Tonight, Algebra, we beat you!!! I am a Good Mummy!!!

I think that I can safely say that this evening I have been a good Mummy. You may think that I am blowing my own trumpet here, and you would be right, but it is a rare occasion when I can genuinely say "Tonight I have been a brilliant Mum!"

I will take you back to about 40 minutes ago when I was safely snug on my sofa, tapping away at my laptop, confident that my daily chores were over and all I had was a quiet evening ahead of me before toddling off to bed.

Along came Son #2 at that moment with the worried look that I recognise as the accompaniment to an extreme lack of completed homework. The problem, it seemed, was Algebra. He had no idea how to do his maths prep and wanted me to help. Me ... Algebra .... My first reaction was to send for Son #1 who is far brainier than me when it comes to the demon Maths. Unfortunately, due to what turned out to be either a complete lack of understanding of said homework or, more likely, a pressing engagement with YouTube, he decided it was beyond him too.

photo courtesy of Amplify.com

It is at this point that a mother shows her mettle. A girl either writes a note in her son's planner expressing total ignorance of all things mathematic or she heads upstairs to the Mac in an attempt to at least show willing ... In a fit of positivity I took the latter option and with beating heart trudged towards almost certain humiliation.

Having discovered that the homework was due in tomorrow (obviously) and that the time was now 9.20 pm I gave the requisite speech on doing homework immediately its given so any problems can be ironed out and then looked at the screen before me. My heart sank as I saw what appeared to be hieroglyphics ... How on earth was I going to sort this out?

With a sigh I suggested we both do the online tutorial in an attempt to understand anything at all. Gradually, before our very eyes, the mystery of Algebra unfolded. We followed the lesson and then tentatively attempted the homework sums. It was like walking along a balance beam ... neither of us were quite sure how we were doing it, but we seemed to be understanding what to do. The screen started to glow with green tick symbols ... Each time we hovered over the "Mark your Work" button we held our breath and bit our lips ...

And blow me down with a feather if we didn't get it right!! When I say "we" I mean my son because it was he who decided on the answers, but I was checking them in my head and knew he was doing the right thing.

In the space of 20 minutes we went from being complete Algebra duffers to a couple of excited nerds giving High Fives to each other as yet another green tick appeared. There can't be many people who bond over maths ( not in my Arts dominated world anyway) but tonight we bonded like bilio!

As we said "Good Night!" and he padded off to bed after a huge hug and a giggle I knew that tonight I had been a good mum. Tonight I had entered an unknown land with my boy and we had emerged triumphant together. We may not actually ever be able to do it again, but this time we beat you Algebra ... we beat you!!

What is it not? Or how to make maths less scary.

I went on a training course the other day and it was brilliant. It was all about supporting primary school age children with maths. Now, although my first job involved using maths ( lots of mental arithmetic ) I hated maths at school. It was like someone pulled up a big grey curtain infront of me and expected me to punch my way through it.

It all seemed pretty stupid. As I started this course I could feel the old resentment and dislike of maths rearing its ugly head. I admitted to my friend just how much I hate teaching maths. I moaned about lack of resources, lack of enthusiasm ... I just felt myself filling with negativity.

And yet, as the course went on, the woman running it began to change that feeling. She was brilliant. She made me realise that it wasn't about having lots of all-singing all-dancing resources, it was about familiarity, positivity. She talked about 'scaffolding for success'. Well, when you see that written down it seems a bit airy fairy, but in reality its excellent.Its about creating an environment where children can feel positive and can see themselves succeeding. Her favourite phrase was 'Good Mistake!!!' Because even though a child might have got something wrong their mistake will be a stepping stone to getting it right.

There will be something in their answer that will show you they are heading in the right direction and that works for other subjects too, not just maths. For example they might think that a 'b' is an 'h'. Yes, they have got it wrong, but the good thing is that they knew 'b' and 'h' both have a similar shape. 'Good Mistake!!!'

She also emphasised the importance of developing memory. As adults we can hold facts in our head, but children have to learn this skill. She talked about having a memory tray - a tray full of everyday objects - and you play the game of remembering what was on it, or maybe you take something away and they have to work out what it was. Simple games, positive thinking and behaviour - that's the key.

She also talked about changing our thinking. Instead of asking 'What is 5+2?' you ask 'How can you make 7?' Immediately the mind has to open up and think of lots of things, not just be limited to a closed answer.

Another idea was asking what something is 'not'. Asking a child to look at the number 8 and to think what it is 'not' opens lots of thoughts ... its not odd, its not bigger than 10, its not a banana.

How about 3 numbers next to each other? 7, 11, 28 ... what is the same about them? or what is different? or ... what can you tell me about them?

The course made me realise how to make maths so much more interesting and therefore so much more understandable. Repetition and familiarity create confidence and a solid foundation. If you think you are good at something you are far more likely to enjoy it so building that success into activities is a good thing to do. I have to say - none of these ideas are mine - I have been a maths dinosaur, but I am hoping to use what I have learnt so that maths isn't as awful as I always thought it was.

Year 8 maths Homework and the internal angles of a polygon.....done.

The night before last I helped my son with his maths homework. He is in year 8 and it consisted of working out the angles of some shapes, mostly triangles within polygons.I enjoyed it - its like a puzzle and when you get the first couple the others come like a waterfall of knowledge.

However, the next part was not quite as easy. You had to work out the internal angles of a nonagon - a nine sided shape. Well, I just did not know how to do it and it frustrated me. In the end we had to give up. The next day I was on a mission to work them out. Am I slightly obsessive....?

I asked people in my staff room, but nobody seemed to know. Then I googled nonagon and found the most interesting site. It gave me a formula which I could use to work out the internal angles of any polygon. Why I would want or need to do that is a mystery, but if I am ever called upon in the course of my everyday life to work out the internal angles of any multi sided shape, be it regular or irregular, I am now equipped with the knowledge to do so.

You need the equation:   180(n-2)      

This means that, taking n as the number of internal angles, you take 2 away from it then multiply by 180.

So.... a nonagon.... a nine sided shape is 9-2 then x180....  so 7 x 180 which = 1260.

My thirst for knowledge is satisfied. All I need now is somebody to desperately need to know the total of the internal angles of ...... something.

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