I’ve been trying to get organised for the start of this term – one of the things I’ve always wanted to do is get ready to give my students login details to a number of websites at the outset. Its never happened before, but I’ve got it nailed this year – one of the sites is  www.sumdog.com – I can assure you that its not just for primary school students – if you haven’t yet checked it out I’d urge you to have a look.  

The first time I introduced this to some of my students I got a few emails telling me where they were in the league table, as they had taken the time to play from home. I’ve also used the site within a lesson, and the competitive element is great. I actually like logging onto the site myself and listening to what games the students are going to join and then joining them … they find it hysterical when my name appears on the screen.

The students earn points to dress their avatar, but in a stroke of genius they can’t access the shop during school hours … it takes away the temptation to do anything other than maths … but … one of the best great things they do, is that three times a year they hold county wide competitions, with each one starting at 8am on a Friday through to 8pm the following Thursday – if you are based in Worcestershire our next competition runs between October 11th to 17th.  

The competitions are completely free and teachers and students can create free Sumdog accounts before and after the contest. Of course the option of upgrading to a premium Sumdog subscription is always available! If you want to get your school involved, you need to register on the sire as a teacher, then go to the contests tab, find the contest you want to enter and click on ‘enter’ – you can then can add the classes that you want to. It really is that simple … check it out!!

… did I say organised? actually still need to do my seating plans!!