As an Area Coordinator for the AMSP East Midlands regional team, my job is to support you, your school and your students throughout the academic year, and particularly during this current very unusual time in schooling. The enrichment and learning resources and professional development that we offer provide a range of opportunities designed to support your needs as a teacher, and the needs of your students.
The last eighteen months or so have been the strangest and most demanding of academic years, challenging us all to respond creatively to how we might engage and enrich students’ experiences of maths. We’ve learnt to do this remotely by developing new skills of communication through online platforms.
The Lincolnshire Teacher Network meetings, delivered online, have been very popular, attracting teachers from all over the county to attend sessions on delivering professional development on Desmos, A level assessment, and mathematical modelling. The last online Lincolnshire Teacher Network meeting took place in October and addressed the challenging topic of proof at GCSE level. Teachers left the meeting buzzing with excitement and looking forward to using the resources that they received at the meeting.
Other online professional development has been delivered to schools and colleges across Lincolnshire, much of which was suggested by teachers who attended one of our Teacher Network meetings. For example, on Tuesday 9 November 2021, eighteen maths teachers attended our Raising Girls Participation event, a topic that many maths teachers are passionate about. Rachel Beddoes – who is Girls’ Participation and Careers Coordinator at the AMSP – highlighted recent research data, introduced ideas on raising girls’ participation, and suggested strategies to help encourage girls to consider taking maths beyond GCSE. Teachers who attended had the opportunity to share their experiences and to ask questions, which led to the Zoom chat window becoming a rich source of discussion.
If there’s any particular support that you, your department or your school feels that it needs, or if you have ideas for topics that you’d like to see explored in future Teacher Network meetings, then please contact your local Area Coordinator to find out what bespoke support we can deliver.