Jings, crivvens, help ma boab

Well at least the guy's not Scottish... listen here for an actual recording of a phone call with some truly astoundingly bad mathematics...

Alive and kicking, honest

Jings! Nothing gives you a quicker "kick up the z-axis" (as a friend of mine likes to say) than realising that you haven't blogged in a while. So, this is a holding entry, just to say hello to whoever may be out there and reassure you that some form of normal service will be resumed - maybe after I've finished marking S4 prelims?

In the meantime, many thanks to the student (I think) teacher who has commented (twice!) on the entry "extreme excitement for maths teachers of a certain age": yes, indeed, these are much loved books and still in use across the country, albeit behind the scenes. (We tend to get a bit embarassed about using them as class sets, but a bit of illicit photocopying never did anyone any harm!) If you have a complete set, guard them with your life. Or perhaps a small first-year pupil. Whatever.

When first I started this blog I had wondered about peppering it liberally with advice for newbies - is there a market I wonder? Well, let's find out. Some thoughts on discipline - oops, I mean classroom management! - coming next week.