As a teacher, I spend a lot of time in my classroom.
I am fortunate that all my lessons are in the same room, and I don’t have to share it with any other teachers.
The classroom was previously used for Computer Science, so has large desks connected by wooden platforms which were used to house tower computers.
It has three whiteboards and a large pinboard. When I arrived it also had a television mounted on the wall, which as you can see, didn’t leave me much whiteboard space.
I have all my lesson plans and notes available electronically, so I use the television a lot. But I also wanted to use the much bigger whiteboard available on the opposite wall.
My Head of Department arranged for the television to be mounted on a moveable stand, and last week, it was ready. So I decided it was time to flip the classroom, so that I could use the large whiteboard (which as you can see is quite useful).
But to do this effectively, I also needed to move the desks around …. so I asked my pupils to help out….
Fortunately no-one got injured…. (I had cleared it with my Head of Department, and got permission from the students to post these videos).
First Space Lunch
30th September is the anniversary of the end of the Rosetta mission. The mission was dramatic – in 2014 the Philae lander was the first man-made object to ever land on a comet, and in 2016, the Rosetta mothership also ended its life by being deliberately crash-landed into the comet.
I took the opportunity to invite my pupils to a “Space Lunch” – having collected their trays of food from the cafeteria, they brought them to my classroom, where I showed a few videos the Rosetta mission, including photographs as it descended to the comet’s surface, and answered questions. Around 20 students came along, and it was rather moving to recollect my time at the control centre. It is also very pleasing to bring some of the applications of mathematics to life for them.
Blog Frequency
Thanks to those who responded to my request for feedback on how often I make blog posts. The overwhelming majority favoured weekly, assuming I have the capacity and material to support this. Since I find writing these posts rather energising (especially if I know that people are reading them), I will aim to keep going with approximately weekly posts.
Proof of the pudding 
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