ChrisRyall

Youth Opportunities Fund, looks like a good place to get some money for our fledglig photography club.

Not necessarily related to my job with no name, but today I gave some thought to names for the new team structure we’re moving to. Gone are the three houses named after the rivers Box, Brett & Stour. Me & my form will now be in a team of 8 forms made of teachers from Maths, ICT & Law – all the best subjects!

The necessary topic of conversation is what do we call our new team? I’ve had a go at finding a few famous bods who were mathematical or computing based, or both.

You can discuss the ideas at one of the job related things I did do today – a new page on the VLE for student discussions: http://learn.gcus.net/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=434

Babbage

Babbage originated the modern analytic computer. By 1834 he invented the principle of the analytical engine, the forerunner of the modern electronic computer.

http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Mathematicians/Babbage.html

Ballmer

Steve Ballmer – Microsoft executive and billionaire. Has a BA in mathematics and economics from Harvard University.Bram Stoker – Author of Dracula. He earned an M.A. in mathematics from Trinity College, Dublin.

Berezovsky

Boris Berezovsky – Controversial Russian billionaire, political figure, and expatriate. Was a professor of applied mathematics at Moscow State University. He has results in optimization and control theory.

Bonaparte

Napoleon Bonaparte – French emperor. He is traditionally credited with Napoleon’s theorem[13] and Napoleon’s problem due to his documented interest in mathematics, although there is no direct evidence for either attribution.

Borg

Dr. Anita Borg (1949 – 2003) devoted her adult life to revolutionizing the way we think about technology and dismantling barriers that keep women and minorities from entering computing and technology fields. Her combination of technical expertise and fearless vision continues to inspire and motivate countless women to become active participants and leaders in creating technology.

http://www.google.com/anitaborg/

Brill

Alexander von Brill contributed to the study of algebraic geometry, trying to bring the rigour of algebra into the study of curves.

http://www-history.mcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/history/Biographies/Brill.html

Brin

Sergey Brin – Billionaire co-founder of Google. Has a BS in mathematics and computer science from the University of Maryland. (His father, Michael Brin, is a research mathematician at Maryland.)

Carroll

Lewis Carroll – Pen name for Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, who was an English author, mathematician, logician, Anglican clergyman, and photographer. He held the Christ Church Mathematical Lectureship for 26 years.

Cayley

As a child, Arthur Cayley enjoyed solving complex math problems for amusement.

http://www-history.mcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/history/Mathematicians/Cayley.html

Clarke

Edith Clarke received the first degree ever awarded by MIT’s Electrical Engineering department to a woman in June 1919. In 1919, she took a job as a computor for GE in Schenectady, NY, and in 1921 filed a patent for a “graphical calculator” to be employed in solving electric power transmission line problems.

http://www.cs.yale.edu/homes/tap/past-women-cs.html#Edith%20Clarke

Freitag

Herta Freitag received the degree Magister Rerum Naturalium, in Mathematics and Physics, from the University of Vienna in 1934, and graduated M.A. (1948), Ph.D. (1953) from Columbia University, USA. – It would also serve as a reminder of our once illustrious headteacher

http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Mathematicians/Freitag.html

Garfunkel

Art Garfunkel – Singer. He received a Master’s degree in mathematics from Columbia University.

Granville

Evelyn Boyd Granville, who earned her doctorate in Mathematics in 1949 from Yale University, was one of the first African American women to earn a Ph.D. in Mathematics. During her career, she developed computer programs that were used for trajectory analysis in the Mercury Project (the first U.S. manned mission in space) and in the Apollo Project (which sent U.S. astronauts to the moon).

http://www.cs.yale.edu/homes/tap/past-women-cs.html#Evelyn%20Granville http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Mathematicians/Granville.html

Hopper

Grace Hopper was one of the pioneers in the development of the electronic computer. She is (probably) the only mathematician to have a warship named after her.

http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Mathematicians/Hopper.html

http://www.cs.yale.edu/homes/tap/past-women-cs.html#Grace%20Hopper

Hypatia

Hypatia of Alexandria was the first woman to make a substantial contribution to the development of mathematics.

http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Mathematicians/Hypatia.html

Lovelace (or Ada?)

Ada Lovelace was a daughter of Lord Byron who became interested in Babbage’s analytic engine and described how it could be programmed.

http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Mathematicians/Lovelace.html

http://www.cs.yale.edu/homes/tap/ada-lovelace.html

May

Brian May – Rock guitarist and composer. He worked briefly as a mathematics teacher before joining Queen.

Morley

Frank Morley wrote mainly on geometry but also on algebra. Born in Woodbridge.

http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Mathematicians/Morley.html

Nightingale

Florence Nightingale is best remembered for her work as a nurse during the Crimean War and her contribution towards the reform of the sanitary conditions in military field hospitals. However, what is less well known about this amazing woman is her love of mathematics, especially statistics, and how this love played an important part in her life’s work.

http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Mathematicians/Nightingale.html

Pascal

Blaise Pascal was a very influencial French mathematician and philosopher who contributed to many areas of mathematics. He worked on conic sections and projective geometry and in correspondence with Fermat he laid the foundations for the theory of probability.

http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Mathematicians/Pascal.html

Péter

From the mid 1950s Rózsa Péter applied recursive function theory to computers.

http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Mathematicians/Peter.html

http://www.cs.yale.edu/homes/tap/past-women-cs.html#Rosa%20Peter

Sharif

Omar Sharif – Hollywood actor. He graduated from Alexandria’s Victoria College, then from Cairo University with a mathematics and physics major.

Somerville

Mary Somerville wrote many works which influenced Maxwell. Her discussion of a hypothetical planet perturbing Uranus led Adams to his investigation.

http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Mathematicians/Somerville.html

Turing

Alan Turing’s work was fundamental in the theoretical foundations of computer science.

http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Mathematicians/Turing.html

Wade

Virginia Wade – Professional tennis player with a BA in mathematics and physics from Sussex University.

Zuse

Konrad Zuse was an engineer & computer pioneer, he built the first computer to use binary.

http://ei.cs.vt.edu/~history/Zuse.html

A few other links:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_famous_people_trained_in_mathematics

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_in_computing

http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Indexes/Women.html

Lots & lots of teaching, but that’s okay (that’s what I’m paid for!) – I’ve got the chance to meet lots of new pupils over the last few weeks, and work more closely with lots of staff. Here are some of the learners who have mightily impressed me recently.

• Craig making use of his new fancy mobile and laptop’s built in bluetooth
• Phil & Chris being excited making cardboard clinometers (and measuring trees!)
• My year 9, set 2, maths group, cheering each other as we read out our KS3 test levels
• Dan, who made a fabulous movie about the number 3
• Sue who snuck in t the back of a lesson on Flash just cos she thought it’s be fun!
• Craig who came in, despite having left, just to edit some video he’d made
• Rose who comes looking for a peaceful (cool) computer room to work on her coursework every lunchtime
• Kelsey who has asked to come to some A2 ICT lessons, because it might help with her Media course
• Those students who have started reading my blog!
• Luke who persevered while we struggled to convert movies he’d taken on a rollercoaster for a physics project – Samsung mobile, mp4 to anything useful as too hard – we did manage flv to avi though
• Stuart who has been borrowing video cameras to make science films on the dangers of alcohol
• Girls from problem solving week who made a great website after just 20 mins instruction
• Graham who was excited, & very teachable, in learning how to make frame by frame animations in Fireworks
• Matthew who drew the best ever chicken using Flash
• Anne who patiently listens as I try to help her use Yahoo widgets
• Adam, Zoe & Danny who come looking for help at lunchtimes to improve their already great DiDA projects
• All my form who signed up for sports day without being pestered!
• The students who keep asking me about a photography club we planed to start, just cos they want to learn
• Too many pupils who are working really hard to make e-portfolios; Lauren, Toby, Esther, Matt, Abi, Zac, Tom, Joe…
• All the year 12s who have got excited about using tweens in Flash, especially Dom, Darren, Jack & Dave
• Sam who missed a level 7 in his KS maths test by ust one mark, after being moved up a set this year, great progress!
• Sue, Jan & Paula who have been making great use of the school website
• … too many more

I’m very lucky to work with all these people.

The next list, on a busy teaching day, will be of all the people who have inspired me to learn something recently. A much longer list.

A good chat with our Career’s Officer, Learning Mentor, Further Education Advisor, PSHCE Co-ordinator, Listening Ear, General Good Egg…

It was continuing a conversation we began about6 months ago, and it ties into SIMS, our new progress checks, communication, webness and my role as a tutor. What a tangled web we weave.

Individual Learning Plans are according to the campaign for learning:

“Your plan is a way for you to set personal targets and record achievements. It helps you to
keep on track towards where you want to be in your life and your work.”

Our goal is to take all the progress data, and in particular the targets set by subject teachers, then:

1. condense and simplify targets
2. give ownership to the students
3. receive input from tutors and parents
4. communicate and update the plan as a living document

(Like most things on this blog I just made that bit up, but it sounds a bit like what we want it to do – also like many things no-one at school has a clear responsibility for ILPs, in particular I’d value some input from people who have a better understanding of Assessment for Learning, ie. what makes a good atarget, how many targets should we set?)

Where was I? – my thoughts were interrupted by a power cut!

The problem is:

• Half termly progress checks generate about 10 targets for each pupil, plus identify areas where effort or performance may have decreased.  These targets are in SIMS.
• In addition once a year, parents & pupils meet with tutors to discuss progress. This meeting is usually recorded on paper – but only where action is needed.
• Also, pupils have space in their planners to record targets.
• Also, individual subject staff often set short term targets for pupils.
• Also, some students have pupil support programmes, or individual education plans as a result of a particular learning need or behavioural issue.

How do we combine, simplify and communicate these as a learning plan?
As ever, I can only see bits of solutions.

• A great(ish) piece of software which we already use to write IEPs called IEP Writer, which works alongside SIMS.
• The oportunity the Internet provides to share plans with pupils, parents and staff – and allows pupils to access and update their own plans. A few companies offer software and the services to enable this. One case study I found.
• We could use a SIMS marksheet to record maybe 3 refined targets as part of our academic review meeting – but once a year probably isn’t enough to make best use of a learning plan? And it needs a staff memebr to enter the targets, and students can’t yet access them easily – do they just copy them into their planner?

Oh,dear, more questions than answers – we did reach some conclusions during our chat! And a possible way forward.. honestly

I’m not quite sure where editing and publishing photos comes under my job description, probably under devlopment of the website, improved communication enabled by ICT and better use of technology. Plus, I really enjoy it!

Today was the slight rush of handling photos from the year 11 prom – thanks to Jane & others for all the hard work in putting the evening on, and thanks to Jane & Diane for the photos. A recieved almost a dozen emails from students asking when some pictures would be available for them to view.

Things which make my editing and publishing images a lot easier

• Simple Viewer, the free, Flash gallery as mentioned on day 9
• Picasa, the free Google app for editing and managing photos
• Yahoo Widgets, the great gadgets which display the photos in our school reception

One future improvement is to make photographic equipment, software and training more widely available to staff and students. In the path I’ve had wonderful assistance from Amy, Rosie, Grace and Dominika. It would be great to give more people opportunity to not nly take images but also edit and publish them themselves.

One question to solve will be how do we protect students from inappropriate use of their images while also encouraging more people to take the role of photographer, editor and publisher. More another day I’m sure.

Oh, and here are some of the images we’ve taken at school. You’ll need to register for an account on the school website.