MPI#2 Knowing your learners as mathematicians

I'm so excited to delve in again today... I didn't think I would be here, since I was given a "February to early March" guide for a timeframe... We're definitely in early March now, so while it's a strange headspace to be in, I'm loving the immersion of leveraging my own teaching

 Kaupapa & Pedagogy

We need to really look at the place of digital technologies to support math learners. We have these fabulous devices and digital capabilities within our learning spaces; we really need to be harnessing that capability to leverage learning with digital affordances.

I need to be making sure that my Math class is humming so that others can see how it can be effectively implemented in our context.

I am in a privileged place by knowing how to access the data from Ed Potential, which our other teachers don't have. 

Why is this being held back from teachers (gate-keeping) rather than creating transparency?

How can we fill the gap in conversation subjects that our lower socioeconomic learners don't necessarily get in their homes?

I think that some of our teachers, that are newer to the kaupapa, buy into the rhetoric that devices distract learners from learning... but when you have been embedded in this journey for a long time, you realise that this is not what we actually see in our classrooms.

We can harness
our Cybersmart lessons to ensure that kids are learning the skills to use the tools within other learning areas.

My high fliers need to be doing this!!!

They need to be learning to explain their thinking, and how much more authentic to do it using Adobe Podcast... It's also a great Sample of learning!

What makes a confident maths teacher?

"The Science of learning is valid not just to how learners learn but also to teachers and their practice."

Back in the dark ages of my teaching, Number Knowledge was a large proportion of what we delivered... Now there is an onus on us to make connections wherever we can. Everything in our new math curriculum connects.

I've never heard it called "The Flower" before, but this makes so much sense to me. It is at the forefront of our math teaching... and therefore learning.

We used to put the curriculum at the forefront of our teaching. This new curriculum just reinforces the importance of that. Combined with our Maniakalani pedagogy and practice, we should have the best mathematical learning around!

I haven't seen Spring into Maths! 

We had so many copies of place value houses laminated everywhere... where are they? We could be using these all the time! There are so many math resources spread throughout our school, sitting stagnant because nobody knows where they are or how they could be used. So many reasons for this... moving spaces, change of staff... but we need to fix the problem rather than existing in the frustration.

We have been talking about the mindset of the learners a lot... But perhaps it starts with us, as teachers. What mindset towards math are we projecting for our learners?

My learners loved the Class
Dojo video about making mistakes and stretching their brains. This links perfectly with this.

I tried The Number Jumbler - I could waste a whole day playing this! I've had three goes and I can't work it out... I desperately want to figure it out without looking at the Teacher Resources! My kids would love this and it would be great for some to be challenged.

Assessment 101

We should be using the visual of the pillars of practice in our Staff Meetings a lot more. Why are they not displayed in our staff room or teacher offices?

I've always been a big believer that happy learners are able to learn.  Harnessing the data of the surveys gives a great data set to be able to drill down and harness this.

We talk about effect size alot...  When we look at the effect size of assessment for learning, why are we not ensuring our teachers are confident and capable of using the data they have in a really effective way?

I need to be better at recording the informative assessment observations within classroom lessons. I'm watching for the indicators, but not recording them.

I need to really look at the enablers and extenders that I build into the learning experiences.

I love this visual! It really captured the importance of formative assessment.

This was what I loved about asTTle assessments... the learners could default to looking at their strengths and gaps. I am hopeful that the new assessment tools will have this capability as well.

There are some great aspects of this taskboard that harness the things we've talked about, and the things that I want to be incorporating and timetabling. 

This is exactly what we have been talking about in our staff meetings.

Planning & Keeping track of learning

We need to be setting our students up for success by getting the familiar with the tool.

I really like the sound button now, with a realistic voice.

I intend to print these off to go over them with the students, in the same way that I used to with asTTle Learning Pathways. This could be good for parents at Learning Coferences next week too. Print off a copy for parents to take away...?

I love the Teacher Workbook. I find it fantastic to have everything in one place.

I need to transfer our school Math LTP into my workbook, so that I'm not going between three different documents.

I need to get ahead of the game with these all aligning so I can order my chaos. This unit page looks much better than the weekly plan tab that I am using

Developing Assessment Capable Learners

Fascinating that this was key "back in the day", but then went by the wayside. How can we have deliberate acts of teaching without a Learning Intention?

Success Criteria always start with a verb!

We can't give success criteria before a rich task as then it limits their thinking to that.

I can't help but look at these and think how they would've been perfect for this week's

staff meeting!!!

I am loving Talk Moves!!! I am really seeing a growth in my students' confidence since using it! Their next step is to not wait for me to direct the next person to talk... We'll get there. We have been talking ALOT about actively listening.

I need to get visuals of these up on the wall to encourage learners to direct these questions.

I love using the math talk images as students transition between. math classes. It gets them thinking mathematically to begin the lesson.

I still find it fascinating that we've moved back to 12x tables, rather than aligning with our deci system and staying with 10x table.

Pulling It All Together

So much of our learners' ability to succeed is wrapped up in their relationship with math. By showing them our own positive relationship with (and attitude towards) math, we can only enhance their confidence and relationship with math too.

When completing the Activity Quests, the trickiest part is staying on task and not falling down a rabbit hole of finding some really cool learning tasks!

So what?

What am I going to try:

Where to begin... This is the part I love about these days. I come away buzzing about what I could tweak to leverage the current program without a gigantic overhaul.

• Timetabled time to reflect at the end of each math lesson, as well as a specific blog reflection time for the week. My learners haven't got blogging embedded in their practice, so this is really important. It will hopefully transfer into their other learning areas in their home classes.
• Hunt for the place value houses! These can be available for independent tasks. Place value always seems to be a gap that needs supporting.
• It would be really valuable for our team to be able to pull apart their PAT data to see where the gaps are to perhaps focus on.
• I'm going to share the: learning Resource link with our staff! - This is fantastic and really relevant to taking a load off some of the pressures people are talking about having.

I really need to sit down and dedicate time to getting my Workbook up and humming with all the relevant pages I want to use functioning. It will mean having links readily available in a one-stop shop, rather than delving through files and folders (or dreaded tabs) to find exactly what I want when I want it.

I tend to use my blogpost as a refresher to remind myself of the content... hence the heavy use of screenshots!