I met the lovely Linda Hooper, Eddie Orija, Julia Smith and Bruno Reddy amongst others. It may have only been a courteous conversation on that day but since then I have had the pleasure and pride of working with these people on many occasions. 

The afternoon came and it was time to have a go at some authoring. Mark mentioned that he knew some people at the table were considering the Lead Author position and that he would be looking more at that at a later date. I could never do that, I thought to myself. 

Topics were dished out and I was given Year 8, Parallel, Alternate, and Corresponding. Suddenly my mind went blank as if all Euclidean knowledge had been zapped out of my brain, probably due to the stress of the finger food. I made some rough ideas and spent time getting to grips with the online system we needed to use for the work. A system which, even in it's early days, was a sophisticated piece of technology. I liked the system and found I could easily find my way around and put things where they needed to be. Time was ticking and the afternoon went on, I was so relieved when Mark said that we then had a week to finish the first objective. 

The worst bit about train travel out of Corby is that there is only one train an hour, and an extra hour is a long time to wait when you are already 8 hours from home. Looking at my watch, I knew if I could get out of there quick smart I could make the next train, or else I'd have that extra hour wait. Thankfully Mr. Reddy was also thinking the same thing. He'd called a cab and said jump in, with moments to spare Bruno grabbed my case, we legged it out of the cab, onto the platform, and managed to dive onto the train just as the doors were starting to beep. Thank you Bruno. What a day that was!

I finished off my objective as requested and awaited news. Mark contacted me and asked me if I could go down to Corby again to the La Salle Offices.  So, off I went again on the train journey from hell....

There were a couple of other authors also attending on that day, we got to meet the team at the office and Mark went over some finer details with us about the authoring work. He said he'd like me to continue working on the project and was pleased to have me on board as an author. I was thrilled at this and very happily took on some more units of work. 

This authoring work was carried out alongside my teaching commitments for the rest of the school year, and then I authored full time during summer 2014. That was the summer when everything changed.

Find out what happened next in Part 2...

Follow me on Twitter @JennyPeek

Singing About Numbers

Whilst listening to the radio I heard a track called Living by Numbers from 80s group New Musik and this made me wonder how many other songs there may be with the word number or numbers in the title.

I'm sure we've all heard of one or two more, but my search revealed a plethora of tracks, many of which I had never heard of (and some I'd rather not hear again!) It was glaringly obvious to me that the titles of these tracks could take us on a journey through life, so here goes.

Let's start with creation itself and begin with Richard Ashcroft (ex-frontman of 90s band The Verve) and his track God In the Numbers. We venture into the world and through the passage of time we learn that Days are Numbers as sung by The Alan Parsons Project.

As children, we begin to explore our imagination and most of us at some point in our childhood will have Painted By Numbers, a pastime which must have been enjoyed by band The Sounds who took to singing about it. (I've recently seen adults taking up the pastime to Colour By Numbers just as Culture Club were doing in the 80s.)

At school, in Maths, we discover that there are Odd Numbers and Even Numbers, as sung about by the Young Rapids and Gregor Samsa respectively. Some of us become Numberstruck like the band 1200 Micrograms whilst some of us just end up Drowning In Numbers as put to music by Placebo. In Geography we learn about Places Named After Numbers, sung about by Frank Black.

As we grow up, and perhaps have the odd bet, many of us come to believe in our Lucky Numbers as did the Generationals; a note of praise for the artwork on this record, see pic below. We also say that there is Strength in Numbers as sung by The Music; similarly we find Safety in Numbers as sung by We Were Promised Jetpacks.

We learn the certainties of life, that Numbers Don't Lie, and that there is Truth in Numbers, put to music by The Mynabirds and Cut Ribbons. Those who choose not to believe those truths continue to believe that they are all just Crazy Numbers and that Numbers Count For Nothing, according to Victim of Illusion and the Architects.

Some people want to be Alone With Numbers like Alexandre Desplat (The Imitation Game OST) and others want to get Away From The Numbers as did The Jam (and probably as do most Maths teachers by last period on a Friday).

We see Numbers in Action all around us every day, as we are reminded in the track by Wiley. We see Numbers On The Boards which Pusha T put to lyrics, there are Little Numbers like those sung about by Boy, Numbers as described in the country ditty by Jason Michael Carrol and The Four Tops were interested in Just Seven Numbers. 

Finally, perhaps not the most common weapon of choice, but The Police did warn us about Murder By Numbers, which brings us to the end of a brief journey through life in musical numbers. 

So, on reflection, ask yourself if you Feel Good By Numbers like The Go Team, or if indeed this only goes to show The Meaninglessness Of Numbers as argued by Tom Rosenthal in his melancholy melody.

You can listen to any of the 32 tracks mentioned here on my Spotify Playlist, enjoy if you dare! There are a great many other tracks simply called "Numbers", too many to list here, many are not exactly easy listening, but it is an interesting distraction to do a quick search and take in few sound bytes.

Disclaimer: I can take no responsibility for any offence caused by the poetic licence, creativity, or lack thereof, expressed in the lyrics to any tracks mentioned here. Reader, please note that they are not all suitable for radio airplay and shouldn't be played to young people unless you have listened to them yourself first!

For more of my ramblings give me a follow @jennypeek

All images found via Google search, they are public images, I do not claim to own them.

"Well whistle me Dixie, the answer is Pi!"

I wanted to produce a light hearted blog for my second post, so I decided to root out some clips of Maths in movie scenes. However, this isn't an homage to the Theory of Everything or Rainman, this isn't a celebration of super geeks being uber geeky, this is simply some funny moments, mostly where the Maths is flawed or makes up part of a comical, or at least memorable movie scene. 

You may well have noticed some of these before, or perhaps forgotten you've seen them, anyway, here are some clips for you to enjoy and some interesting trivia to go with them. If you enjoy this, I'm planing on finding similar clips of Maths on the small screen in television programmes for a blog post next term.

Adams Family Values (1993)

Although a little macabre, this family have been entertaining us for generations, and in this movie the young son Pugsley revealed the extent of his mathematical ability one evening whilst standing on the roof of the family home with his sister, Wednesday.

Wednesday "Pugsley, the baby weighs ten pounds, the cannon ball weighs twenty pounds. Which will hit the stone walkway first?"
Pugsley "I'm still on fractions."

Here's the full scene;

Did you know that Thing T Thing has been played by four actors throughout his appearances in the films and TV series? Thats 40 different digits to have appeared on screen playing the same character.

The Full Monty (1997)

A classic Brit- Flick, full of humour and some fantastic comical scenes from the likes of Robert Carlyle. This scene is where they figure out how much money they might make by charging £10 a ticket for their Full Monty show.

(Warning - This clip contains strong language and references of a sexual nature.)

The Full Monty holds the record for the highest grossing British film in history, taking a record £160.5 million. (Source IMDB)

Night At The Museum 2 (2009)

"Well whistle me Dixie, the answer is Pi!"

The Einstein bobbleheads in this scene were too funny not to get a mention. Adam Sandler and Amy Adams need a little assistance from on of the greatest mathematicians of our time in order to decipher the code on an ancient tablet. 

Just to clarify, the original combination for Ahkmenrah's Tablet is actually 12351235657923

Die Hard With A Vengeance (1995)

Bruce Willis and Samuel L Jackson almost come a cropper a few times in this action movie. If it's not water bottles, it's the classic St Ives riddle, here are two clips of both problems:

First the jug problem: 

And the St Ives riddle;

Here is a link to the St Ives Riddle and an explanation.

Back to the Future - Part 3 (1990)

I love this movie trilogy, probably giving away my 80's baby credentials by admitting that. This little clip is from the third instalment, I could have chosen from many clips in any of the three films, but I chose this one, Doc relating the magnitude of his broken heart to his Clara being one in a googolplex. 

As an aside, did you know that the official global headquarters of google in California is called the Googleplex?

Mean Girls (2004)

Possibly the most popular American teen high school movie (YUCK) since Grease, Lindsey Lohan finds herself in the school Mathletes team and ends up leading the school to victory when she remembers that the limit does not exist.

Despite being awarded several lengthy custodial sentences, Lohan has spent only 12 days in total in jail since her first sentence in 2007, although she has apparently spent 35 days under house arrest. (Source - Celebuzz.com)

For A Few Dollars More (1965)

"I thought I was having trouble with my adding..."

My Mum loves her westerns, Clint Eastwood is one of her favourites and he has to be the most recognisable cowboy in the whole Wild West. Here's Clint showing us that if there is one qualification an outlaw doesn't need it's an ability to count!

 A numerical fact about Clint; at birth he weighed in at a healthy 11lb 6oz!

Coincidentally, in Back to the Future Part 3, when Marty finds himself in the Old West and is asked for his name, he chooses to be called Clint Eastwood.

And finally, in glorious technicolour,

The Wizard of Oz  (1939)

Bless the poor Scarecrow, even when he finally gets his wish and has a brain......

Now, actually, I wanted to include this scene as a perfect link to a fab little resource, so if you have read this far then here is the buried treasure at the end. 

The Wizard of Oz: From Fractions to Formulas (2011) is a podcast by the Open University. Using drama isn't everyones cup of tea when it comes to teaching Maths, I know, but there is a lot of thought that is clearly visible in this piece, it should at least be worth a listen!

"It’s a parody of the Wizard of Oz, and is based on an Open University radio programme; but instead of a Scarecrow, talking Tin-Man and cowardly Lion, our Dorothy encounters some rather challenging mathematical concepts!"

The full track can be heard on the website, where you can also download a transcript, or you can download it from iTunesU.


I hope these clips have provided a little light relief as the summer term draws to close. 

Wishing all teachers out there a fantastic, relaxing, summer break!

Thanks for reading my blog, feel free to give me a follow @jennypeek, the door may be locked but I open it happily for members of the education profession.

Quod Erat Demonstrandum #MathsConf4

The weekend of 19th June 2015 saw the fourth National Maths Teachers Conference, organised by La Salle Education. This time the event was held in London at the Grand Connaught Rooms which provided a stunning backdrop to the event.

Now, I may be biased since I'm part of the La Salle team, and I know first hand the effort and energy that goes into creating these events, but I have to give our team an A* for effort and an A* for attainment for once again triumphing in producing an excellent event. The buzz around the building on the day, the constant chatter on Twitter, the feedback we have received since, and the fact that we are still talking about it, all prove this beyond any doubt.

I thought I'd share some of my event highlights with you as my first blog post, so here goes!

The weekend started for me with a trip down to our London office on Friday to join the team in preparation for the event. Before I knew it I was part of the production line doing the job we all look forwards to most before any conference...............filling the delegate bags! Have any of you ever wondered how the leaflets get in those bags? Between us we counted, compiled, and bagged thousands of them. We found that the rate of change in bags filled per minute rapidly increased when accompanied by music, Absolute 60s provided the tunes and we concluded that Elvis had the greatest positive influence on the rate of change. 

Fun aside, one thing this task does provide is the opportunity to see what is out there, to see what is on offer to teachers. I particularly liked reading the leaflets from Oxfam; Everyone Counts and Maths and Global Citizenship.

Everyone Counts is a free resource where teachers can access genuine statistics and charts for use when teaching data, bringing a global aspect to Maths teaching, enabling students to see how data skills can be used in a very meaningful context. Great for cross curricular work, assemblies, class projects, theme days, and so forth. The Global Citizenship leaflet is a cracker of a document, with a host of suggestions of how to bring global matters into the Maths classroom. It also lists 23 useful websites for teachers, golden nuggets, which are out there for teachers to find. My liking of these leaflets probably stems from the fact that I've taught Geography for many years and one look at them made instant Mathography lesson ideas come flooding to mind. So, I urge all of you, don't just chuck your leaflets into the nearest recycling receptacle, read them first!

It would be entirely remiss of me not to mention the pre conference frolics on Friday night, especially since one colleague told me on Saturday "Jenny you were practically trending on Twitter last night"! I headed out into the capital with my wonderful colleague Debbi aka @lloydydee to see some sights, well we were in London after all. Covent Garden was a hive of activity and it was a lovely warm evening so we were able to sit outside to eat. I suggested comically after posting a couple of pics that we'd have Geek Club out on a London Treasure hunt, well what do you know.........not long later, after comparing maps and landmarks to photograph clues, the fab Emma aka @El_Timbre bounced up to our table with hubby in tow! The night went from there with plenty of fun and giggles, and we managed to resist the urge to hail a rickshaw, although their neon flashing lights were very tempting!

Saturday came with an early start, eager to see what the day would bring. Early mornings at the conference are akin to the school exit routes on  Friday afternoon, everyone rushing to get somewhere first! Exhibitors arrive and begin setting up stalls, we manage to get everyone hooked up to wifi, set up the workshop rooms, put up signs, and "hide" the treasure hunt clues. The highlight of the set up for us though is always the building of the Complete Maths Mug Pyramid, which technically really is never a pyramid. With the final mug at the top of the "pyramid", the sound of the footsteps of delegates began to echo and it was time to welcome everyone and get the day started. Delegates arrived from far and wide, north and south, and even from overseas for this conference. It's always a pleasure meeting and greeting, putting faces to names, and of course seeing the maths cakes arrive having survived journeys in one piece!

Opening speeches began in the Grand Hall, with a welcome from Mark McCourt aka @EmathsUK and introduction from Andrew Taylor. Time for speed dating, and suddenly a room that was moments earlier full of hundreds of strangers was alive with the chatter of teachers talking to other teachers, sharing ideas, finding common ground, laughing and empathising with each other. The power of having a national network of Maths teachers, and of what teachers are capable of when they collaborate, could not be any more visible or tangible, you could literally feel the power in the atmosphere around the room. 

Workshops began with the usual first day in year seven "can't find my classroom" confusions as people tried to find their way around the venue. Once everyone was safely in the correct rooms I was able to sneak in to a workshop, "From Euclid to You" by Emma Bell. Emma had put a lot of time and effort into her presentation, and her enthusiasm for her subject shone throughout. I think what most of us in the room found most interesting was the fact that throughout history, mathematics education has faced the same problems, and this has been documented in one form or another over time, yet still we face these same problems in an almost cyclical fashion. Strikes me that we have literally been reinventing the same wheel for decades. With some intriguing excerpts from historical, as well as more recent, texts coupled with quirky facts and some fantastic musical interludes this workshop was thoroughly enjoyed by all participants. I've gone away with a reading list and a real yearning to delve into mathematical literature so that perhaps I can help to develop my future by looking into the past. 

At lunch time I was able to attend the Tweet Up! Hoorah! I had been gutted to miss it at the last conference so this was going to be a real treat! My Geek Club colleagues did not disappoint, with Julia Smith aka @TessMaths at the helm, there were lots of quick activities for teachers to join in with whilst networking and finding new connections in the twittersphere, oh and of course not forgetting we got to eat Hannahs confiscated sweets! I did attempt the lowest positive integer competition, run by the always smiling Jo Morgan aka @MathsJem, but took a rather unmathematical approach in deciding to test if my new house number, 49, would bring me luck or not. Suffice it to say I wasn't anywhere near the lowest, with 2 being announced as the winner later in the day. I do think that I could have been in the running for the highest positive integer though!

Hopefully over lunch time most delegates were able to visit the exhibits, particularly of course the Complete Maths stand, manned by our very own casanova Stephen. I know am speaking as an insider, and no I've not been told to write this, but if you don't already know about Complete Maths, and if you've never seen what it can do, then you should! I have to mention the wonderful content, which, for the large part, I have personally written and / or edited the work of our dedicated authors. Did you know all of the authors are jobbing teachers or maths education consultants, several of whom were there at the conference sharing their expertise as well? Complete Maths is what enables these conferences to take place, it is a system that embodies the conference ethos of the power of collaboration, which manifests itself in one of the most powerful tools for teaching, learning and assessing that any teacher could get their hands on. Yes, it is a new system, yes it seems big and daunting at first, but my grandmother used to think the Sky remote could control the oven, and she can now quite happily bake and watch Coronation Street simultaneously! Without Complete Mathematics, and all that we at La Salle stand for, these conferences simply wouldn't exist. I'm sure that everyone who attended the conference is thankful, as am I, for what we have been able to achieve.

After lunch I went to the Robert Wilne aka @NCETMSecondary workshop on Developing Reasoning, and it was here that we all learnt one important message.....BODMAS / BIDMAS / PEDMAS, however you phrase it, it is a "waste of oxygen", and actually hinders reasoning rather than encourages it amongst students. Interesting example questions, and the chance for us to consider and discuss them with others made this an excellent, thought provoking workshop which everyone has genuinely walked away from with something new to inform their own practice. 

(Photo pinched from @TessMaths)

My final workshop of the day was with Amir Arezoo aka @WorkEdgeChaos, The Art of Leading a Maths Department. I am full of praise for what Amir did with this workshop, it was a bluntly honest description of life steering one of the toughest subject departments. Amir kept touching on the fact that a lot of what he was saying was "negative", but Amir, what you didn't get was that it wasn't negative at all, it was truthful.  Every person in that room could relate, and was finally given permission to breathe a sigh of relief knowing that other people feel the same way too! Amir had advice for those new to the position as well as those already doing the job, and those thinking of taking on the challenge. He looked at the qualities needed for the role and reflected on his own experiences, good and bad, throughout the presentation. For me it was like a strong, warm cuppa; comforting and refreshing. If you ask me, any HoD or potential HoD in that room should have gone away with a renewed sense of faith in themselves and their ability to run a Maths Department whilst remaining a human being at the same time! I especially liked the choice of picture when Amir was discussing the importance of having character.......

Winners of the competitions were announced during the closing remarks, well done Dawn aka @MrsDenyer on winning the cake competition with your amazing Pi cake!  And so ended another wonderful conference, hundreds of teachers energised and eager to get back to their classrooms. 

Quod Erat Demonstrandum 

There is a need for a professional network of Maths Teachers. 
Collaboration is the key to improvement, success, and change. 
Teachers have the answers and the power to make change is in their hands.  

Quod Erat Faciendum.

Thanks for reading my first blog post, feel free to give me a follow @jennypeek, the door may be locked but I open it happily for members of the education profession.