Sheffield Maths Teachmeet

Just before the summer holidays when life was seeming nice and quiet I was talking to our director of teaching and learning about Teachmeets. I said that I’d like to organised a maths one, as always she was very encouraging so we decided that it should be done on the same day as our twilight training in December which would give plenty of time to prepare. What I hadn’t thought out was just how long this term would be and how many things I had to do first. 

The teachmeet did take up a lot of my time to get everything organised but it was a really nice thing to be involved with. We’re going to do another at Longley next December but I’m really hoping that there could be another one (or maybe even 2) in between. I’ve got a couple of fab student teachers who are keen to help so if you know a school that would be a good venue get in touch.

Here are some of the things I learnt:

Ask and you will receive – Over half term I sent out some emails asking for free things and in return received boxes and boxes of brilliant things for the raffle and the goody bags.

Teachers have brilliant ideas! – I was worried that not many people would be up for doing a 2 minute lightning talk but teachers shared some brilliant ideas and I wish we’d had more time. Lois (@morethanmaths) shared my favourite idea which was about a mouse of a skateboard to introduce differentiation. It’s like a more fun version of what I’d tried this year.

Going to the pub was a good idea – It was lovely to get a chance to talk to interesting and enthusiastic maths teachers over a burger and a drink. We made some origami decorations, shared puzzles and the student teachers who came got to hear about different schools.

 

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