Sammy
Hello James.
James
Sammy oh
James
Old it first time, how bout that?
Sammy
We did it first time, so we'll just explain out workers in English and maths food and we're very excited at gym.
Sammy
The technical difficulties and some pilot area error on my part, and so technology hasn't seen my friend, but we've got James with us today, so James is a math teacher and the Serbia of all math teachers, and with his fabulous website, calledmattkitchin.com so welcome Alun Jones.
Speaker 3
Yeah.
James
Thanks, anyhow it nice to be here.
Sammy
So James, tell us.
Sammy
A bit about your most memorable lesson.
James
There have been lost, but what I was think about this recently and actually the most memorable lesson was not one that I gave, but one that I observed when I was in no, not even in Mqt was doing my PC at a school in Bristol, and there was a head of department there.
Speaker 3
James
Who am she took classes about this one class in particular, had I think 52 students.
Speaker 3
In it.
Sammy
Oh gosh.
James
It was just incredible.
James
She was a fairy.
James
What's what's the weather looking for she?
James
Well, she was very charismatic. Choose an amazing teacher.
James
But she was.
James
People did not mess with her. Let's put it that way.
Sammy
No, I'm with 52 year old.
James
Was amazing, so she had 5252 people in the class and this was at the time so this was a.
James
15 years ago something like that where people sources first starting to think about the sort of CD borderline thing and focusing on that. So this is not just a class of 52 big list as a class of 52.
Sammy
Yep.
James
People who were either CD borderline, you know from the whole year group or very difficult children that had been, you know, with some sort of challenging behaviour and so on that had been removed from other classes.
James
Ohh
James
James
So she had absolutely everything in there, didn't even have enough textbooks, so the whole lesson we got all the work was just on the whiteboard.
Speaker 3
James
Um well.
James
Um?
James
Well, but the results she got was just phenomenal and it was amazing to watch. She put it off because she was very sore charismatic as he clearly.
James
Had the best interests of all of the students you know at heart that was so kind of driving thing we should just get all of them working as hard as they could and she did. He made it and the results are amazing for that so I think they turned it around from in the space of two or three years. She took the result. Some kind of like 20 something percent up to 57% at getting agradecere maths I phenom.
Speaker 3
Dutch.
James
No no no.
James
I never replicated that myself, but um.
Sammy
I do think that's ********
James
They never had to take classes.
James
Something student.
Sammy
Do you think it's because she she saw it made them do Norma cinema structured way maybe?
James
They absolutely worked their socks off. Yeah, it was very kind of, you know, old school here some questions. You work in silence through those questions.
James
You know which?
James
Is not always the way to go, but certainly they just absolutely the amount of work that they got through his phenomenal. But also her determination of them to work. So you know Homework's weren't missed.
James
For example, you know they knew that they were going to be a lot of trouble with Mr Homework stuff like that, so they were doing a lot of work outside of school.
James
She was quite explaining things in a way that they understood as well.
James
It is quite clear quite force of nature, quite a force of nature. And yeah, that's great, see.
Sammy
Thank you.
Sammy
Sexy, yeah, Absolutely Fabulous. And I think there's a time and a place.
Sammy
For that didactic instruction, isn't that this?
Speaker 3
Yeah.
Sammy
Is the.
Sammy
One of the hardest things we have in my is and I say this all the time is that we are the double glazing sales.
Sammy
People of the teaching world in that everybody has to buy windows. Everybody has to do maths, but nobody really wants to shell out for them. If ever wants to make the effort for me.
Speaker 3
But
Speaker 3
Yeah.
Speaker 3
Bush.
James
Yeah, yeah.
Sammy
And so we always have to, you know, it's that balance, isn't it? Sometimes you need to be there, supported, open collaborative fund teacher that gets them all engaged in doing math.
Sammy
And sometimes you need to do that teacher where all that's been done before. They're not quite got the result they needed and they just need to sit down and do my maths now.
James
Yeah, you you do.
James
There is no getting around the fact that you have to practise maths.
James
Um?
Speaker 3
Yeah.
James
But also all teachers are different on a an and to degree you gotta go with your strengths and work on your weaknesses.
Speaker 3
Yes.
James
But yeah, you every maths teacher is going to approach them slightly differently. But yeah, there's no. There's no getting around you just gotta do some work, ultimately.
Sammy
Well, it's exactly, and I think in Fe that's one of the things that we we have to balance bike. Finally in Fe is that we've got disengaged learners who have.
Sammy
Effectively failed, and they feel that they failed and they haven't followed in most cases. Coz you know in most cases that they've got a lower grade than they needed.
Sammy
In some cases they have failed, but in most places it's just not achieve that target grade that they needed and unfortunately the target voters in sets of four. We can debate the morality of how we measure that is.
Sammy
As another issue, but that the issue of failure, they come to you load ejected. An broken with math.
Speaker 3
Yeah.
Speaker 3
Yeah.
Sammy
And you've got to get them to do math, so you've got to have that fine balance that it got to be engaging, but they've got to do my math to.
Sammy
Julia Smith has also been on this podcast and Annabelle and they they both absolute shearers in the Macworld and they they both said that they just need to do a little bit of math everyday and it'll just slowly build up, build up and build up.
James
Little and often absolutely yes.
Sammy
And that's how I came to your.
Sammy
Website marketing or cause? I read it.
James
I was just going to separate beautifully into witches.
Speaker 3
Sammy
Stop it.
Sammy
That was a cool accident.
Sammy
So looking out the window at the top soil being delivered.
Sammy
Today for today.
Sammy
Who's that?
James
But
James
James
Dragon multi centre.
Sammy
I wish all my eye was shared much Kitchin probably two years ago, maybe three years ago, now account number one by Tuesday he said.
James
Well, it wasn't. It wasn't up and running three years ago.
Sammy
So when they got two years, I can't. I can't open that late to the party, then an an she she said to me, have you seen this?
James
Yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah.
Sammy
You can go on and do a 10 minute assessment of exam practise and at the time I was teaching adults must still teach adults now and instantly.
Sammy
All my adults were sat in the dinner breaks doing 10 minutes of math everyday when they won't work. So you nothing in my adult classes. I've got an healthcare assistants that want to be nurses. I've got nurses that want to be sisters.
Sammy
Let's drivers that want paramedics. I've got highly skilled professional people book together to do that little bit of math everyday when.
Speaker 3
Yeah.
Sammy
Got a full career at Home Life and everything else that did not. It's a real challenge. So much kitchen came to the rescue and it's still.
Sammy
It's still being used at the moment, I've just had a picture of a student showing the river on a dog walk yesterday in the Blazing sunshine Saturday.
Sammy
Within 10 minutes Max on the bench rather dented fetching carry so it's still working for them so.
James
That's brilliant.
Sammy
How the hell?
Sammy
This is a little bit about how how the 10 minute assessment works. Well, it's not just 10 minutes, but a little bit about how that bit of.
Sammy
The site works.
James
Yeah, I mean they are lost in areas to this site, but the 10 minute assessment is part of the free offering and it will deliver.
James
Six questions that are based around a students target grade, so it's gonna it's gonna dive in at approximately the right level and then within the six questions it will actually adjust.
James
So if they keep getting questions wrong that it will get progressively easier if they just smashing every question, it will start to get harder as well.
James
Say you know the questions were automatically marked and we've got video lessons on the site as well. For when people are stuck.
Speaker 3
James
If for it so that's the assessment that there is actually much clever stuff going on behind the scenes at the site as well.
James
For out for registered users and for schools that are signed up and so on, where it's constantly keeping a track of everything they've done and so they can do a daily workout, which is essentially the same.
James
But it's a more sophisticated version because it's taking into account everything they previously done on a site. What they've done well, what they haven't.
Speaker 3
James
Well, we were kind of looking at the building blocks that they got in place and how we can build upon those building blocks that they've already got, but also looking for gaps where there's a building block missing.
James
That's really going to benefit them if we can fill in that gap forum. So once they're kind of up and running on the site.
James
They they doing that daily work in the same way they do, you know what? We're calling the assessment on the site.
James
There's much more tailored to them, so it means if they've got 10 minutes on a lunch break or whatever.
James
It's gonna be like a super valuable 10 minutes. It's, you know, there's no wasted kind of effort there. It's all focused on exactly what they need and what's going to help them.
James
So.
Sammy
I love you absolutely just logged in as you talking and my current adult class have only just signed.
Sammy
Up to the their schools package.
Sammy
And I got one class on their and they're all. They're looking around 5060 minutes. Someone's about 90 minutes so that they're doing Republic for a couple of weeks, and they've been doing bits and pieces.
Sammy
One student has done 181.
Sammy
Minutes I can guarantee there will be the daily workouts.
James
Brilliant, that's great and that's that's that's it. I said good amount of work, isn't it? So one of the things about about This site is that week as we start we didn't really start with a teacher dashboard or schools product in mind.
Sammy
What?
James
We started how we design something that's going to help students, Frances and I who started basket and we were both maths teachers. We we do the maths kitchen full time now but before that we were maths teacher.
James
And we kind of got excited about this idea of.
James
Could could we do quick build something that kind of takes the role of with what we do as tutors which is identifying.
James
You know, not just getting people to kind of work through a textbook as it were, but identifying right. These are the things that are going to really benefit that person.
Speaker 3
Sport.
James
And then can we come and motivate them to do that so they get to see their progress and see how they are moving towards the great that they want to get.
James
So so did that many school thing kind of came came after that making it accessible to teachers so that the advantage of that is that we've got something that students find motivating.
James
The students enjoyed using and I would be lying if I said that every every student is gonna be diving on there and endlessly practising math, because that's not realistic.
James
But it does provide somewhere for someone that's you, know, keen to improve, and that will Jack could be tempted to do any kind of independent work.
James
Outside of school, you know it's it's going to be brilliant for them and you will find you know, like you're saying that there will be some people that just absolutely go for it.
Speaker 3
So.
James
Yeah.
Sammy
Yes, my man had a mock assessment coming up and I said to them, how can you prepare for mark assessment and they said we could go do those 10 minute things are both doing the workout and I said yeah and clearly I can see I'm looking at the figures now and I can see maybe three or four of them are gonna football.
Sammy
But this one student, she's clearly done quite a few of them, and she's a mature raggle and like you say, you'll always have that mixed in Fe. We always have that mix because we have vocational students on a course.
Speaker 3
Yeah, yeah.
Sammy
You know, we know that not here to study maths. They're here to study photography level 2, while they had to study bricklaying Level 3. They're not here for them.
Sammy
And what were the little added bit that's bolted on? So we need to find quick. We need to get them to do a little bit of Matson and keep it a regular pattern file.
Sammy
And so it works well for that. But if you've got adults, like I said, you know will sit on my dinner break or other feeding their kids tea or something like that. And they will sit and do that. The 10 minute workout everyday and I think.
Sammy
I think that's why the site comes into its own, and one of the things that you said to me last, but then was there can do it in the lesson when they're with me.
Sammy
But when I give them an exam question to do on it to apply what they learn, they really struggle with the language of the question.
James
Yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah.
James
Yeah, that's that's.
Sammy
A man, I think.
Sammy
Well, I think that's catching. I think that's where it comes into its own for me.
James
Thank you yeah yeah yeah yeah, I think so. But there is a world of difference is there between doing something in class and it's not just the exam that that sort of language is that you that's use. Although that's obviously part of it. But it's the fact that you're going to come across questions.
James
That maybe you haven't seen for a month or maybe even you were taught this, you know year ago, and that completely throws here if you need lesson.
James
You know all the questions you're about to get it gonna be on? You know percentages or whatever it is you just been taught.
Speaker 3
James
James
James
But yeah, you know, but with something I'm asking you, you get a whole range of questions.
James
We also keep track of what they've done and we bring stuff back in. You know, in a systematic way so that they do keep revisiting questions that they've done to keep it fresh so that they you know it's not just gonna be by your doing percentages today. They're going to get a bit of everything.
Sammy
And yeah, and it's not retrieval practise, isn't it? It brings it all back for them quite regularly, but I've been loving as well is when they finished at the lesson.
James
Exactly.
Sammy
Although we're checking the learning of the lesson at the end and I'm able to pick and choose the questions in maths kitchen that I asked them sometimes in these class platforms, you go to the section that is an added NE angles around a point and if they get the questions and angles around a point in maths picturing you can preview the question and you can decide if you're going.
Sammy
At the end or not?
Sammy
So the ones for my learners that were fairly simple and the work Hannah. Why covered I could add in the ones that had an unknown, did narrow things that I can leave them out, or the ones that were combined with another shape at the top of the triangle.
Sammy
I could leave those out because mine weren't quite ready for those and that customization as well. I think there Fe teachers given the breakfast and healthy if they feature something fantastic.
James
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3
James
That's good, that's good. It's good to hear it out there in the world being used effectively and sort of being founded by that.
James
And that's definitely one of our, you know, from the first thing that we did when it was just for students and learners.
James
And now that we did for teachers, they're kind of one of the guiding themes. Was that we wanted it to be flexible and for people to be able to take as much control for as little control as they want, so you can only just mask it. Chin, I trust you give me a daily workout. I'll just keep doing daily workouts.
James
You know, and they're going to be super effective, but if you if a student wants to dive in, they've done something in school, college or whatever.
James
They can search for topics and they can dive in and find exact sort of questions that they like.
James
And the same applies for teachers as well. So you can trust us. You can set home works using the kind of Damascus and algorithms you just said. Yeah, I trust mass kitchen setting 20 minutes worth of homework every.
James
Like that is going to be personalised to them, but like you're saying, we've also, you know, we want people to have the ability to dive into as much detail and take as much control as they like. You know for it to be as flexible for everyone.
James
I think I feel like we've achieved that.
Sammy
No.
Sammy
You definitely have. You definitely have an and will almost coming to the end of the time now and it always goes South quickly.
Sammy
But I just wondered if you could just outline for people, because there is a free version and there is a paper version, but the result is going to be a free version, isn't there?
James
It's always going to be free version. Students were and learners can always go onto our site. They can search with.
James
Fix and they can practise those and those questions that automatically marked an and that is and will continue to be freely available at the moment.
James
Assessments are freely available. You have to create an account, but it's still free. Other stuff you don't even need to create an account, you can just go, you know, have a look around the site and choose what you like. At the moment there's a free tier for schools as well.
James
I'm whereby you can. You can create an account. You can get a limited number of students up to 50 students and you can see the work that they are doing, but you don't have the ability to kind of set tasks and things like that, but you can see the independent work that they are doing.
Sammy
That's that's fabulous and I I appreciate you know you will find this. Have to make a living and so there is always going to be paid element as well.
Sammy
But I think it's fantastic that you can just go on and pick topics. And again in lockdown for me, I'll just share with everyone.
Sammy
But I was needing to set you know itself, marking tasks for my adults to do at home whilst studying online, and I could just search Matt Kitchin, go to the topics, pick up the questions on an angles and I could drop them on as a link to them and then they get.
James
Yeah, yeah sending that link yeah yeah.
Sammy
They get three questions, three exam style questions. Sometimes it's more than three, but but if they can't do it, they get a video that helps them as well. So it's all covers everything for them.
Speaker 3
Yeah.
James
That's good, yeah yeah, we wait in our dreamworld it would be if we have sorted the doctor frost type thing and just make it make everything free for everyone.
James
But yeah we try, we try to keep as much as possible as well. So the same time you keep putting food on the table and keeping the service running and that kind of stuff.
Sammy
Exactly exactly so.
Sammy
We have at the end of the English mustard. If you just want to give a shout out to your Twitter where people can find your website, I know it's very complicated for everyone.
James
Mathskitchen.com
James
And you can find me maths kitchen everywhere really YouTube put lots of video lessons on YouTube.
James
How does mass Kitchin single Twitter mask it in an and even Facebook alone? I don't actually do very much on Facebook, but you can find me there that they just mask it in every year.
Speaker 3
But
Sammy
That's brilliant, thanks so much, which Argos James.
James
Thanks honey.
Sammy
Stay safe.
Sammy
Same here.
Sammy