MPI - Day 5 : Algebra

This has been my favourite day by far. Firstly, I really enjoy teaching algebra, and secondly, I learned a lot that was relevant to my ākonga working at Phase 3. What does keep going through my mind is when we were doing an activity using a variety of strategies and it was discussed how important it is for students to know there is more than one way, which I do know, but it took me back to why I enjoyed maths so much growing up. That being it was black and white. We learned how to do a problem, followed through a model, and learned to self-check.  Unlike English where I never quite knew what assessors were assessing :). How times change!

Vicki Archer gave a fab intro to the day, took me back to DFI days. I learnt about inserting special characters which was very handy, and also reminded me about the Digital Dig. I totally agree a more advanced one would be very timely. 

The Maths Talks - Number Talks session was valuable for me. I was a wee bit confused about the types of problems we were meant to put to our class for this, so this session with examples was very helpful. 

I am definitely still an amateur at using technology / creating resources using technology etc, partly because I am so slow, but also because I guess that's not how I learned. Hands-on sure, but I am now starting to build up my digital maths resources thanks to RPI. This is undoubtedly a huge benefit for me personally. The Think Boards / Frayer model/ vocab pages are all being added nicely to my collection. 

There was a lot on the taskboards/sessions today that I will definitely take directly and use with groups in my class, and as we are about to start algebra the timing couldn't have been more perfect. I am looking forward to integrating Maths Talks into my daily in a more formal manner than I have previously.

MPI Day 4: Number

Today was all about number. In particular the importance of Place Value, as well as fractions, decimals, percentages and integers. 

I have included the screenshot below, just as a reminder to myself really. Most of these tools I use within my program, however the toolkit there in the Turbocharge is a useful reference for me. 
 

Choral counting isn't a term I have heard of before, however I have used a hundreds board for similar pattern-based activities. These have always been an oral activity, which of course means they aren't rewindable, however the gist remains the same. Definitely more scope using choral counting for integers, fractions and decimals. I can definitely see the benefit of choral counting so it will be interesting how the kids perceive the activity I have planned. 

I thoroughly enjoyed the sections on fractions, as we are working on these right now for mult/div, which of course made it all the more relevant. I am planning my teaching activity for the homework around the key idea 'Fractions provide context for multiplicative thinking'. (mult/div). I also liked the idea of the chart, to secure and extend vocabulary. I can see how this will be useful both as an activity and as a point of reference once completed. 

The importance of useful manipulatives was apparent today when discussing these, and something I was aware that I do need to build on in my classroom. I think maybe having always taught seniors this wasn't something that was my go-to, however as the needs of my class having become full range, it's something I know I need to build up.

Finally this. This is so important! I think this is the most commonly asked question in the history of a maths teacher. This is so important to the students, and to everyone. The why. The authentic context. Why are we learning this? For this reason...I am looking forward to the session on algebra :))

Sharon