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

MPI - Day One: Mathematics is Core

MPI - Day One: Mathematics is Core

Day One: Having done the Reading Practice Intensive, I half knew what to expect with the Maths Practice Intensive, but at the same time I really didn't. What I didn't expect was there to be such similarities between the two if I am honest.

Listening to the glorious Dorothy Burt is always a highlight for me. Discovering the history of Manaiakalani and maths was really interesting. What stuck with me from her segment was when she talked about 'Harnessing the digital technology effectively to really accelerate the learning'.

We looked at what makes a good mathematician and studied the profile of a good mathematician.

Mindset was discussed throughout the day, as to how a growth mindset affects students' attitudes and potential in all areas, in this case, maths. We were asked to complete a maths profile survey. as if we were a student in our class. Fortunately, my son was home today (he is in my class) so I got him to fill it out directly which was really interesting. Although I am not in class at the moment, I will have the class complete this for me still to analyse the results.


Establishing Ground Rules; I was familiar with the ground rules having completed RPI last year. Interestingly I had never thought to apply these in any teaching area outside of literacy, so that was a bit of a wake-up call for me. I find it very useful for students/teachers/TA's to be familiar with these, and to have them posted in plain-view.




Maths Across the Curriculum

I found this session to be really useful. Although I am a frequent user of TKI, I can't say the same for using the Connected tab - it was great to have time to look around both the TKI site, as well as NZMaths, which I regularly use for ideas.

 

This is how we were taught to teach back in the late 80s, early 90s at Teacher's College, and it was always a fun way to teach across a variety of subjects. With our timetable in Year 7 and 8 being so jam-packed with everything we have to fit in, this makes perfect sense.

Thanks Elena, Georgie and Donna. I really enjoyed the day.

Sharon

MMindet

Day 9 - Sharing Reading

 Our final day! This professional development has been such a huge part of 2023, PD that I personally have gained so much from.

Today was all about sharing. Dorothy talking about the importance of blogging inspired me to make sure my blogs for 2024 are ready to go from the get-go. We have had a bit of a mare this year with blogs not working correctly, which in turn meant we lost our mo-jo with them. The major takeaway for me today: Get the blogs and blogging sorted for 2024!

Georgie's session on effective descriptive feedback was very useful. The prompts provided allowed for a simple, easy-to-use structure. 

Sharing and engaging with whanau around literacy was thought-provoking. We find by the time students are at Year 7/8 many parents have 'checked out' in some ways, certainly compared to parents in the junior/middle school. I think this will be another of my goals that I will get the ball rolling with, which lends itself to being a part of the participation in reading communities required in the new curriculum.

Thanks, ladies. This professional development would be one of the most effective that I have been involved in, in a very long time. 

Over and out.

Day 8 - Creating in Reading

I don't think of myself as a particularly creative person as a rule, so today's session put me in the role of the student who might feel a bit awkward being presented with these tasks. I actually really enjoyed all the create tasks,  though I seem to take a while to complete tasks :) 

What I appreciated most about today was the wealth of resources ie websites, AI, teacher-created
resources with which we were shared. I can spend so long searching for these types of things and these are a godsend.

At the start of the day, when looking at the why,  this really hit home. I think my create tasks need some work, particularly for those boys who struggle to read, and engage. Point taken.

I really like that participating in reading communities is in the curriculum refresh. While this happens haphazardly, to have it in print makes me accountable. The mention of this sent my mind into overdrive...now to find the time to fit it all in!

Creating the Te Marama poem with visual effects was the first task of the day and one that I thoroughly enjoyed. I have no doubt I will be using this in class in the near future. 

Learning about 'tight' and 'loose' creative options was excellent, along with short creative responses to text. Mine is pictured below, in response to Iris and Dog Star (School Journal Level 3, May 2019)

Hard to believe we only have one session to go! See you in 2 weeks.

RPI - Day 7: Thinking

I am blogging very late for Day 7, as I was sick on the day, and quite a while after. Yes, I attended, however, it has meant rereading the slides, rechecking resources, and completing tasks at a later date that could have been done on the day. 

 Never mind, c'est la vie.

I learned a lot from Day 7 on thinking. I appreciate how our learning in this course is all coming together now, and I am able to understand the bigger picture. The resources shared throughout this course have been invaluable, and Day 7 was no different. I have had another look at the Cybersmart Challenges that Dorothy shared, as well as all the links provided by Naomi and Georgie on Critical Analysis, and the Analysing Texts links that Georgie shared. 

 

The Levels of Thinking laid out bare like that was beneficial. While I would like to think I include all three levels of thinking, to have them listed and explained in the way they were definitely makes me think more consciously about them, and the coverage of them.

The critical thinking work I had planned for this week (Last week was production week, and the week prior my class was all way on camps) has had to change. The theme I had planned on doing this week was based on racism. With the addition of 2 new students in my class, I made the call that this week wasn't the right time to work through the planned work. Back to the drawing board on that one.

I am looking forward to tomorrow's session. Having read the agenda notes in advance it looks like lots of fun!

Day 6: Vocabulary (and decoding)

I have been looking forward to this particular session on vocabulary, and pleasingly I got a lot from it. 

It was interesting hearing Dorothy speak about her preferred apps for vocabulary, those being Wordwall, vocabulary.com, and Quizlet. The only one of these that I am familiar with as of recently, is Wordwall. I find this really effective as a follow-up activity when planning The Code.  I did learn that I need to explore Google more, as I have no idea about Smartchips.

I did get a lot from the session about tier 2 and 3 words and appreciated the resources to use and adapt. It is always very useful to try these activities ourselves, and appreciate the time to do so. 

Sharon's morphology session was also excellent. I will be taking the time to look through the shared resources before our next session, but I did think the Matrix Maker, with the Latin root words all there looked very appropriate for my students who are graduating from Years 7 and 8 of The Code. I am on the lookout for resourcing this group, and I believe that will come in handy.

'Morphemes have meanings, phonemes do not.'

When asked to reflect on what we want to plan for and achieve in the coming weeks, this took a bit of thought and prioritising as there is so much I want to, and will, implement. Baby steps! So the word wall, and accompanying game (yet to be dreamt up) is my immediate priority. As well, of course, fitting everything into a very hectic timetable!