MPI Day 3

 Really enjoyed today's session. I enjoyed the intensive descriptions of how things are done (eg how to teach a rich task) and appreciate the sharing of ideas regarding where to find rich tasks/investigation problems. My goal now will be to translate/adjust them for my own class.

In particular I like the look of IXL and Mathigon for basic facts practise, and Polypad for the digital manipulatives. There are a few students in my class who struggle with basic facts retention, so it would be great to have something else to try. 

In terms of my own practise, the Taking Stock document was a good way for me to think about and reflect how I do things. While I do offer independent activities, these are often on a rotation (eg Number Boggle this week, Number of the Day the week after). There isn't necessarily a targeted approach happening here (unless I adjust the Number of the Day activity to include something that they need to work on). So I need to rethink this and try to offer more relevant activities. The students also have a choice board that they can choose games from - I have given each group different games, and they are targeted at what the group needs - but again I need to rethink how effective these games are, and how I can monitor their learning. Some games do not offer monitoring/ a report afterwards, so I need to decide if they are worthwhile.

I tend to rely on nzmaths for planning, whether it's number or strand (and this is a whole school approach).  We are fortunate at our kura that there are many unit plans/resources available in te reo Māori that we can use.

Groupings are another area where I would probably make some changes. I know that certain children don't work well together (and this can create disruption for the whole class) so I will need to do this carefully, but I also think some students would be a positive influence on other students who are still struggling with some concepts. I take on board what was said though - do this for maybe one day a week first (eg rich task Thursdays), and get an idea of which groupings work best.

Mānawatia a Matariki :)

MPI Day 2

 Lots of information today, some of it a bit overwhelming (Google Sheets! Boo!), BUT - one of my personal goals for my digital world knowledge/skill level is to get better at using Sheets in a similar way to how the Teacher Workbook is done. The task boards are also eye-opening but again, as Donna said, they are aspirational, so definitely something to work towards and keep adding to. I do like the variety of tasks that were on offer, and all addressing the same learning intention.

Goal setting is something that was definitely evident throughout the day. I currently do this with my students who are achieving at their expected levels, as a means of keeping them engaged and not just cruising; but I need to make it something that all students do. So getting them familiar with progressions will need to be the first step.

Overall, lots to process - I will need a bit of time to decompress from today (being up at 3am to pick up my son from nightshift has probably not helped the situation). Excited however to try some things.

 

Maths Survey Reflections

 The survey results found that, in general, my students have a positive attitude towards maths. The feeling I get from them on a daily basis is that they prefer maths to literacy (especially reading - something else to reflect on) so these survey results don't really surprise me to be honest. 

For my observation, I chose a mixture of students to work with - a couple who I knew would speak up quite confidently, and a few that I knew would not. I thought they would be the ideal group to introduce the "Rules for Group Talk" to. However, even with encouragement, the quiet students remained quiet, and even the confident ones took time to warm up. Obviously they will need more consistent exposure to working with the rules - hopefully my reluctant talkers will find their voices using this tool, and those who tend to dominate will learn to include the less confident students.

Survey results:

Question - how do you feel about maths? (with 1 meaning they don't like it at all, and 4 meaning they really like it). As mentioned above, this is not surprising; students often greet maths time with relief ("yay!").

Do you feel confident when solvinging maths problems? 1 = not at all, 4 = yes. I found it interesting that while all students seem to like maths, some are not confident at it. When I looked at who answered that they weren't confident at all, I was not surprised; 1 student is definitely and obviously not confident, and the other two, while quite capable, do stress out about their bookwork (but not necessarily about other aspects of the maths rotation eg warm-ups, independent group activities).

Do you prefer: 1 = easy questions, 5 = hard questions. Most of the class is in the middle - I'm assuming they mean a mixture of easy and hard, which does make sense - easy questions for a sense of achievement and success, harder questions for a challenge. I'm actually pretty stoked with this result, as most of the class want a mix.

Do you get an opportunity to communicate your ideas and strategies? 1 = never, 4 = all the time. I should have maybe edited the question to say 'either in your maths group or in your book', as I am constantly reminding the students to show their thinking in their books. I'm surprised at the 4 who said "never" or "not often" as I feel like it is a constant expectation that they will . I'm thinking they either didn't understand the question or they assume it's referring to whether or not they offer to explain their strategies. More clarity needed here.

Does your teacher give you feedback about your maths work (either verbally or in your book)? One student that was in my observation group said that I often mark their books without actually putting any kind of comment - I do believe it is sometimes not necessary to leave a comment, especially if they can see that their work has been ticked - however, I take on board that a purposeful comment such as "I can see that you are trying really hard to practise this strategy, well done" can be a great acknowledgement and confidence booster. 

Do you find your teacher's feedback helpful in improving your maths skills? Very happy about this result - it is also interesting to note this result in contrast to the previous graph. Some students think they don't get feedback (or don't get enough, or don't get the right kind), but then think that feedback is helpful for them. This tells me that they would appreciate more feedback because they find it helpful.

Does your teacher think you are good at maths? 1 = not at all, 4= yes, she thinks I'm awesome. Grateful that nobody chose 1, but still need to reflect on the fact that a student chose 2. This particular student has an IEP, and is getting extra maths homework/ support from home as per the kura expectations for IEP students - this has all added up to create a picture in his head that his teacher doesn't really think he's that good at maths (as well as any other messages that I am unknowingly passing on to him).  Obviously this doesn't sit well with me and I will need to reflect on this. However, in contrast, most of the class chose 3 and a couple chose 4 so that is something to be happy about.

What helps you understand maths problems in the classroom? Not surprisingly, working in pairs with a friend and working in a group were the most popular choices (and they do have lots of opportunities for this). Working on their own was the next popular. Only 3 students said that working with the teacher was helpful - again, something to reflect on! When I asked my observation group about this, one student said our group sessions are too long and that this is the reason why they generally don't find working with me helpful - however, I think 10-15 minutes is perfectly fine, and this is actually a constant source of frustration for me with this particular class, who seem to find 10-15 minutes a long time in lots of different situations. This is probably the only area that I am not willing to change - in fact, I truly think rotation times could be a bit longer, or maybe have more rotations a day.

Does your whānau think you're good at maths? Sadly, two students chose 1 = no they think it's hard for me. 1 of these students is the same student who chose 1 for "Does your teacher think you're good at maths?" Perhaps the need for regular homework and hui whānau is the reason behind this.

How often do you practise maths outside of school? This question should probably have included some examples eg buying lollies at the dairy, gaming. I suggested this to my observation group, who all agreed, saying that they didn't think of those things when they answered the question.

Some ideas that came out of the group observation session: 

- more games with the kaiako (which I think is great for those competitive students, but not necessarily for less confident students - maybe I could group them according to who likes competitive games and who doesn't? That way the less confident students can either compete against each other, or have less competitive games).

- shorter teacher-led session times (which, as I mentioned above, are only 10-15 minutes long which I think is reasonable).

- give written feedback when marking 

Some of the comments left by students at the end of the survey, which give me even more insight into individual students' feelings about maths:

He pai te Pāngarau ki ahau tera pea ko toku kaupapa pae ake - I like pāngarau, it's maybe my favourite subject.

He pai ki ahau engari ka tino hōhā au i nga wā kore ka marama. Ka hau (Stress) i ngā wā kore e mōhio au. I like it but it's frustrating when I don't understand. I stress when I don't know.

He ahua pai te pangarau, engari ētahi wā kāre he pai. Maths is kind of cool, but sometimes it's not.

Me māia ake ahau i roto i ngā mahi pangarau. I need to get more confident in pāngarau.

E pai ana au ki te pangarau nā te mea he pai nga mea katoa ki au. I like maths because I like everything. 😄😄