AS a secondary school maths teacher who is increasingly frustrated with the lack of useful teaching sites on the Internet, have created my own: www.mathslessons.co.uk.
It is aimed at pupils, teachers and parents.
Pupils choose a maths topic and the website takes them through concepts, challenges their understanding by asking questions, and responds to their answers.
There is only a small amount of text on each page, which makes it easy to digest. Students can take tests designed to help them feel good about their progress.
The website caters for Year 9 pupils revising for their SATs through to mature students taking GCSE many years after leaving school.
The same pages can be used for whole-class teaching, using either a suite of computers or an interactive white board. This is a great resource for the non-specialist or newly qualified teacher, as well as for maths teachers who wat to spice up their lessons. The website also acts as a database for worksheets and lesson plans that teachers can use in the classroom as follow-up activities.
Recent research suggests that parents spend up to seven hours a week helping with homework. Much of this help is unsuccessful. Maths is the subject many parents dread the most. This site enables them to teach themselves with their children before tackling homework.
Mathslessons gives students a real opportunity to learn or revise GCSE and key stage 3 topics and boost their confidence.
I hope it will encourage makers of maths CD-Roms to put their material online free. The Internet is a global community that allows students in the poorer nations to have access to education. Mathslessons hopes to assist this process.
Alan Jackson is head of maths at the City Technology College, Kinghurst, Birmingham. Tel: 0121 770 8923
