Good day at school today and it even snowed a little.
I learnt that solving equations is a whole lot easier than creating them. I set my 8.1.3 class the task of creating 8 linear equations in pairs, and then creating a Tarsia puzzle. Tarsia puzzles are great - different shapes that you can create from a template piece of software, print out, cut up and then hand out for them to solve. You can use them for anything and can last for 10 minutes or a whole lesson. This was meant to be a whole lesson to create and then solve. They only got through the creating but it was good as it got them to think about algebra from a different perspective.
Had my first school Christmas dinner in a fair few years. If anything defines the difference between celebrating the Holidays in New York and Christmas here, it's the Christmas lunch served at every school and office canteen around the country in the lead up to the big day. Turkey breast, roast tatties, sprouts, stuffing, cranberry sauce and gravy all washed down by Christmas pud and custard. School lunch was exceedingly good, especially for £2.
