Manaiakalani Teacher-2017 Case Studies

We are privileged to have the wonderful researchers sharing back with us today about some of the amazing teacher in Manaiakalani doing incredible things that are accelerating shift.

They looked at the way in which teacher were Creativity, Innovation, Making learning connections, Critical thinking. 

They shared Examples of Generating and Using Tasks:

• Teacher are deliberately looking thinking in their task-This was done in a number of ways including, multimodal text, using thinking structures and scaffolds. 

• Teacher offered students choice-This was occurring digitally. 

• Wide and deep task design -Templates developed to this idea. This includes using templates which allow students to engage with the language of wide and deep. They also continued to develop these tasks as they classes changed and their needs changed.  

•  Reflection, plenary, learning evidence-Students reflecting on their own learning and their achievement. 

•  Opportunities for collaboration in both Learning and Create-Students using and creating tools collaboratively which they later shared. 

• Conferencing and differentiation-Teacher were deliberately using digital tools to guide and enable conferencing and differentiation. 

•  Teacher were making DLO to learners to support learner-Creating DLO to support their learning. 

• Activities that were revent to and supported students reading-Using a range of text to support students reading ability. 

Next steps: 

One thing the research of found was that these teacher were using a lot of wonderful scaffolds however there was not a lot of with drawing of the scaffold. This meant that students were not have as much control over. It is about perhaps as teacher providing the opportunity for student to select and create their own scaffolds.

We need to keep thing more, can we do more critical thinking, can we do more creativity, make the links between learning more connected. 

The biggest challenge they gave us was can we move student away from just persenting what they found but not it into a context. 

Examples of Generating and Using Text

• Making links and connections beyond the learning this day/week/year etc-Using multiple language and connecting with real problem in the classroom. 

• Creating and sharing multimodal texts set-teachers have used a range of ways in connecting students with multiple texts. 

• Materials tailored to a range of learning needs-This could be paired DLO creation, Teacher having a google hangout with his class, this created a recorded so it became rewindable. 

Next Step:

What are the important things for student and should the teachers deciding on these before hand with their comprehension questions. We have to consider what challenge looks like at different year levels. 

Generating and Using Extra Time

The original research look at the affordances so this study aimed to add to what we already knew. 

One example I particularly was talking about students booking in to see the teacher for a 5 min slot. Students had to manage themselves to choose. 

• A digital modelling book for writing students write into one doc and this doc is then used for feedback and sharing. 

• Making reading and writing links evident. 

• Making sure the buttons stay the same through the year and perhaps considering how we make the sites context from year to year. 

Next Step:

How are we making the most of that time. Can we use blogs to demonstrate the learning process and (metacognition). 

It was wonderful hearing from the researchers about some of the creative and amazing teachers. I can't wait to connect with the amazing teachers who have done this work. 

MIT Day Term 1

Today we spent the day at KPMG for another day of design thinking, questioning, challenging each other and coming up with some great ideas to push our inquiries even further.

We started the day by sharing how our thinking has changed since we last met at our Hui in February. It was wonderful to see how everyone's ideas had changed and developed as a result of their research.

Through the process of evaluating my inquiry I have greatly changed my thinking and developed my Moonshot (outline of my problem and plan for addressing it). While I still have much thinking to do, as all teacher out their know we are always adapting and developing our ideas. I thought it was time to share my slides with you all as hopefully get some feedback.

I am extremely grateful for the MIT program and the wonderful people at KPMG for providing me with this opportunity to extend my thinking and have it challenged by MIT friends and the wonderful Anne and Dorothy.

Developing a bigger picture using data

As I continue to develop the picture of my learners I have drawn on a number of data sources to form a wider picture of mathematics achievement and vocabulary in mathematics.

First I looked at the gloss results as discussed in my previous blog post. Then I explored the PAT results and looked at these by section of the test. This painted an interesting picture. I noticed that learners tended to have more knowledge than strategy and that within my target group a number of students struggled with the Strand aspects of mathematics.

I also collected student voice discussing with them their thought on mathematics. I also talked to learners and made note of the vocabulary which they understood.

From this data I now have a clearer picture of what my next steps in my inquire and the areas within mathematics that I need to focus on as I continue my inquiry.

Focus Group Data

As we wrap up testing for term one I wanted to take a closer look at the  Gloss Data for my inquiry focus group.

This is a Gloss results by section compared with the end of the year Jam results. The red shows areas where the students score has gone down and the green where it has gone up. This illustrates that an area of need is in fractions. Some students also need support in multiplication and division.

Language and Gloss

During Gloss testing I noticed that the learners often said "I counted",  "I thought it", "I just knew it" or "I added it" They often needed prompting to explain what they added, counted or thought. They also required prompting to explain how they added or counted.

For this learners it often took two to three prompts before I had a full picture of how they solved the problem and even then they often reversed to a picture or objects when explaining. "I did this one, then this one" Rather than using words to explain what they had done.

This supports my hunches and teacher judgements that vocabulary is a need for these learners.

Ideation-crazy 8s

One of my favourite activities from our MIT Hui was the crazy eights. In this activity we were encouraged to think big and explore many different approaches to solve our identified problem. We were encourage to put aside the possible barriers and think big while focussing on our problems and ways in which we might effectively address this problems of the learners who face it.

I found this activity challenging as we often become stuck in our thinking as educators particularly when we have spent a lot of time developing one approach. It is however the ideas that come from thinking outside the box that are often the most innovative and effective. So give crazy eights a try for your inquiry and see what wonderful ideas you come up with to solve your problem.

This were my crazy eight ideas. I then reserved feedback from the group I was with in the way of stickers. You can see from the photo below that the feedback was mixed leaving me perhaps with more question than answers but this made is necessary for me to go back to the problem and consider which of these approaches will be best for my learners in my context and of course with the resources I have.