Aaron Paquet-Smith
@ronpaq.bsky.social
UK-curriculum maths teacher based in Paris. Nerdy about pedagogy and task design. Seeking discussions about what works (or not!) in our classrooms for continued professional development.
he/him
he/him
With Year 12 today we were looking at remainder theorem and we did the very lovely true or false task from Integral maths. See also here my mini-whiteboard check before letting them get on which was nice as it forced them to think about the positions of the numbers.
#Alevelmaths #mathstoday
#Alevelmaths #mathstoday
November 24, 2025 at 9:54 AM
With Year 12 today we were looking at remainder theorem and we did the very lovely true or false task from Integral maths. See also here my mini-whiteboard check before letting them get on which was nice as it forced them to think about the positions of the numbers.
#Alevelmaths #mathstoday
#Alevelmaths #mathstoday
With Year 11 F today we are beginning to revisit nth term rules of arithmetic sequences. First, a task I made deducing the hundredth term of sequences constructed with dots and "describing" the nth term. #mathstoday
November 21, 2025 at 9:32 AM
With Year 11 F today we are beginning to revisit nth term rules of arithmetic sequences. First, a task I made deducing the hundredth term of sequences constructed with dots and "describing" the nth term. #mathstoday
In #mathstoday I did an assessment with Year 13. It was old-specification C3 June 2013. I liked this question and, in particular, part (d) which really gets them to think about what inverses mean. I have not seen many questions that could not be solved by brute force.
November 20, 2025 at 9:43 AM
In #mathstoday I did an assessment with Year 13. It was old-specification C3 June 2013. I liked this question and, in particular, part (d) which really gets them to think about what inverses mean. I have not seen many questions that could not be solved by brute force.
Below with attachments correctly uploaded.
November 18, 2025 at 10:44 AM
Below with attachments correctly uploaded.
I'm not sure who I owe the credits to for this one. It is a very nice task.
November 18, 2025 at 10:42 AM
I'm not sure who I owe the credits to for this one. It is a very nice task.
I am not sure that this is the best example, but in #mathstoday I tried to tap into their intuition to teach proof by contradiction.
November 18, 2025 at 10:35 AM
I am not sure that this is the best example, but in #mathstoday I tried to tap into their intuition to teach proof by contradiction.
It sounds like, for you, time is the biggest factor in proposing that inspection is the better method for these questions. Are there any other factors?
How about ones like this?
How about ones like this?
November 13, 2025 at 1:40 PM
It sounds like, for you, time is the biggest factor in proposing that inspection is the better method for these questions. Are there any other factors?
How about ones like this?
How about ones like this?
I see, like these common forms.
November 13, 2025 at 1:40 PM
I see, like these common forms.
Yes, we did lots of that. The task I chose was the attached, from mathshelper.co.uk. I allowed them to choose between inspection and using subsitution and they generally selected substitution for 19, 22, 25, etc., with fractional exponents.
November 13, 2025 at 1:37 PM
Yes, we did lots of that. The task I chose was the attached, from mathshelper.co.uk. I allowed them to choose between inspection and using subsitution and they generally selected substitution for 19, 22, 25, etc., with fractional exponents.
I did the standards unit matching of mixed derivatives and integrals. And we did it on coloured paper because it was an "important lesson". It took an hour. I think it was worth it.
November 13, 2025 at 1:18 PM
I did the standards unit matching of mixed derivatives and integrals. And we did it on coloured paper because it was an "important lesson". It took an hour. I think it was worth it.
This year, my year 12s have not taken to integration. Normally I find students can instinctively work backwards to find anti-derivatives of simple polynomials, but today I found myself needing to be very explicit about how to integrate. We spent a long time on this tarsia from Integral maths.
November 12, 2025 at 4:30 PM
This year, my year 12s have not taken to integration. Normally I find students can instinctively work backwards to find anti-derivatives of simple polynomials, but today I found myself needing to be very explicit about how to integrate. We spent a long time on this tarsia from Integral maths.
I'm not sure, but I believe I owe the credits for these lovely questions to @drfrostmaths.bsky.social. In any case, they led to an extremely nice discussion about integration and the limits of what we can and cannot (yet) do. #mathstoday #mathschat
November 10, 2025 at 10:44 AM
I'm not sure, but I believe I owe the credits for these lovely questions to @drfrostmaths.bsky.social. In any case, they led to an extremely nice discussion about integration and the limits of what we can and cannot (yet) do. #mathstoday #mathschat
More quadratics for Year 11 Fd. It was really interesting noticing how asking for the roots before asking for the factorised form prevented them from forgetting what a root actually is. They started by finding the roots by trial and error, noticing a pattern after a while... #mathschat #mathstoday
November 7, 2025 at 9:14 AM
More quadratics for Year 11 Fd. It was really interesting noticing how asking for the roots before asking for the factorised form prevented them from forgetting what a root actually is. They started by finding the roots by trial and error, noticing a pattern after a while... #mathschat #mathstoday
Year 11 Foundation were finding roots today by substituting into quadratics at random. Will they accidentally discover the relationship between a quadratic's roots and factorised form when I queue it up tomorrow? TBD.
#mathschat #mathstoday
#mathschat #mathstoday
November 6, 2025 at 2:00 PM
Year 11 Foundation were finding roots today by substituting into quadratics at random. Will they accidentally discover the relationship between a quadratic's roots and factorised form when I queue it up tomorrow? TBD.
#mathschat #mathstoday
#mathschat #mathstoday
I love teaching quadratics. I find there it makes a lovely closed universe to explore. And we start with factorising! Today, my favourite factorising task with some low-prior attaining Year 11s. They hate how the numbers are "the same", but it gets them thinking. #mathstoday
November 5, 2025 at 10:58 AM
I love teaching quadratics. I find there it makes a lovely closed universe to explore. And we start with factorising! Today, my favourite factorising task with some low-prior attaining Year 11s. They hate how the numbers are "the same", but it gets them thinking. #mathstoday
Starter for AS level class before moving on to transformations of graphs. Sketch a quadratic and mark its turning points. Extension: are all quadratics a translation of y = x²? It made a nice discussion which led us nicely into why f(x *+* 3) is a translation by (3 0), to the *left*.
#mathstoday
#mathstoday
October 31, 2025 at 6:41 PM
Starter for AS level class before moving on to transformations of graphs. Sketch a quadratic and mark its turning points. Extension: are all quadratics a translation of y = x²? It made a nice discussion which led us nicely into why f(x *+* 3) is a translation by (3 0), to the *left*.
#mathstoday
#mathstoday
Spending time 'guessing' the solutions to simultaneous equations so that students learn what finding the solution means before moving on to more formal methods. It's amazing how complex an equation they manage to 'guess' the answer to without a formal method when left the time to puzzle #mathstoday
October 28, 2025 at 6:53 PM
Spending time 'guessing' the solutions to simultaneous equations so that students learn what finding the solution means before moving on to more formal methods. It's amazing how complex an equation they manage to 'guess' the answer to without a formal method when left the time to puzzle #mathstoday