Maths Professional Learning

The maths discussion we had today started by looking at how the curriculum, standards and numeracy framework line up.

Here is the cut up poster we put together.





Gloss
We look at a gloss problems and worked in teams to mark these and identify the stages.

Some important things to remember:
-Gloss is a mental test. Students who can do gloss questions in a their head are working at a higher level. If students have given you the correct answer but are struggling to explain this is when you might use water.
-You can reword the problem to change the context if it is not relevant to the learners but not the change integrity of the question.

IKAN-Aims at Testing number knowledge
The benefits of  this test is that it is quick, however we must remember that it has added pressures of time and recording pressure.

The box on the right in IKAN tell you more that the totals at bottom. Jo said that for her learners she gave them a chance to self correct the problems that they just made silly mistakes on so that they could focus their learning goals around real areas they need to work on.

Spider Graph
Help students to see exactly where they are in a visual format. This means that can see their areas of strengths are areas that they may need to work on. By highlighting the standard and the students results by the second set of testing they can see their progress.

Todays workshop really helped me to understand the assessments better and discuss these with other teachers.

I am a voyagers and research helps me on my journey!

Today we gathered as a cluster in the Tamaki College hall to listen to the findings and future focused ideas presented by the researchers.

Before starting the presentation Russell Burt announced that Manaiakalani is now a COL (Community of learning) however while this official COL recognition is great it made me think that since I arrived last year I have already been part of an amazing community of learning and that while this would change in some ways the role people have it will not change my feeling of being part of something bigger than myself.

It is together that we innovate, learn and do more for the future.

Sitting in the hall I was reminded of something that has come up a lot for me in the weeks leading up to this presentation. A simple statement with a real and lasting meaning that is backed by the story and Movie Moana. The ideas is that We are voyagers, who need to know where we have been and where we are chart and plan where they are going.

Today's discussion started with Aaron Wilson talking about where we have been.

He took us through the data. My big take way was that we have done a lot in the past especially to improve writing in which we are getting accelerated shift against the norm however there is still much to be done and our progress must be maintained as we venture on with the aim of seeing the same accelerated shift in reading and maths.

This discussion was followed by Stuart McNaughton discussing with us the interpersonal skills and key competencies our learners need. He discussed critical literacy and suggest that we see low rate of achievement in critical literacy. The best place to teach critical literacy in the act of being literate.

We should also encourage learners to be critical of their action and reaction. Ask them to think why is it that my actions had a negative effect on my group? We should be thinking critically about our social skills as well. We need to think about how we build arguing and critical thinking skills in groups.

Another area Stuart discussed was self control. He suggested that children are much more aware of needing to be self controlled online however we need to give the learners strategies for building self control.

He also talked about the interpersonal skills of empathy and compassion. He said that

children who read more books tend to be empathetic. this is because well written narrative text help learners to consider others views. It seems that many of our learners have strengthens in this area.

We do however need to consider how we help learner to put themselves in others shoes when online. To make digital personal again so that learners learn to tell when someone is upset online and think would I like it if.....How is the best way to interact and react to others online.

Lastly he suggested that teaching of these skills needs to be part of teaching other curriculum areas.

I have to admit it all seems like a huge challenge one that I am ready to take on but first I need to decide on a starting point. Listening to expert researchers present challenges reminds me how very privileged I am to be in an innovative school and community. A community that is not afraid to look at itself and say that failed lets try something different. A community that invites others to give input, to be critical and to challenge us. It is because of these researchers along with many others that I feel challenged to alway do better, try harder and keep going on my voyage no matter how rough the sea is.

So thank to all those who are part of the Manaiakalani community setting expectation high for both learners and teachers!

A new year, A new room and New learners!

The beginning of the 2017 school year has seen a lot of exciting changes for me. This year I am in my own space with a wonderful group of 30 year 3/4 learning. I have to admit after one week I am already feeling tired but also excited for every moment of learning we will share.

My first week was amazing! The children of room 14 are loving, kind and enthusiastic learner who are ready to try new things.

My big focus for week one

My big focus the first week was be routines, expectation and getting to know each other. In room 14 we start the day with the roll followed Mihi and Waiata I have really enjoyed introducing this to the class and I feel this sets us up for the day really nicely.

To start the year i put all the learners in teams, their bags hang in there team, they sit on the mat in their team, their chromebooks are labels in teams and even their boxes for their books sit in team groups. This has really help me to support the learners to feel a collective sense of responsibility and helped them to support each other. They all gain points as a team. I have found that this work really well both for management as there are only 6 learners in a group and for building collaboration and collective responsibility.

I am really enjoying teaching in room 14 and look forward to many more wonderful learning adventure to come.

CV Page

Creating a page with all I have learnt this year has made me even more grateful for the opportunities I have had as an MDTA Beginning Teacher. I feel so privileged to have had so much support from the program, my school and the other BTs. The learning I have had this year has allowed me to be a teacher who is confident working in a 1-1 classroom. 

Please take a look at all I have achieved this year.

Click here to view site

Thank you so much to all those who has supported me this year to learn and grow. 

One Year!

It is hard to believe that it is already the end of the year. In many ways I feel like I have learnt far more than I even imagined learning in my first year of teaching. By stepping back and reflecting on the year I have become more aware of my growth in confidence, the digital knowledge I have gain and the understandings I have developed about teaching and learning.

This year I have used the Manaiakalani Learn, Create, Share pedagogy. This pedagogy is so open and invites creative and teacher and student input. I have really enjoyed being a part of the creative classroom and seeing the connections that come from active sharing.

I Hope you enjoy my video about all I have learnt this year.

A Film Festival Movie: Go For Gold!!

Here is my finished film festival movie. I was a privilege watching in on the extreme screen at Sylvia Park movie theatre. The hard work first my amazing learner made me so proud. I hope you enjoy the movie.

In Term three the Pavilion children learnt about the Olympics. We enjoyed learning about sport and it got us thinking about working hard so one day we can go for gold at the Olympics.

Our Presented introduced the movie like this:

Kia ora Pisirina
Kia ora Levonah
Remember how we learnt about the Olympics last term.
Yes. Why?
Well, I have decided I’m going to be an Olympian.
Really? What kind of Olympian?
I’m not sure yet, but whatever I do I’m going to work hard and Go for Gold!

Miss Davis Class Onair

This is my first ever episode of class onair. I used the Manaiakalani Google class on air as a model and created my own short video to show the snapshot of a measurement lesson. I choose to use measurement as it uses both digital and non-digital resources and shows learners exploring a new concept. I hope you enjoy my lesson. 

Link to Lesson

PRT sites

In New Zealand beginning teacher in there first two years of teaching have provisional registration. Part of the process of working through provisional registration is check a record of learning that aligns with the practicing registered teacher criteria. You need to be able to effectively explain and provide evidence to show that you meet these criteria to become full register.

Some teachers see this can be a challenge but it doesn't have to be. Just like we get our learners to keep a record on their teaching through google drive and blogging our PRT criteria are a record of our learning as teachers. I keep my PRT information on a google site and use embedded google docs to make work flow easier.  This not only helps me to meet the legal requires but it is a record I can add to forever and refer back to when ever I need to.

I have also started labelling posts on my blog which specific teaching criteria to help me collect my evidence more effectively. This is something you need to keep on top of as most blog post about teaching and learning will link with a criteria.

The best thing about my PRT site is it is special and specific to me. It all make it easy for my mentor to see how I believe I meet each criteria and see which areas I still need help in. Below is a screenshot of how I have personalised my PRT site so that it is mine and I am proud of it.

I highly recommend using a google site as a home for your PRT information as it is practice and easy to share.

Sharing my practice

This year I have been lucky to work closely with Karen Belt this year and watch her sharing her practice on Google Class OnAir. This week we been planning how we will create our very own Class OnAir lesson.

Thinking about how I will do this today have been a challenging and exciting experience. I want my lesson to be exciting for the learner and of course use the digital affordance effectively to support critical thinking and learning.

Today my focus was getting my site ready for my context and beginning to plan the writing lesson that I will teach next week. Diving back into HTML and site had it challenges but borrowing Karen's HTML. I also found that I could draw on past design ideas to build my site. Also having the past Google Class OnAir lessons to explore has supported me to think about which elements are important to capture and share in my video.

I am excited film this lesson and share it for other teachers to see and for me to see and reflect on as my practice continues to develop.

Connecting at digital immersion

This year we have connected with other beginning teachers each term. Today was our last digital immersion meeting with other beginning teachers.

Our focus today is around Visibility enables accelerated shift, this is important for our priority learners. For priority learners one years progress in a year is just getting older not moving forward.

We need to engage learners in the learners process is central acceleration. Hooking learners into learning, so that they are engaged with the curriculum. Engagement supports learners and teachers to have a productive and supportive learning experience.

How do our learners connect with their learning?
Everyone in the world is an individual. We all have a way that we learn new information. It might be that we learn best by talking to others, by listening, by exploring, by watching and so much more. This is why it is so important to provide multimodal learning experiences so that all learner can connect in a way that works for them.

Multiple texts
Learners can access text written for adults, written or for scientists. This takes away the ceiling for learners, they link these difficult texts to easier text and use their search knowledge to unpack ideas. They can build a wider understanding of a topic and see an idea from a range of perspectives. When teaching learners to do engage with multiple texts, start with a scaffolded text (one learners can connect with), then complimentary  text to build knowledge and tension texts, then learner can self select texts to continue to build knowledge.

Here are some examples of multimodal  and multi textual ideas.
Click the image to view the presentation to see some amazing multimodal resources.

Today we created a multimodal site to promote critical thinking and engaging with a range of texts. For this task I focused on extending the science learning of one of my top reading group. The focus of this site is DNA and how DNA is used to solve crimes. 

This was and interesting topic to find resources for and I am still looking for the best materials. 

Here is am image of how far my site has gotten so far. 

As I continue to develop my skills in teaching multi textually my aim is to provided more options and opportunities to explorations. This will support learners to extend their ideas have ownership.  

Sketch-noting Toolkit

Sketch-noting is something I have come to very much enjoy and have found beneficial to making the learning process visible. This made it the perfect thing to share with other teachers in the cluster. The great thing about sketch-noting is that it is flexible and n be done in multiple ways from paper, to google draw, to buying and using specific iPad apps. Presenting this toolkit with Danni was a great way to share these ideas with other teachers.

Hour of Code

Coding is another language. It is a way of telling a computer what to do, say and create. Earlier in the year we explored basic HTML coding in google site. I really enjoyed this coding and at the time became to question more and more how I could make this a part of my classroom program.

Hour of Code
Today we explored the hour of code a world wide movement to promote the learning of coding. Each of the sessions uses simple building builds and you code the program to do certain actions.

Behind each block is the Java coding script which you can look at. You can also choose to code in this Java script. 

Today I coded with MineCraft on the hour of code using the blocks. It took me a while to get use to it but once I did it was lots of fun. 

I also choose to do try doing using Java script this was a whole new challenge as if the script isn't right it won't work. I do however find that once I was use to it coding in script was just as straight forward in this program as coding with the blocks, this was help by the drop downs when writing. 

Here is an example or my Java script writing to complete tasks. 

I am excited to do more coding and introduce coding to my learners as I believe it is a great skill and can be intergraded with maths and literacy. 

Future focused Eduaction

What will the future hold?
This is a question that is always at the front of our minds as educators. The best things we can do is know as much as we can about the changes that are occurring in education and the world.

In New Zealand there are plan for future focused education and we as educators need to consider.
Some of these ideas of how the digital nature of these changes are outlined within the Towards Digital Fluency document published by the Ministry of Education.

Link

These educational ideas focus on supporting all learners to be at home in a digital world. 

Link

The document of the right is the education plan for 2025. This discusses learners choosing their path and connecting digitally. 

So what will a digital world look like in in the future. Today at our digital immersion day we discuss some of the new ideas in education. We talked about how fast the world is changing and the role that digital technologies play.

If I think back to my school the technology we used may have been computer that was very slow that we used for research or to create spreadsheets or type up stories. When I wanted to used the internet at home I had to use dial up and no one else could use the phone or internet. The first cell phone was a block had buttons you had to press multiple times.

BUT now you can program robots, enter a virtual relativity, be driven by a self driving car and so much more. Even with all these exciting things happening now the world continues to change and new things are entering our everyday lives all the time.

What will happen next?
We as teacher do not know exactly what the next 'Thing' will be however we do know that digital fluency will continue to be important. We can also know that jobs in technology are on the raise and that coding skills are value for our learners future.

As I think about my future as a teacher I think about how I will teach in a future focused way, always looking forward and staying current in my knowledge of the world, technology and teaching.

There is no point in teaching for the past when our learners will only see the future.

Ignite presentation

Ignite presentations are not easy. They involve creating a presentation then sharing it in 5mins, However each slide plays for exactly 15seconds and if you time it wrong you can't turn back the clock. 

One thing in particular that I learnt from doing an ignite presentation is that 15 second can either feel like a life time or be gone in the blind of an eye. I found it extremely hard to know how much information I should have to present on each slide. 

The great thing about these presentation is that a picture tells 1000 word, so careful picture selection and use of short but snappy words is the key to an effective presentation. If you can say it without words do, If you can say it in one word do. 

When I next do an ignite presentation they key thing I will remember are: 

-Be well prepared and remember that creating 20 good slides takes time. 

-Practice making every 15 seconds count is the key to success. 

-Relax it's not the end of the world if the small point misses out no one else know that you were going to say it. 

-Enjoy the moment because if you enjoy it your audience are more likely to as well.  

Below is my presentation on one laptop per child. This is the topic I was given on the day and I only had a few hours to create my presentation ready to present. 

I am lucky that this topic links to my own practice and that I have my own experience to draw on. I truely believe that with any presentation when you are connect to the content and passionate about it, IT SHOWS! 

I really enjoyed giving an ignite presentation a go and hope to present another one in the future. 

I really enjoyed giving an ignite presentation a go and hope to present another one in the future. 

Keynote: more than just a presentation tool

Google slides is a great tool for making presentations and collaborating however it can be limiting with the things it is able to do.

Keynote allows you to add more detail to presentations, be creative and do more. It can also be used to create animations or images, backgrounds and headers for sites or blogs.

As with any product it is good to make sure that the program will do what you want. This means going into preferences and make sure the program does what you want, in here you can set font size or the theme that opens when you open keynote, I suggest white as then you can be creative and do things your way.

One of the great things I learnt way about how to add a magic move to a keynote.

This video explains the process really well. This move is very effective with images and I am excited to see how I can use it in the future with words.

I also created a short animation with keynote for my inquiry presentation on Monday. I did this by duplicating slides and moving images to create moving images. I will share this on my blog with my inquiry post on Monday.

Keynote is a great presentation skill which I hope to use more. 

 

Critical Friends

As teachers we always need critical friends. Other teachers to provide honest feedback that pushes you to do more. To ask questions that helps us to rethink ideas and build on them.


I'm am extremely lucky that I have so many kind, supportive and critical teaching friend who always help me to be the best I can be.


This week I have been very busy editing my film festival movie. This has been a big challenge for me as I want it to be perfect but I know that perfect is not a kind or fair expectation to set. With the help and support of my critical friend my movie has evolved over the week into something that shows the best in my learners. It is a movie that is for them and that I am excited for them to share next term.




At our MDTA day today we learnt more about ubiquitous learning. Learning that can happen anywhere, anytime, at anypace and from anyone.

This week I have been a ubiquitous learner, often coming up with the best ideas outside of the 9-3 classroom hours. Gaining learning from my teaching colleagues, my learner, my family and friends. Working at school, at home, in the library or even as a passenger in the car. Somethings took me a long time to work out while other were in the moment decisions.

Editing this film has really made me think about the way learning is continuous and that when you think about things in different places and at different time you have different ideas. As I consider my own learning it makes me think of my learners. How can I provide more support for them to become ubiquitous learners?

My ideas:
Access: making sure my learner all know how to access their Google account at know and that this is a great thing to do.
Support: you can comment and ask for help at home. I may not respond straight away but I will respond.
Site: remind the learners that all there work is on the site if they miss a day they can catch up at home, encourage this.
Family: provide family with these same messages and encourage them to comment on blogs and support their child.

Filming madness

This Friday our MDTA day was spent filming for our Manaiakalani film festival movies for 2016. I had a fantastic day working with many amazing and talented learners to get some interesting shots.

One challenge we faced was the weather. Early on in the day we had a moment of rain that made filming difficult. We got a few shots of the bright yellow umbrella instead of the children.

I also had some great moment with learners sharing my passion for dancing with learners. One of the best things about this day was working with small groups, getting their input and ideas and seeing their passions and ideas.

I am excited to start editing and see what our wonderful movie will become.

Manaiakalani Outreach

Manaiakalani is more than just us!

There are many outreach clusters that follow the Manaiakalani pedagogy throughout New Zealand.

The outreach cluster provide us the a wider network of people facing the same challenges, ideas and pedagogy. There are 5 outreach clusters with the outreach there are 50+ school 10,000+ learners and a huge community of whaunu.

These clusters knew they wanted to be involved they just wanted A Recipe to do this....
They see these as the Outreach actions outlined at joining Manaiakalani outreach. The Manaiakalani outreach PLD the support people and the resource they provide to the schools and clusters over there three year PLD. They also look to the Manaiakalani website and the Manaiakalani schools what are the schools and the teachers doing, exploring the learners blogs and professional blogs.

In the outreach the first year is about having pilot teacher who are excited volunteers who want to try new things. In year two all teachers move into a 1:1 environment and learn from the things learnt in the pilot. Year 3 is a time to continue growing and help new teachers to gain the skills they need.

There is also a blog that is used to collect examples of effective teaching that outreach clusters can explore. Check it out Sharing the Hook.

It is exciting that these communities are out there and I look forward to connecting more with them more.

Have a core purpose that is shared draws us together.

The Holiday Blogging Program

Rachel Williamson is a researcher with the Wolf Fisher research centre, she leads the summer learning journey to engage learners in continuing learning over the holiday period.

The Summer learning journey runs over two year. At this stage two pilots have been run, the summer and winter learning journey programs.

A key part of these programs was that learners received comments from Rachel as well as in the summer learning journey they also received comments from learners in the countries they were studying.  At the end of January there were over 600 post and comments. Learner who engaged in the program saw a much smaller drop in writing scores compared to the a match sample who did not take part.

The Winter learning journey saw more learners from more schools engaging over the holiday period. In this journey the total activity blog posts and comments of 2651.

Rachel shared her excitement and enjoyment in engaging with this program. Learners who join in were celebrated received certificates, badges on their blogs and the top bloggers from each school received prizes.

What next:
Rachel wants to get into every school and class to build relationships with the children.
Giving learners choose in the programs, they have shown that they enjoy rating thing and sharing their option.
Who to we engage more people in commenting and engaging with learners.
How can we make sure there is access and learners who don't have devices at home they can use the library.

Next summer holiday, Summer learning Journey 2.0 is coming. It will have a similar topic of travel and culture. Learners will again be connected with Rachel this time over 4 weeks. Rachel, to University students as well as past summer learning blogs will engage in commenting.

Innovative Teacher at the Manaiakalani Hui

The Spark Manaiakalani Innovative Teachers are teachers who are focusing on in-depth innovative inquiries  aiming to engage learners and community in learning.

They are using one idea to spark more and more ideas that lead to change. 

Meet the Teacher and explore their inquiry focuses...

Sandy

Is a Pt England Teacher who teachers ICT to learners of all ages. Her inquiry is focused on Extension Learners who are learners identified as achieving above that of their peers. She identified that these learners were not achieve as well as they could in writing. She is using film with these learners to gain more depth in their writing. She used short films to support learners to develop knowledge of Character setting and plot. One of the things she noticed was that learners struggled with the structure of a narrative.

Here is a link to Sandy's blog so you can see more about her innovative inquiry.

Nicola

Is a Biology teacher at Tamaki College. She is noticing that year 13 learners are not achieving the grades needed to get into university.
She found last year that when she provided all resources learners found this overwhelming.
Nicola's inquiry is focusing on making her planning visible to the learners. She uses Solo taxonomy in her planning which allows her to plan to extend learners thinking. She want all learners to have the ability and desire to catch up using planning and blog posts for other learners.

To see what else Nicola is doing check out her blog.

Karen

Found that the learners in her class felt that they couldn't write and had no reason to do so. Her aim was to help learners to gain an audience that mattered to the learners, their family.
She started by giving learner family access to the blog by sending home a bookmark. Some family did comment but this stopped quickly and didn't motivate learner to write more.
She then provided the learners family with a more detailed poster about how to comment and a link again. Then she implemented a challenge for learners to get the most comments making them encouraged the their family to comment. This has changed the attitude of the learner who now want to write and enjoy.

Check out Karen's blog and you may want to provide some comments for her learners.

Matt

This inquiry is around the boys not achieving in writing. When Matt asked the boys what they needed they said peace and quiet he provided headphones which learners use when they need them. He also used timers to break the writing in to parts and put on the pressure a bit. He also thought about the SHARE part of our pedagogy, stating that the way we share writing can be boring so he found way to share that are different.

To see what else Matt is doing check out his blog.

Maryanne

Is focusing on partnering with learners and their family to strength the CyberSmart curriculum. She found the learners in year 8 had forgotten most of the key points in CyberSmart. So learners needed ownership so they felt connected to these ideas. When learners had an understand they had created they decided to share this through movies so their families and community could connect with these ideas as well. This class decided what was important to share from the CyberSmart curriculum, these videos also help new learner to catch up on the skills they need.

To see what else Maryanne is doing check out her blog.

Jackie

This focusing on rising read achievement using the digital affordances. She is engaging family through a family blog that supports family to understand the benefits using their chromebooks at home. They also had a Hui for learners to share more with their family. Student ownership has increased when learners can take up their devices, sharing for home and engaging with reading.


To see what else Jackie is doing check out her blog.