Maths PD with Diane

Last week we had Diane Ogle visit again (CORE EDUCATION).  Something that was very clear from this visit is how far we have come from the beginning of our Maths PD Journey.  It will be interesting to review our school wide data to see how this PD has impacted our student's achievement as a whole.  

The 'Maths Journey' began in January 2019 with a TOD focused on teaching maths to mixed ability groups using rich maths tasks.  This was something Maunga Team had at times trialed and tried to make work within our classes in 2018.  We had seen how mixed ability groups worked well within writing and I had heard about 'Bobby Maths' or 'DMIC' so we had done a little research together.  We were all excited and nervous about this journey.  A key phrase that Diane kept telling us on the day was "It's not a sprint, it's a marathon... You will get there in the end".  Speaking to Diane on her last 2 visits it has become apparent that we have reached this point.  

In the past 2 sessions she has been in Maunga she has recorded the teaching session and then snippets of what the children have been doing in their groups.  After the 1st recorded session, we sat down together to go through the recording to analyze the teaching sequence.  Although we didn't get to analyze all (due to technical software issues Diane was having) the message was clear that what we were doing was working from her maths consultant point of view.  This was great as it supported our observations and data to date as well.

Following this recorded observation, SJ and I then presented at the NMA maths conference in Whangarei based on our maths experiences and tasks this year especially.  This went well and Diane also informed us that she was bringing teachers to observe our teaching on her next visit.  When she arrives for this visit she also asks if she can record the session again.  On this particular day, we do not have time to be released to discuss the recordings.  After school, I was able to catch up, as I wanted to discuss the next steps and her recordings (I am keen to be able to review these myself).  She has promised to send these through, and just discussed keeping on with what we are currently doing as it is working.

She also turned the conversation quickly to the next NMA conference and how we should present something around what our next maths tasks are e.g maps and coding.  This is where our learning is going over the next few weeks, so will be interesting and exciting to see how this goes.  This week we will be re-introducing BeeBots but with the focus on Maths Learning, and getting Student to find different things in the class that can represent the same distance as a Beebot moves.  We will also be re-introducing the language of directions.  This is important for us as SJ has many new Students and many of my students have either moved up from Iti (NE room) or moved into Maunga Nui (Y2-3 space).  We are also planning to make our little maths groups a bit bigger to trial running this maths learning as a collaborative Maunga/Iti learning experience.  Especially in the first few sessions when we do more of the unplugged learning.  We will be very interested to see how this goes... I know Diane is waiting to hear as well, so fingers crossed.

Nortland Maths and Stats day 2020

Key Note Speaker - Subash Chander K

Site - https://sites.google.com/view/infinityplusone/

subash@ojc.school.nz

Relationships matter - There are no limits

Come, listen, trial, share, and be challenged by the feedback you get - this will move teaching practice.

Don't be afraid to share.  If we are trying something different in our classrooms we should be sharing it back into our communities.  "The important thing is this: To be able at any moment to sacrifice what you are for what you can become." Eric Thomas / Charles dickens.

In life, things nowadays are all online and can be accessed whenever, wherever... so why is education not following this same trend.  Currently we have online food, movies, music but often learning is still locked into this notion that physically being with learners is the only way for us to teach.  When we think about how technology can be harness this online element so that learning can also be whenever and wherever.  This is very much along the lines of our Manaiakalani Pedagogy.  

Subash also shared how he created a uTube channel that did exactly this, and how through this process not only did his teaching grow but also students were able to access it a key moments in time when it is of most use to them.  He also shared how this also helped grow others around him as they also began recording videos so that they could also help the students in their classes.

"You are the average of the 5 people you spend the most time with" - Jim Rohn

Workshop one - Tech tools for teaching

Flip Grid - A quick video tool that shares videos in one place.  Great for collecting pre or post-unit understandings.

Tinkercad - A 3D construction tool where students can use this to create using different shapes.  It also looks at perspectives and puts into place the 3D element - Blockscad is another version that may be simpler for younger children.

Desmos - Cool graphing tool - can also be used for art creating.

Lots of other sites/tools were shared but most of these were aimed at secondary school students (so emailed these off to by sons so they can look over and see what they think.

Workshop Two - Mathematical Minds in Year One

This was fantastic - Really enjoyed sharing our Mathematical minds in year one presentation.  It was a shame that numbers at the conference were so low but it did enable lots of discussion and questioning as we ran our workshop.  As a result, we didn't get through all of our slides but due to the ongoing discussion and questioning, this was not a problem.  Diane Ogle is also planning to bring people up to visit us in class to see this in action so that should be fun too.  At the end, we also got a lovely thank you card and gift voucher.  Totally unexpected but much appreciated as well as the presentation had taken us lots of time to prepare.  The bonus however is that much of our teaching by inquiry for the year has been summarised within this presentation.

Workshop Three- Cuisenaire and Creativity

This was a great workshop and something that SJ and I had been looking forward to since we signed up.  We have heard all about Ali and her Cuisenaire workshops and it was a definite highlight for the day.

The workshop not only confirmed and affirmed our approach to introducing Cuisenaire rods in our classrooms but also gave us LOTS of ideas on how and what we could include next.  We are currently waiting for a few more Cuisenaire rods to arrive (as we were needing to restock our white, red, and pink (1, 2, and 4) blocks.  We also got very excited about the possibility of using these rods to coincide with our topic of local and national landmarks and how we could also use Cuisenaire rods to represent these places as well as using them to read maps (at a very junior level of course) and to integrate with the use of our Beebots.  Can't wait to get back to school to try some of this stuff out.

Cool phrase - "Park your thinking on the table".

SJ and I also got quite interested in the history of Cuisenaire rods and started doing a little digging - So much more we could learn.

Ohaeawai School TOD - Maths PD

It was great to work with Dianne Ogle again.  She will be working with us for the next few years on helping us to re-define our maths practices, especially with the use of Mixed ability grouping and establishing a program to reflect current research around enhancing achievement in Mathematics (especially with our minority groups).  Lots of challenges lie ahead.  Looking forward to our next session with her, and having her both teach in our classrooms, and observe us in our classes.

Key take aways:

• Working in groups of 3
• 1 task that suits all
• Discussion and group work is key
• Clarifying and Extending thinking

Key Challenge between now and her next visit.

• Get children use to the idea of working together, and set clear expectations on what this should look like, feel like, and sound like.
• GETTING OUR HEAD AROUND A NEW STYLE OF PLANNING!