Reflecting on my Journey So Far

End of Term 1 Update!

We are nearing the end of Term 1 and therefore I am asking myself: how am I going? Are the teaching and learning programs having impact? What is that impact? Is there anything I should be doing differently?

The Good

This term I have had an amazing student teacher in my class. This has meant that the students have had more teacher time and are making pleasing progress.

We completed 1:1 assessment for 50 students on stage 4 and 5.

Students are getting better at working together and are seeing the benefit of working in a group.

Using xtramath is improving students addition and subtraction facts.

Khan academy programs are providing students with focused activities. (multiplication, fractions, geometry, arrays).

Students are having some choice in the areas of math that they need to learn.

Students are beginning to manage their time and be with the teacher at the time their lesson starts.

Over the term the planning sheets, timetables, planning docs and other teachers working in has become easier and is starting to make more sense.

Things to improve

More create tasks - where students are sharing back what they know and how they know it.

More blogging what we have learnt and what we now know.

Teaching how to post for Numeracy.

Working the system with less hands on deck.

How to manage the space more effectively.

Different types of collaborative activity.

Looking into…

Open ended math tasks

Open ended math investigations

Open ended tasks for mathematics

Individualised tasks that show collaboration at the end

Problem Solving

Chapter One - Creative Schools - Ken Robinson

At the end of last year I was very fortunate to be gifted the book "Creative Schools" by Ken Robinson. It has been sitting on my desk waiting to be read for a while now, and finally I have the opportunity to open it. I thought it would be a good idea to reflect upon each chapter as I uncover new thoughts and ideas. 

So here is Chapter One - Back to Basics. 

The beginning of the chapter went back over the importance of students relationships and how really knowing your learners makes such a huge difference to their (and your) attitude to learning. In my new role, I am working with a large range of learners and am finding it really difficult to connect with all of them. I know that this is something that I should work on more, and am hoping that I can connect with them through their blogs - as this gives me a larger timeframe to work in. I also need to work on connecting with the staff I am working with, making time to talk to them informally about what really matters to them... I feel an afternoon tea coming on! haha! 

The chapter then goes on to talk about the political nature of Education and the theory behind standardisation lifting society. By understanding where these people come from and seeing their idealistic point of view, we can assume that this is a theory that may work. But hold on, we are not all the same, so how can any test show what we are truely capable of? 


"Healthy economies depend on people having good ideas for new business and the ability to grow them and create employment." 
if schools were a business we would not say the customer was failing. It is the system that is failing not the students. 

Differentiation and Co-operation

Organising where to go: 
Some Research on multi levelled and co-operative math groups. 

Using collaborative learning to teach mathematics to students with disability  
- we are using collaborative groups to help confirm prior knowledge and strategies. 

Collaborative learning builds deeper understanding 
- use open ended math tasks 

Group worthy tasks and their potential to support children to develop independent problem solving skills
- "if I know how to listen to others and ask questions that help me understand their thinking, then that may help me to develop my own thinking." 

Making a plan. 
Students have had little assessment done in the terms of knowledge for numeracy. I thought this would be a good way to start and develop our findings. 
I have created a knowledge spreadsheet for stage 4 and 5. Students will have a copy of what they need to achieve and what they already know in the front of their math books. 
This is an example of the spread sheet, as you can see the key idea is at the top and students have been dated on when they have achieved. Green = got it, orange = half way, red = not yet. 

The I can sheets in there books are these ones: 

Found on nzmath here.  
Each student will be tested so that we can find their gaps in the stage they are working in. They will then be grouped and taught based on their learning needs for knowledge- not the stage they are in. 
Students will begin each day with a ten minute session of basic facts (this is a group wide need). Then move into a collaborative group work session for ten minutes (to confirm learning and develop stratgey). After that students will be taken by the teacher based on the assessed needed that have been identified. 
Students will be going through the learn create share model with their learning needs. At the end of the session students will have time to share back their learning with their group. 

	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday
11:20 - 11:30	Xtra math	Xtra math	Xtra math	Xtra math	Xtra math
11:30-11:40	Collaborative Hotspot	Collaborative Hotspot	Collaborative Hotspot	Collaborative Hotspot	Collaborative Hotspot
11:40-11:55	First group	First group	First group	First group	First group
11:55- 12:10	Second group	Second group	Second group	Second group	Second group
12:10-12:15	Share / Pack up	Share / Pack up	Share / Pack up	Share / Pack up	Share / Pack up
12:15-12:30	FITNESS