Hash Tag: Maths Movies and PGCEtips

I wouldn't admit to being an extensive Tweeter, but I do follow lots of inspirational and resourceful teachers, educators and those associated with my chosen career. However, if I wanted a reminder of how powerful Twitter can be, it came this week from two contrasting experiments.

Looking for an activity to do for 5 minutes at the end of an end of term maths lesson, I reverted to an old game we used to play - substituting a word in a movie for a maths term. The students really enjoyed it - think "Square Wars" - but I thought it would be fun to have a go on Twitter.

So I started #mathsmovies on Twitter with the gem:



And then nothing happened...

For about a week.

But then it went ballistic, and there are now hundreds of maths movie titles. Some of my favourites:

@ricklecoat 2 x 10^4 Leagues Under The Sea

@BeckyBoooo I know what Euclid last summer

@chris_1974 Nanny McPhi

@mitdasein Dude, Where's Descartes?

@JunkDuster Hexagon in 60 Seconds

Unfortunately, the Americans have now hijacked it, and renamed it #mathmovies...

Slightly more serious, and a whole lot more useful, is Tom Handley's PGCEtips e-book, which can be downloaded here.

By using the hashtag #pgcetips, Tom collected a vast collection of tips, hints, ideas and strategies to help those starting out on their teaching career. He was featured in this week's TES too.

A similarly brilliant project is #movemeon by Doug Belshaw; the e-book can be downloaded here.

So, my new (academic) year's resolution is to get more out of Twitter, whilst putting a lot more in!

Maths Jokes

One thing I really enjoy is having a laugh in my classroom - but I try to make my jokes mathematically based. I've enjoyed following #mathjokes on Twitter, and have contributed a couple of my own, but I thought it would be nice to record them here too. I'm not claiming complete originality, but I did think these up on my own. Enjoy, and use with care...

What do you call a man trapped in a Toblerone?
A Prism-er

What did the Italian say when the witch removed her six-sided curse?
Hex-a-gon (said in very Italian accent!)

I've tried thinking up some great jokes about Mean, Median and Mode, but they were all about average...

Ben and Daisy were going to a maths conference in Bristol by coach. The got on the coach, but arrived in Brighton. Daisy turned to Ben and said, "I think we got the Rhom-bus"...

Sir, please can I have a ruler...
Ok, how about Henry VIII?

Why was George Lucas not very good at algebra?
Because he put r2d2, not d2r2...

For a full list, have a look at these gems!