Tohatoha | Share Staff Meeting

Last week, myself and educators from around the country were able to kōrero, connect and share what is currently happening in our akomanga. It was great to hear the new knowledge and skills they had acquired and the resulting changes they had made in their practice. 

Thank you to all the participants, I am grateful for the rich dialogue and resources shared:

DIMIC

Special Addition Marie Hurst 

Master the curriculum 

White Rose Maths

AMA Auckland Maths Association

Bruce Moody 

Wilkie Way Maths Charlotte Wilkinson

From Planning to Implementation

Restate your inquiry question:
How will I develop learners' ability to solve problems in maths through thinking skills and a problem solving framework to raise achievement in maths?

Implementation =

The learning outcomes I want to improve for my students in this inquiry are:

• Further develop learners key number knowledge and strategies.

• Design a problem solving framework to help learners in maths.

• Learners are able to explain their thinking and how they solve problems in maths.

The changes I have made to my teaching practise are:

• Incorporating problem solving in to my weekly maths programme

• The problem solving groups are of mixed ability allowing students to learn from each other, and not have their learning capped by their group's achievement “level”. 

• Inquiring into problem solving also influenced how I teach my number knowledge and strategy workshops. I went back to basics and used the NZ Numeracy Development Projects Books (Book 5 and 6). In these workshops learners have 'mini' problems to solve as well, broadening their exposure to problem solving activities throughout the week.

  
  
  

• Explicit teaching of what problem solving is (how to think, talk, act like a mathematician, maths talk moves) Adoption of the talk moves in maths discussions, is allowing the students time to wrestle with the problem on their own.

• Create a problem solving framework for learners to use. (which includes the Learning Process thinking skills)

Monitoring =
Throughout the intervention I have monitored progress using SchoolTalk evidence, student work samples, learner voice and teachers notes. 

I will keep samples from my target learner group from the beginning of the year till now and it will show the progress they have made. This information will be recorded on my blog.

Reflection =
Learners are engaging with the framework and need to continue using the problem solving framework as practice. My next step is to record some lessons so I can listen back and note down every time I model a Learning Process thinking skill and every time a learner uses the Learning Process thinking skills.

I want to further develop learners' ability to share their maths learning. This relates to my previous blog post about turbo boosting digital technologies. My next step is to screencastify my target group are able to explain their thinking and how they solve problems in maths. Screencasts redefine learning:  If they are created independently or collaboratively by students, they can then be uploaded onto a sharing platform and students can receive feedback from peers.  

Turbocharge Effective Practice

 A key consideration for the Manaiakalani Kāhui Ako is our pedagogy Learn Create Share, including how we are capitalising on the affordances of the technology to turbo charge effective practice. 

At our most recent PLG we were asked:

Have you identified this as a current strength or an area of development in your practice?

I reflected on this and feel it is an area I want to develop =

• Transform the way we learn

• Offer new experiences

• Offer new opportunities

→ Google Screencast for learners

During our Talanoa a few of my CoL colleagues sparked some inspiration for me:

- Clarelle Carruthers about Rewindable resources.

e.g. a rewindable video of peers explaining their maths thinking.

Am I providing enough opportunities for children to rewind and revisit their learning?

- Hannah West shared her Honours Dissertation with me around using student-created screencasts in maths.

Will screencasts allow my target learners to provide additional valuable mathematical thinking through oral language rather than only written problem solving? 

I am so grateful to have inspiring colleagues, and opportunities to openly share practise and ideas during our CoL PLG's.