Day 3: Planning a maths programme

What a great day. This has been my favourite day by far so far. What I wanted to get out of doing the MPI overall was a) ideas to help me create/find content for follow-up activities with ease, and b) to learn and understand current best practice in teaching maths. Today has helped me with both those things a lot. 

I found this to be a useful reference, the glossary. Teachers are, after all, renowned for their use of jargon. :)

The conversation around flexible vs levelled groups was interesting. While I often used mixed ability groups in reading, I hadn't really thought about it for maths. Having Level 1-5 learners in my room, I still struggle to think that everyone in the group would get the most out of a completely mixed ability group, but lessening the range of the students I can see would work in some situations. I will be trying this while working with the class on the rich maths tasks. 

The session on rich maths tasks was extremely useful for me, particularly the opportunity we had to explore the maths sites geared up toward rich tasks. I took the time to look at Youcubed, and was impressed with the parts of it I looked at. 

The low light of the day was when I read the question wrong in the rich task activity! It wasn't until I heard the answers of others I realised my mistake. Haha, I was mortified. This is precisely what I teach the kids not to do :)

The huge list of digital resources will be a game-changer for me. My biggest issue in maths planning is getting lost down a rabbit hole trying to find the perfect resource. I really like a suggestion today that we could perhaps use just one site a week/month etc. I would adapt this to be one new site a week/month while backing up with sites the students and I are already familiar with. 

Thanks for a really interesting day. I am looking forward to trying the rich maths tasks next term when I am back in the classroom and introducing some of these new sites to my class. 

MPI - Day 2: Know your learners as mathematicians

Another intense day on MPI. I am really enjoying the range of participants on the course, not only being able to glean information from the presenters but also from other participants is appreciated. 

This is exactly why I wanted to go on MPI. My strengths are in my content knowledge, as well as my own mathematics ability. However I needed to know how to strengthen my own understanding of current pedagogy, and in turn, hopefully, this will help with my planning of maths. 

I got a lot out of the session on PATs and E-asTTle. Knowing where and how to unpack these was really interesting. The information given on the individual pathways, which I use consistently, was useful. Particularly the bit about the yellow box(strengths) requiring maintenance. Which of course sounds obvious, but sometimes due to time, aspects of a maths session fall away. So this was a good reminder. 

The session on taskboards, which unfortunately I needed to leave early and missed part of this, is probably the newest to me. While I use taskboards in literacy, I haven't done so in maths. Not sure why! I have spent a considerable amount of time since Thursday searching for maths activities suitable for a taskboard, and at this point, I think some strands might be easier than others. 

Finally...this. While we do goal setting and reflecting on goals twice yearly for the purpose of student conferences (formal), I know I don't give the students enough time to reflect on the learning intentions, and I need to step up my game with this, as well as blogging. This was a great set of reminders.

MPI - What kind of mathematician are you

29 out of my 34 Year 7/8s completed the Mathematics Profile survey. I haven't been in class this term as I am on medical leave, but it still gives me plenty to mull over. Some of the results I thought were predictable (ie the top mathematicians being more confident in their abilities, and looking for challenges), and some answers I found less predictable. For example for the frequency of teacher feedback question, the answers varied a lot even for students who are often grouped together. 

My biggest issue/concern every year is reflected in the first question above. I have found when students arrive in Year 8, they already have a preconceived notion about maths, their ability in maths, and their fixed mindset of not enjoying maths. This often becomes my priority with specific groups. 

This survey was emailed to my class and was completed independently. There was no opportunity for discussion, or unpacking the questions. My guess is when they think of practice, they are only thinking of digital platforms where they can learn/practice their maths skills, rather than real-world maths. 

The final question, which wasn't great reading in my opinion, was Question 5. The 4 who said every day are all from different groups which is interesting. Of course, I am happy no one said 0! I am now thinking maybe I should be tracking feedback daily, including verbal feedback, to make sure I am hitting the mark with everyone. 

Overall this was an interesting picture of my learners, and I learnt quite a bit from their answers.

Sharon