Keith Burnett


I live, teach Maths, and bake bread in Birmingham, UK. Contact me at ping.keith@gmail.com

I've worked for 30+ years in post-compulsory and adult education. I have experience in staff development, teacher training and curriculum design in addition to teaching maths at a variety of levels. I have written course materials working with an editor and a multimedia team. I'm currently working as a classroom assistant - you get a different view of the classroom sitting with the students!

GCSE Maths materials [pdf]

Angle facts: place mat
A3 format pdf file with most of the angle facts needed for the GCSE Foundation syllabus on the first side and questions to try on the second side. I'm thinking of a pairs activity with one student reading each question and the other searching through the facts. Numerical answers provided at the end in a mixed order to allow self-checking.
Probability Rules and Tools
GCSE Foundation maths notes on probability. Includes probability formula, scale and vocabulary, OR rule, AND rule, possibility space diagrams, tree diagrams and two way tables. A few pages on set notation and Venn diagrams. For students who like reading and for me to clarify my Probability story so I can write a problem set.
200 pages of GCSE Maths questions
In case they come in useful. Mostly Foundation tier and written to the English national curriculum. Many don't have answers or solutions. My solutions are handwritten and it would take ages to type and you have your own approach to explaining topics anyway.
Number topic guide
Explains the vocabulary and methods (both visual and symbolic) used in GCSE foundation tier maths. I've tried to make the layout as clear as possible for students with moderate dyslexia. Seems to work better for everyone.
Maths place mats
These are designed to be printed at A3. They work greyscale but look more engaging in colour. Each place mat has 16 questions. Some are one topic and some are mixed.
Probability Words
Two sides with minimal vocabulary for foundation probability. The words students will see in revision guides and on videos.

Other stuff

Vi selected commands (A4)
I wrote this one side summary as a learning exercise. The approach is based on Greg Tarsa's vi reference card as posted to comp.editors in 1990. Or just work through the original tutorial and Ex/Vi Reference Card.
Autumn 2023 planner (A4)
September to December 2023. For when you pick an academic year diary off the shelf in the discount stationery shop, take it home and find it was a 2024 calendar year diary put in the wrong pile. The odt file can be customised with term dates &c.
Installing OpenBSD on a laptop
A step by step guide to installing OpenBSD on a BIOS laptop. With copious links back to the OpenBSD FAQ and various man pages.
GNU Nano quick reference [pdf]
A one side guide to some of the extended commands in the nano editor. I used the help mode commands (the ones at the bottom of the screen) for years before I discovered ^G and the man pages. The official short cut guide covers similar material. Nano gets the job done for many people.
52:48 [pdf]
A pictorial representation of a strangely topical ratio. Slide 1 is a blocked arrangement and slide 2 shows a random placement of the two colours. Slide 3 explains how the random placement was generated, (it is hard pick colours at random yourself - we tend to avoid 'clumps' or 'runs' too much when trying to choose randomly).

Useful links

NinjaWords dictionary
Fast, no ads, short definitions often with example usage and sometimes a list of synonyms.
Graph plotter
Nice algebra entry. Good for demonstrating effect of changes in coefficients.
Marginalia Search
A search engine aimed at the 'small Web' of personal Web sites. Not the usual subjects. Not for routine factual searches.
Hakai Magazine
Something to read about the world that isn't on the front page of the newspapers or on social media.
explainshell
Find out about that command you just copied from StackExchange before you run it!

Last modified 2023-09-22. Much nicer autumn weather today.