September 2020 Newsletter

Dear Friend of Maths @ Sharp,

 

Well, we’ve finally made it to spring! I confess that I am really looking forward to the warmer weather, and I’m really enjoying taking walks with the mini-me now. Everything is so new and exciting to her that it makes me appreciate all the beautiful things that spring brings every year.

 

I hope that you are also feeling a bit more positive as the numbers for Covid are coming down, and we reach the final third of the year. (Aren’t you impressed by the way I got a fraction in there? 😉 )

 

Our webinars over the last two months have been so much fun, and we are so grateful to those that joined us. If you want to see what you missed out on you can watch the webinars for the various workshops on our You tube channel (Maths @ Sharp). There is a workshop on the EL-W535SA (pure maths), EL-W506T (IEB and AP maths) and the ELW506 (Technical Maths).

 

Upcoming Webinars:

You asked, and we answered!

The Euclidean Geometry workshop with Kevin Smith (of the Handbook and Study guide series) will take place on the 26^th of September @ 14.00 in the afternoon. Register here to join us. The session will also be recorded and can be watched afterwards on our YouTube channel.

 

We will also be doing a primary school workshop in October (date to be confirmed), as well as a couple of workshops for grade 10 and 11 students and teachers in conjunction with CASME and AMESA. We will send out reminders for those workshops closer to the time.

 

The Future Fund is back!

We want to help put calculators into students’ hands. If you want to make a difference, you can donate through zapper. Last year we (in conjunction with CASME) were able to give more than 1 000 students calculators! Finals are around the corner and we want to make sure that those matrics who cannot afford a calculator will not be disadvantaged any more than those who have one.

 

I recently got to spend a couple of hours at the Mindset Learn studios at the beginning of August.

They have just changed over to using the Sharp EL-W535SA in all of their lessons which is really exciting. We’ve also recorded some videos to help you with quick how to questions, from finding all the statistics values, to switching off the calculator, and doing binary conversions. All of these videos are up on our YouTube channel so take a look and let me know what you think. I have also added them to Maths @ Sharp for easy access. You can watch them all here.

On a tangent – When they talk about a green studio, they literally mean a room that is all green. This one has no hard edges in case they need to film something “floating” on the floor.

The giant pc / tablet on the desk is what we used to record the simulator.

 

Mindset learn has a fantastic app where students are able to watch videos from grade 8 (on mathematics and natural sciences) to grade 12 (on accounting, economics, English, geography, life sciences, mathematical literacy, maths and physical sciences). The app is zero-rated on certain networks (which means that they won’t pay for the data they need in order to watch the videos). They can also live stream the various shows through the app. The other app by Mindset Learn, is the Tenfold App, which also has various lessons and questions that they can practice. There is also a tutor service available on this app.

 

I recently “met” the lovely Shaakira,

through our Facebook page, who runs a teachers’ group through the Telegram app. The app is like WhatsApp, and can be downloaded to both your phone and your computer. We’ve partnered with her to create several maths groups – grade 4 – 6, grade 7 – 9 and grade 10 – 12. You can post your direct requests to the group, and I will reply with a worksheet if I have it. You can also share your own content to the group. There are also groups for teachers in each grade, as well as language teacher groups that you can join. There is a SACE and CPD group, and a teacher vacancy group. It is an amazing community of teachers that you can join and help each other out with resources. You can find all the links to groups on our page Teacher Collaboration!

 

In my recent journeys through the internet I found two great articles – The beauty of Mathematics and Trigonometry in Real life. The first article looks at the different ways maths is beautiful – from patterns to fractals and even pi! The second article is a great list of all the ways trigonometry is used in everyday life. There are some great suggestions here – some I had never thought of. It is always nice to have a place to point those students who always ask to 😉

 

Over the last month we’ve added these worksheets:

• Euclidean Geometry – Grade 12 Technical Maths
• Measurement and Conversions (1) – Grade 11 Mathematical Literacy
• Probability – Grade 10 Mathematical Literacy
• Area and Perimeter of 2D shapes – Grade 8
• Graphs – Grade 9

 

We have a great special for primary school teachers – order 20 or more S25’s and get them at R90 each! Please contact me for special school pricing if you would like to order any of the Sharp calculators available.

 

Our riddle this month is a think outside the box one from riddles.com

How can you take 2 from 5 and leave 4?

 

Hold onto your hats, its all downhill here from here. Prelims are being written, finals are around the corner and the sun is shining. Please keep staying safe and conscientious, you are precious to us!

 

Stay healthy

Tal